Associated Architects

Associated Architects is a leading architectural firm based in Birmingham, England. The practice has a broad portfolio of work including arts, commercial offices, residential, masterplanning and leisure and is particularly known for its work in education. It has received many national awards including 30 RIBA Awards, together with the RIBA Sustainability Award. The practice recently completed the Centre for Medicine, at the University of Leicester which is currently the largest non domestic building in the UK to be Passivhaus accredited.

The practice was formed by Malcolm Booth, Richard Slawson and Walter Thomson, who met as teachers at the Birmingham School of Architecture in the 1960s. At that time the School undertook live projects and the founders were encouraged to set up a part-time practice, employing students to undertake the work with appropriate management. The work was soon supplemented with private commissions and the move of the School from Aston University prompted the partners to commit to full-time practice in 1973.

The practice name was conceived as having a life beyond the founders, its name Associated Architects chosen deliberately not to include their surnames. The early workload of housing, industrial buildings and offices expanded and the practice relocated in 1976 to St. Paul’s Square, which it used as a base for the regeneration of the Jewellery Quarter. It developed skills in urban regeneration, with listed buildings and in urban housing, anticipating the city living movement by a decade.

Paul Lister joined the practice in 1976, becoming a partner in 1984: Ian Standing joined in 1985 and became a partner in 1989. At this time the practice undertook its first projects with independent schools, developing this into a broad education workload. It won its first RIBA Awards and with the Property Services Agency undertook commissions for Law Courts at Stafford and Worcester, opening a Cyprus office to deliver projects for the Ministry of Defence. University work developed at this time with projects including the Birmingham School of Jewellery and the restoration of the Grade I listed Birmingham School of Art.

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