Stanton Williams

Profile

Stanton Williams are a multi-award winning architectural design practice based in London. The studio was founded by Alan Stanton and Paul Williams in 1985 and has a team of 80 people with four directors, two associate directors and fifteen associates. The practice has successfully completed over 350 projects, winning more than 90 international and regional awards, including the prestigious RIBA Stirling Prize for the Sainsbury Laboratory in Cambridge. Alan Stanton and Paul Williams have also each been awarded an OBE in recognition of their services to architecture.

The practice’s shared passion for art and architecture continues to guide their design ethos. Stanton Williams has developed its portfolio from an initial focus on museums and galleries towards a wide variety of projects, all of which demonstrate its overarching objective of putting the user’s experience of space, light and materials at the forefront of the agenda, as well as creating places that sensitively respond to their cultural, social and physical context. The scope of Stanton Williams’ work to date includes culture, education, research, commerce, sports and leisure, residential, public realm and retail projects for both public and private clients. Each project challenges the team to constantly renew a creativity that, together with their breadth of experience, allows Stanton Williams to meet and exceed their clients’ expectations.

Completed projects include: the UAL Campus for Central Saint Martins at King’s Cross, King’s Cross Square, Fitzroy Park House, the Sainsbury Laboratory in the University of Cambridge’s Botanic Garden, the Britten Pears Archive in Aldeburgh, the Hackney Marshes Centre and the London 2012 legacy venue - Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre.

Current projects include: the Musée d’arts in Nantes, France, university key worker homes and local centre in the North West Cambridge Development, the Judge Business School also in Cambridge, a new research centre for Great Ormond Street Hospital and the Royal Opera House ‘Open Up’ project both in London. Stanton Williams were recently announced as part of the winning team of the international competition to find an architect to design the new Museum of London and appointed to design academic facility for University College London’s East Campus at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London.


Biography

Alan Stanton

Alan formed the partnership with Paul Williams in 1985. As founding directors they have been responsible for the creative direction of the practice since its inception. Alan has been Vice President of the Architectural Association Council, and a member of CABE design review panel and the RIBA Awards Committee. He has lectured extensively in this country and abroad, and has acted as external examiner at the Architectural Association, Kingston University, University of East London, Oxford Brookes University, Glasgow School of Art and University of Greenwich. Alan was elected a Royal Designer for Industry in 2005 and a Royal Academician in 2009.

In 2014, he received an OBE for services to architecture. Through lectures and the publication of work he promotes a distinctive architectural vision based on the belief that a profound understanding of space is a prerequisite for great architecture, and that context and heritage are creative forces in design. After studying at the Architectural Association in London, Alan worked briefly with Norman Foster before moving to California to study at UCLA, where he was awarded a fellowship in Urban Design.

During his time in California he co-founded ‘Chrysalis’ with a group of architects and artists. Returning to Europe, Alan worked with Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers on the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Following its completion in 1977, he taught at the Architectural Association and established his own practice working on projects in the UK, France and Italy before founding Stanton Williams in 1985.

Gavin Henderson
, Director
 MA (CANTAB), Dip Arch, RIBA
Gavin joined Stanton Williams in 1994. He has worked on a number of the practice’s high profile projects, including Compton Verney Art Gallery, the Millennium Seedbank and public realm proposals for Sloane Square. He was the director responsible for delivering the new Sainsbury Laboratory at the University of Cambridge and is leading the project for a new city museum in Berlin.

With a particular interest in the development and culture of cities and the role of public space, much of Gavin’s work has involved interventions in complex historic contexts and schemes involving a close engagement between architecture and the public realm.

Gavin has been a visiting critic and lecturer at a number of UK schools of architecture and has taught at London Metropolitan University. He is currently a Design Surgeon for Urban Design London and is a past member of the National Design Review Panel for CABE. Gavin studied architecture at the University of Cambridge and the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University and was awarded the RIBA Bronze Medal, and a commendation for the RIBA Silver Medal, for his student work.

Patrick Richard,
 Director 
Dip Arch, EPFL, SIA, RIBA
Patrick Richard joined Stanton Williams in 1995. Patrick is currently Director in charge of several high profile projects including the extension and transformation of the Musée d’Art in the city of Nantes in France and the new London Underground and Crossrail entrances and Plaza on Tottenham Court road. Patrick was also responsible for Hackney Marshes Centre sports and education hub, the House of Fraser flagship department store in Bristol, the award winning student accommodation for Cranfield University, a major public square and gateway for the city of Geneva and an award winning private house in Lugano in Switzerland.

Patrick is passionate about the relationship between landscape and architecture, the urban realm and the role of architecture as a catalyst for regeneration. Patrick lectures regularly in the UK and abroad, and has been a visiting critic at Westminster University, the department of Architecture and spatial studies at London Metropolitan University, Central Saint Martins MA Creative Practice for Narrative Environments and the Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne in Switzerland.

He was recently selected as an Academician for the Academy of Urbanism (AoU), a cross sector organisation expanding urban discourse and promoting great placemaking.

Patrick studied at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland under Professor Luigi Snozzi. During his studies, Patrick worked for architect Zaha Hadid in London. After graduating, Patrick worked in Switzerland, then independently in France winning a major commission for the masterplanning of the town of Pomier in Beaujolais as well as a finalist for the masterplan of a new quarter in the city of Grenoble in France.

Paul Williams
Paul formed the partnership with Alan Stanton in 1985. As founding directors they have been responsible for the creative direction of the practice since its inception. Paul has been an architectural advisor to HLF and CABE, and is currently an advisor to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and St Paul’s Cathedral. He is a trustee of Space Studios and previously a trustee of the Whitechapel Art Gallery. Paul is actively involved with concept and design development of many of the studio’s projects including UAL campus for Central Saint Martins at King’s Cross, the Millennium Seedbank at Wakehurst Place, and the Eton Manor venue for the London 2012 Olympics. He has also been responsible for arts projects including Compton Verney Art Gallery and the practice’s exhibitions and museum installations.

After graduating from Birmingham College of Art, Paul headed the V&A Museum Design Department for nearly 4 years before being awarded a research grant to study Museum and Gallery Design at Yale. Returning to London in 1980, he set up his own London based practice designing permanent and temporary exhibition installations for a number of the world’s major museums and art galleries.

Paul has been a visiting critic and lectures regularly at various universities and institutions both in the UK and abroad. He has also acted as an external examiner at Westminster, Plymouth, Dundee and, most recently, Birmingham School of Architecture. Paul was the first design trained British architect to be registered by ARB (Architects Registration Board). He was awarded the title of Royal Designer (RDI) in 2005 for sustained excellence in design throughout his career and received an honorary doctorate from University of the Arts London in 2012. Paul received an OBE for services to architecture in 2014.