Hawkins\Brown

A London-founded, employee-owned architecture practice with UK studios in London, Manchester and Edinburgh, known for schools, universities, railway stations and the reworking of Park Hill in Sheffield.

About Hawkins\Brown

Hawkins\Brown is an architecture practice that also does interior design and urban design. It was founded in 1988 by Roger Hawkins and Russell Brown and is based in London. Its projects range from schools and university buildings to railway stations and public spaces. Examples include the Beecroft Building for the University of Oxford's Department of Physics, the Bartlett School of Architecture at UCL, Hackney Town Hall, and upgrades to the Bond Street and Liverpool Street stations for the Elizabeth line. It also worked on public spaces along the Thames Tideway Tunnel, including the embankments at Victoria, Blackfriars and Chelsea.

The pages we could read do not give a formal mission statement, so we have not invented one. What the practice has said about its approach is visible in what it publishes. It has written books about its way of working, including a manifesto about great schools produced with the Architects' Journal and a book about the collaborative studio. In 2021 it moved to an employee-ownership model, which means the people who work there own the business together rather than a handful of owners holding it. For a student, that is a useful sign of how a firm thinks about the people in it.

In the UK, Hawkins\Brown has studios in London, Manchester and Edinburgh. The Scottish studio was reported as opening in the trade press, and the practice also has offices in Dublin and Toronto, but this page is about its British base. Its best-known British project is probably Park Hill in Sheffield, a huge listed housing estate that the practice worked on and that was shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize, the most famous architecture award in the UK. Its London work is spread across transport, education, health and civic buildings.

On culture, the practice was awarded two stars in the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For list in 2016, and it has been named Architects' Journal Practice of the Year and Employer of the Year, as well as being shortlisted for those awards at other times. These are recognitions from magazines and surveys, not something we have checked ourselves, and the dates should be borne in mind. The practice has also appeared twice at the Venice Biennale, the international architecture exhibition, which suggests it values ideas and research alongside everyday building work.

A practice like this employs more than architects. You will find architectural assistants and architects who design and draw buildings, interior designers, urban designers who think about streets and neighbourhoods, technologists who work out how things are put together, and the business, communications and operations people who keep a studio running. If you enjoy art, design, maths, geography or history, and like seeing a drawing become a real school or station, this sort of firm is worth learning about. Its own website is the place to see current openings and project work.

What they do

• {'desc': 'Design of schools, universities, civic buildings, stations and housing.', 'title': 'Architecture'}
• {'desc': 'Interior spaces for education, workplace and public buildings.', 'title': 'Interior design'}
• {'desc': 'Streets, public spaces and neighbourhood plans, including river embankment projects.', 'title': 'Urban design'}

Key facts

• Founded in 1988 by Roger Hawkins and Russell Brown
• UK studios in London, Manchester and Edinburgh
• Adopted an employee-ownership model in 2021
• Shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize for Park Hill in Sheffield

Website: www.hawkinsbrown.com