Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios

Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios has added 20 architects since last year, although that has only pushed it up two places in the rankings. Traditionally thought of as a practice firmly rooted in the South West, it now has 50 architects at its London office, only one fewer than in its Bath heartland. But, despite its growth, the practice determinedly maintains a ‘small practice’ ethos, dividing its major studios into distinct groups and maintaining a sense of community through a wide range of social activities.

Part of its strength comes through long-term relationships, in particular with landscape practice Grant Associates. Although the practice has worked abroad, it has no offices outside the UK.

At the Richmond Building in Bristol, FCBS took a structurally sound students’ union building from the 1980s and imbued it with all the modern requirements, from sustainability to inclusivity and accessibility, while also enhancing the facilities and utilisation of the building. This is perhaps typical of the practice which built its name on sustainability but couples this with a recognisable but quiet aesthetic.

The practice’s Stanbrook Abbey in Yorkshire, which won a Wood Award as well as making the Stirling mid-list, was one of the firm’s most exciting and difficult challenges – how do you make a contemporary building that is also home to the age-old traditions of religion, housing 27 Benedictine nuns? FCBS has built its reputation steadily rather than quickly, so it seems appropriate that this building was 15 years in the development and making – and that, as well as being designed around the liturgy, it is an exemplar of sustainability.