Pascall+Watson

Pascall+Watson has moved up six places in the rankings after adding 12 architects in the UK during a third consecutive year of growth. Architectural fees from UK offices rose from £13.39 million to £15.07 million, with overseas offices yielding a further £3.5 million. Total revenue was up from £20.4 million to £22.4 million.

‘All round, we’ve had a good year,’ says managing director Steve West, adding that its three core markets of aviation, rail and education all performed ‘very well’.

The practice is working on six Crossrail stations and at all the major UK airports. At Stansted it won a major commission for a £130 million, 34,000m2 new arrivals terminal, plus the continued redevelopment of the original terminal. It recently completed a development strategy to enable Glasgow Airport to double its current passenger capacity to 17 million a year by 2040. At Heathrow, the practice completed a premium passenger facility at Terminal 5.

As well as its traditional specialisms, Pascall+Watson is pursuing a strategy of ‘considered diversification’. This includes the hospitality sector, where it recently completed a five-star hotel in Doha – its first hotel as design architect. The practice is also targeting new international markets. In 2017 it worked in Japan and on a concept design for a new airport in India. It has pitched for projects in Australia, where it anticipates considerable investment in rail and aviation. It is now winding down its Doha office but retains an office in Abu Dhabi as well as two offices in Ireland.

Pascall+Watson is hoping for measured growth and is targeting ‘good, design-focused’ work such as the Stansted project, where it is lead designer.

‘We would like to raise the profile of our design credentials,’ says West.