Architectural firm Metropolitan Workshop is not about star architects, even though it has been set up by one of the starriest. We found out why from David Prichard and Neil Deely.
Once upon a time, the brilliant young star at a signature practice had an ideal career path. They would spend 10 or 20 years establishing their reputation as the prot茅g茅 of a great architect, before falling out, leaving, and setting up under their own name. Then they would in turn acquire the status and the discontents of a great architect, and the cycle would be repeated with another rising star.
Now it seems that more and more senior partners are choosing a different road. They see the signature firm as a trap: they worry about spending more time managing than designing and they worry about the pomposity and insularity it implies. And they are starting to set up firms that revel in a lack of hierarchy.
The pioneer of this process was Ken Shuttleworth, who quit Foster and Partners to set up Make at the beginning of last year and now spends most of his time walking around with a smile on his face. Hot on his heels, is David Prichard, who used to be the 鈥淧鈥� in MJP, otherwise know as MacCormac Jamieson Prichard.
At the end of his time there, Prichard looked like someone in need of a holiday. Now, in the bright Farringdon office of his new practice, Metropolitan Workshop, he is clad in a red T-shirt and hobbling round the office chatting freely with his colleagues. Hobbling, because it turns out he has just broken his ankle. 鈥淚 wish I could say I broke it skydiving,鈥� he sighs. 鈥淯nfortunately, I just tripped over on a country walk.鈥�
Prichard鈥檚 temporary disability serves to set him apart all the more from his young and funky colleagues, half of whom aren鈥檛 even there: they鈥檝e gone to Glastonbury for the weekend. And with his avuncular, Richard Rogers-style charm, he comes across very much as the father of his new venture.
In fact, he isn鈥檛. He is just one of a series partners. His legal partner is Neil Deely, a colleague from MJP, who at 32 is 24 years Prichard鈥檚 junior. The one thing the pair is at pains to stress is that the firm is not all about them. So take a bow Marko Neskovic, Tom Mitchell, Emmet O鈥橲ullivan, Tomas Stokke and managing director Tim Peake 鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 very much about the practice, not Prichard and Deely,鈥� says Prichard. 鈥淲e did go over about 100,000 names in two months but we wanted to avoid our names or acronyms where nobody would know what the letters stood for. 鈥楳etropolitan鈥� sums up the kind of work we want to be involved in.鈥�
One difference between Metropolitan and Make is that Shuttleworth鈥檚 firm has grown in a conventional way. Prichard and Deely 鈥� whose credits include the 拢400m BBC Broadcasting House refurbishment 鈥� want to do things a bit differently. Rather than forming a self-contained whole, they want to make it possible to work with as many innovative outsiders as possible.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 consider that our employees are the only people to influence our work,鈥� says Deely. 鈥淲e鈥檒l be inviting external critics in for design reviews and we鈥檒l be working with people outside the architectural bracket. There are a lot of untapped sources.鈥�
It is here that Metropolitan has the chance to mark itself out from other practices. For example, advertisers may be brought in to help define a client鈥檚 needs. 鈥淲e鈥檝e done a few joint pitches with advertisers to talk to clients about how best to use their buildings to advertise themselves,鈥� says Deely. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not strictly architecture 鈥� it鈥檚 more rounded. Too many times an architect will assume it鈥檚 just architecture that a client wants.鈥�
We did go over about 100,000 names in two months but we wanted to avoid our names and acronyms
David Prichard
And this is the reason that Deely and Prichard parted company with MJP. They see the role of the architect as building designer as too narrow. 鈥淲e want to try and broaden the discussion of architecture,鈥� says Deely. 鈥淲e feel architecture has changed and is changing and we wanted to do this in a new practice. MJP has always designed great buildings and will continue to do so.鈥�
In other words, working for a huge firm makes it difficult to react to events with the kind of full-spectrum creativity that Deely aspires to. For example, it鈥檚 hard to see a big firm devoting resources to working with film-makers to ensure that the architectural backgrounds to CGI shots are accurate.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a way to keep that openness of mind,鈥� says Prichard. 鈥淎nyone who excels should be given the recognition for it. It鈥檚 not always the case in larger practices.鈥�
The pair鈥檚 diverging interests from MJP have meant that both are on good terms with their former employer 鈥� unlike Shuttleworth, who was virtually deleted from history by his. Calls to former colleagues, who remember both as 鈥渧ery driven鈥�, confirm this.
鈥淚t鈥檚 strange because David was around for so long,鈥� says one. 鈥淏ut he and Neil and the others who have joined them often worked on the same projects, and formed a team. When you鈥檙e working in a different team you don鈥檛 see other teams much.鈥�
Accordingly, they shy away from being typecast in one sector. The firm has recently picked up several commissions in and around the Dublin area, including a scheme to masterplan 8 ha of Adamstown in the south of the city. It has also recently submitted an outline application for Indescon Court on the Isle of Dogs in east London, featuring a 26-storey residential tower.
But the most eye-catching work thus far is a plan to connect the south and north banks of the Thames. Called the Thames Web, it is a string of gossamer-like cables extending out to a central platform upstream from Blackfriars Bridge. Passengers would be able to board a large bubble car linked to the cables, which would take them out to the centre.
鈥淚t鈥檚 intended to show off London鈥檚 best attractions,鈥� says Deely. 鈥淚t cements the public spaces across the river and provides a linkage. But the catenary structure is lightweight so it makes a low profile on the cityscape.鈥�
While the audacity of the scheme seems to bear the hallmarks of a late night at Glastonbury, it certainly gives an idea of their ambition 鈥� and if it comes off, it will certainly put the firm on the map. Which would be entirely justified. It takes guts to leave the place where you鈥檝e made your name.
But those who do tend to revel in their new-found freedom. Prichard, the wise old bird, and Deely, his young partner, are doing just that.
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