Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios

Despite slipping three places down the rankings after losing 14 architects, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCBS) enjoyed an improved performance in 2017 with total fee income up 8 per cent to £18.17 million, including a rise in architectural fee income from £12.86 million to £13.91 million.

Currently celebrating its 40th anniversary year, the practice feels ‘quite confident and optimistic’, according to managing partner Geoff Rich. ‘We’ve maintained our overall size, despite Brexit. With almost 200 people altogether, we’re the largest we’ve ever been and we’ve been able to sustain that size,’ he says.

FCBS has retained its broad spread of work, with 30 per cent of turnover each in the sectors of education, large-scale housing/mixed use and cultural/creative reuse. The remainder of its workload is within its growing international portfolio, which currently includes projects in Canada, Bangladesh, Jordan, Myanmar and Ireland. Through its Richard Feilden Foundation, the practice is also working on an endangered wildlife conservation and education project in Madagascar.

The practice completed several significant cultural projects including the refurbishment of the Hayward Gallery as part of a £35 million upgrade of the Southbank Centre. In the education sector, it completed the £42.5 million Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and a library for the University of Roehampton as well as its first ever Passivhaus project, Kellogg College Hub for the University of Oxford. Key ongoing housing projects include Circle Square in Manchester and Kirkstall Forge in Leeds.

Rich expects universities to continue to invest in their facilities to remain attractive to students, and FCBS is working on 23 higher education projects with clients including the London School of Economics and Bristol and Liverpool universities.

Rich detects more optimism than this time last year and has hopes for FCBS to make a continued steady improvement in 2018.