Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios has experience in designing for education, housing, masterplanning and urban design as well as places for art and the creative reuse of historic buildings.
We started small 40 years ago and have grown to over 200 staff. We continue to be committed to social and humanistic values in our work and are proud to have won the RIBA Stirling Prize for Accordia, a scheme which is widely regarded as setting a new benchmark for housing in the UK. We believe excellence in design can facilitate change, improvement and transformation in society.
From large-scale urban design to the all-important incidental spaces in our buildings, architecture can have a positive impact on society and humanity. We create buildings and spaces that develop our culture and enhance our communities. It’s also a way of life for us and gives us a platform from which to engage in wider political issues from a cycling culture to a stance on creative education and an approach to heritage in the built environment.
Our priority is helping clients make great architecture that serves their particular needs and responds in a vital way to its context. In order to do this, we invest in a wide programme of research which enables us to be inventive and to find new, unexpected solutions as well as learning from projects in use.
We work in collaboration with like-minded consultants and we have global connections with organisations and charities that enable us to share our skills and test evolving knowledge about sustainable conservation and design.
Since our inception, we have pioneered designs that have a light touch on the planet, low in carbon and energy-use: a new minimalism that helps us and our clients to mitigate the impact of climate change. While low-energy design is no longer radical, it is more important than ever. Our interest in reducing both embodied energy and whole lifecycle energy consumption, and our commitment to the wider social aspects of sustainability still mark us out as leaders in environmental design.
Our historic environment is a shared resource which we are entrusted to look after, and re-using existing buildings is the most sustainable way to create new spaces. Working within these environments requires the highest standards of architectural design coupled with a considered and sensitive understanding of significance in all its many guises.
FCBStudios is a founder signatory of #ArchitectsDeclare. You can read our response to meeting the challenges set out by the Climate Declaration here.
Social and environmental responsibility is at the heart of our practice. We are committed to designing communities at home and abroad that support sustainable lifestyles and accommodate different patterns of living, learning and working. Our buildings aim to provide a strong sense of identity for their users.
We actively support community and educational projects in the developing world through our own charity, The Feilden Foundation
Our architecture comes from a response to place. This includes the physical and environmental context, its history and its potential futures. Using the technologies of our time we craft the material language and form which express the particularities of an urban site or a rural landscape. Working with a sense of place we create and recreate bespoke and imaginative places where people can thrive.
We enjoy the ‘making’ of buildings: crafting light, space and form to create memorable and functioning places. We continually explore new developments in the technology of materials and, whether working with traditional craftsmen or design subcontractors, we believe strongly in creative collaboration.
Modelmaking plays an important role in design development at FCBStudios, and the relationship between the studio and workshop environment is considered integral to the design process. The practice has workshops across its studios, providing state of the art facilities accessible to all.
A collaborative multidisciplinary shared way of working is the key to successful projects, both internally within our open studio culture and externally with our clients, consultants and contractors. We actively work with wider stakeholders as participants, not only to ensure practicality and economy but to ensure we produce designs that are owned and loved.
Our architects regularly engage in teaching and research maintaining links and exchanging ideas and experience with peers, academics and the next generation.
Our offices in Bath, London, Manchester, Belfast and Edinburgh are sociable spaces where clients, collaborators and staff can meet, chat over lunch or feel inspired by one of our regular exhibitions or events.
The impact of buildings on our health is huge. As well as the obvious need for fresh air and daylight, the buildings we live, work and play in also impact upon our social interactions, our access to open space and our ability to get involved in our communities.
Research shows that buildings contribute to the success of medical treatment, that the relationship with nature and the development of a sense of community have had a strong impact on the success of housing developments and post-occupancy surveys of office buildings have proved the success of creating a healthy office environment. We bring this learning into every project.
Our architecture is rooted in a humane modernism that is socially progressive and environmentally responsible. Our work starts with forensic research on the programme of uses for the building and its response to the physical environment. Creating engaging spaces internally; sensitivity to its surroundings externally; and touching the planet lightly to minimise the impact on climate change.
Our architectural language is pluralist, generated by context – of its time and of its place. Each design having its own unique character and identity with a shared sensibility towards materials and the craft of making. A permissive architecture with personality.
