Will Alsop

Will Alsop
Born	(1947-12-12) 12 December 1947 Northampton, Northamptonshire, England, UK
Nationality	British
Awards	Stirling Prize (2000); RIBA Worldwide Award (2004); Civic Trust Award (2003, 2006); RIBA Regional Award (London) (2006)
Practice	All design
Projects	Yonkers Power Plant project, Yonkers, New York, United States (completion due 2008) Clarke Quay Redevelopment project, Clarke Quay, Singapore (estimated completion date unknown)

Will (William) Allen Alsop, OBE RA (born 12 December 1947) is a British architect based in London. He is responsible for several distinctive and controversial modernist buildings, most in the United Kingdom. Alsop's buildings are usually distinguished by their use of bright colour and unusual forms. While Alsop has won praise from some critics and fans of avant-garde architecture, he has also faced criticism from fellow architects and some segments of the general public.

Biography

Alsop hails from Northampton, Northamptonshire, England, he was born on 12 December 1947. He always wanted to be an architect, even before he really knew what architects did; when he was six years old, he designed a house for his mother to live in – its most striking specification was that it had to be built in New Zealand. When he was 16 his father, an accountant, died, and being bored with school he left to work for an architect, doing his A-levels at evening classes.

He was greatly influenced by his drawing tutor, Henry Bird while at foundation course at Northampton Art School. He recalled how was taught to draw by him. "He gave me a brick, told me to draw it and promptly left the room. I proceeded to draw it with all its shadows. On his return he went into a rage and chastised me for destroying the vision with shading, shouting: 'What is wrong with a simple line?' He insisted that I redo the drawing with line only so that I could begin to see the brick and its proportions. I drew that brick for two three hour sessions per week, line only, for three months. Eventually, he admitted that I had mastered the brick and I was allowed to progress onto the tin can. After 18 months it was the nude model. His vision was one of economy of line and discipline. It worked."

Alsop then studied at the Architectural Association School of Architecture where at 23 he entered the competition to design the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and came second to the eventual winners, Richard Rogers & Renzo Piano. After graduating he worked briefly for Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew, a couple who had been instrumental in introducing modernism to Britain in the 1930s, then joined Cedric Price for four years.

After a short period with Roderick Ham, in 1981 Alsop set up a practice, Alsop & Lyall, with his classmate John Lyall in Hammersmith. Jan Störmer later joined the practice and a decade later, in 1991, the practice was renamed Alsop & Störmer after Lyall's departure. Alsop's first real commission was a swimming pool for Sheringham in Norfolk in 1984, followed by a visitor centre for Cardiff Bay. Thereafter he worked on a number of projects in Germany, including the Hamburg Ferry Terminal, before beating Norman Foster in the competition to design the Hôtel du Département des Bouches-du-Rhône (seat of the regional government) in Marseille, France (the building has been nicknamed Le Grand Bleu – "The Big Blue" – and "The Whale" by the locals), in 1994. Alsop and Störmer divided into separate practices in 2000, Alsop forming Alsop Architects.

Alsop admits to never being very good at handling finances, and his practice went through several difficult periods, including the cancellation in June 2004 of plans to build a "Fourth Grace" to be built on Liverpool's Pier Head waterfront – the so-called "Cloud Building" – officially because of rising costs and unrealistic design. In early 2006, Alsop sold his practice to a design conglomerate called the SMC Group for £1.8 million in order to concentrate on architecture. The practice was renamed SMC Alsop. On summer 2009 Will Alsop left ARCHIAL (formerly SMC Alsop) and on October 1, 2009 he joined RMJM's London Headquarters as International Principal. The office's name was '"Will Alsop at RMJM"'. In 2011 he left RMJM and set up a new practice with Scott Lawrie called ALL-Design. Alsop currently has practices in London, Edinburgh, Chongqing, Mumbai and Vienna.

Alsop was a tutor of sculpture at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London for several years, and has held many other academic posts, among others at the Vienna University of Technology, Universities of London and Hannover, and actively promotes the artistic contribution to built environments. His paintings and sketches have been exhibited alongside his architectural projects in dedicated exhibitions at Sir John Soane's Museum, Milton Keynes Gallery, Cube Gallery in Manchester, and the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, among other venues. He is a patron of the charity The Nightingale Project, which uses the arts to enhance the environment in hospitals, and has exhibited his paintings in a London hospital under the auspices of this charity. He has been Chair of the Board of Trustees of The Architecture Foundation.

Alsop has been made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), and was elected to the Royal Academy on 18 May 2000. On 11 July 2007 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Civil Law (DCL) by the University of East Anglia. .

Architectural style

THEpUBLIC, West Bromwich. The design has been likened to a massive fish tank or a Fresian cow.

Alsop regards as his architectural heroes Le Corbusier, Sir John Soane, Mies van der Rohe and John Vanbrugh. His avant-garde, modernist buildings are usually distinguished by their vibrant use of bright colour and unusual forms; they have won praise and criticism in equal measure.

In 2004, Alsop published a book entitled Supercity which elicited much debate. It was the subject of a Channel 4 television documentary and an exhibition at the Urbis museum in Manchester. This book described his vision of a "Supercity" – a futurisitic conurbation – stretching along the M62 corridor from Liverpool to Hull. It included a discussion of how the increasing interconnectivity of the cities along this corridor is changing the concepts of a "city", and how they can be developed to merge the idea of the rural and urban. It also included a number of architectural ideas of possible buildings and communities in this city. Although there was some political support for his ideas, with The Times claiming that former British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott was a supporter, the Supercity has its critics. It has been claimed that his book and his visions show signs of parochialism, and a misunderstanding of how people travel and self-identify. He is also accused of taking a highly globalist stance and ignoring the needs of those who cannot afford to travel.^{[citation needed]}

Alsop's architectural talents may be the subject of controversy but he has managed to build up an international reputation and a certain degree of fame – he has been called "number three in the hierarchy of British architects after Lords Rogers and Foster". Notwithstanding this, like fellow avantgardist Zaha Hadid, he has actualised relatively few buildings from his designs. Alsop has estimated that only about 10% of his designs have been built. However, this does not worry him because he enjoys designing buildings even when he has no particular commission or competition in mind. "It's like tennis – you have to keep doing it all the time, whether you have a client or not. I believe that absolutely. You can speculate in your sketchbook – you're allowed to think about anything, with or without a client."

In April 2007, The Observer commented that Alsop's approach to architecture could broadly be defined by his statement: "I like people. I hope it shows."

Major architectural projects

Image	Information	Awards and nominations
	Cardiff Bay Visitor Centre Cardiff, Wales Completed 1991
	Hamburg Ferry Terminal Hamburg, Germany Completed 1993 (with de:Jan Störmer, Hamburg)
	Hôtel du Département des Bouches-du-Rhône (Le Grand Bleu) Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, France Completed 1994	Stirling Prize nominee (1997)
	North Greenwich Tube Station Greenwich, London, England Completed 1999	Stirling Prize nominee (1999)
	Peckham Library Peckham, London, England Completed 2000	Stirling Prize (2000) Civic Trust Award (2003)
	Muzinq Almere (nox), Doorworld and MediaMarkt Almere, Netherlands Completed 2002
	Sharp Centre for Design, Ontario College of Art & Design Toronto, Canada Completed 2004	RIBA Worldwide Award (2004) City of Toronto Urban Design Award (2006)
	Fawood Children's Centre Harlesden, North London, England Completed in 2004	Stirling Prize nominee (2005)
	Ben Pimlott Building, Goldsmiths, University of London New Cross, London, England Completed 2005
	Blizard Building, Barts and The London, Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry Whitechapel, London, England Completed March 2005	Civic Trust Award (2006) RIBA Regional Award (London) (2006)
	Alsop Toronto Sales Centre for Westside Lofts (1151 Queen Street West) Toronto, Canada Completed 2006
	Palestra, 197 Blackfriars Road, Southwark, London, England Completed 2006	RIBA Regional Award (London) (2007) Private Eye magazine Sir Hugh Casson Award for the Worst New Building (2006)
	Clarke Quay Redevelopment project Clarke Quay, Singapore Completed 2006
	The Public, West Bromwich West Bromwich, West Midlands, England Part completed 2008	Private Eye magazine Sir Hugh Casson Award for the Worst New Building (2008)
	Stratford Docklands Light Railway Station Stratford, London, England Commissioned in 2003, completed in 2007
	Yonkers Power Plant project Glenwood Waterfront, Yonkers, New York, United States Completion expected in 2008
	Adelphi Street, Salford Salford, Greater Manchester, England Completion due 2009
	KingTowns King West Village, Toronto, Canada Estimated completion date unknown
	New Islington Manchester, England Completed 2010
	Westside Lofts 1151 Queen Street West - 8 storey condo lofts (135 units) Toronto, Canada Estimated to be Spring 2012

Personal life

Alsop and his wife live between an Edwardian mansion flat in London and a converted stable block in Norfolk. They have three adult children.

Alsop tries to relax as much as possible on weekends and also takes a month off in the summer to go painting in Majorca with his friend Bruce McLean. Alsop enjoys smoking and drinking. He is, according to an April 2007 article in The Observer, "obviously not a man familiar with gyms".

He has a twin sister who still lives in Northampton.

References

• Barber, Lyn (2007-04-08). "Firm foundations: Will Alsop: The interview". The Observer. 
• "Will Alsop". Open2.net. Retrieved 2007-04-29. 
• "Will Alsop RA". Royal Academy of Arts. Retrieved 2007-04-29. 
• "William Alsop" (PDF). British Council. Retrieved 2007-04-29. 

Further reading

Articles

• "Follow the flow [about Rotterdam Centraal]" (in Dutch). ArchiNed. 2001-04-10. Retrieved 2008-02-14. 
• Brockes, Emma (2003-12-08). "Well built". The Guardian. 
• Glancey, Jonathan (2004-07-24). "The Ali G of urban planning: With his bombastic, cartoon-like designs, media darling wants to make cities playful". The Guardian. 
• Orlandoni, Alessandra (September 2004). "Interview with Will Alsop". The Plan 007. pp. 109–114 
• "'Super City of North' is unveiled". BBC News. 2005-01-24. 
• Arendt, Paul (2005-06-23). "Prisoners to design own jail". The Guardian. 
• "Buildings that lift the spirit: CNN talks to architectural luminary Will Alsop about modern architecture's expanding horizons". CNN. 2005-07-05. 
• Mays, John Bentley (2006-03-17). "The next step in remaking Queen West: Activists, architects and developers need to start a conversation". The Globe and Mail. 
• Muir, Hugh; Will Hurst (2006-08-11). "Rebel architect tipped as London design tsar". The Guardian. 
• Orlandoni, Alessandra (October 2006). "Queen Mary University, Blizard Building, Institute of Cell and Molecular Science, London, UK: Alsop Design". The Plan 016. pp. 66–87 
• Orlandoni, Alessandra (April2009). "THE pUBLIC, West Bromwich, UK". The Plan 033. pp. 092–106 
• Orlandoni, Alessandra (February 2007). "Che cosa vi fa felici?". D CASA 
• Orlandoni, Alessandra (May 2008). "Across The Universe-Will Alsop". PresS/Tletter 
• Hanman, Natalie (2006-10-24). "Portrait of the artist: Will Alsop, architect: 'I've learned never to trust anyone with big feet and a small head'". The Guardian. 
• Howard, Tony (2007-02-22). "Bravo to 'Bravia' bravado". Salford Advertiser. 
• Hughes, C.J. (2007-04-03). "Alsop makes U.S. debut in Yonkers". Architectural Record. 
• Lockhart (2007-04-05). "Bonkers in Yonkers". Curbed. 
• "Work of Will Alsop: Architect of the imagination". The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-04-17. 
• Alsop, William (February 2010). "16 buildings by non-architects". L'arca : la rivista internazionale di architettura, design e comunicazione visiva 255 

Books

• Alsop, Will (1984). Architecture Projects Drawings: By the Studio of Will Alsop, Cliff Barnett, John Lyall. London: Architectural Association. ISBN 0-904503-51-8 (pbk.). 
• Powell, Kenneth (2001). Will Alsop: Book 1. London: Laurence King. ISBN 1-85669-238-8. 
• Powell, Kenneth; with additional text by Will Alsop (2002). Will Alsop: 1990–2000. London: Laurence King. ISBN 1-85669-279-5. 
• Alsop, Will (2004). Supercity. Manchester: Urbis. ISBN 0-9547801-2-4 (pbk.). 

External links

General

• Official website of Will Alsop
• Will Alsop at the British Council website
• Will Alsop at the "From Here to Modernity" website on Open2.net, the online learning portal from the Open University and the BBC
• Will Alsop at the Royal Academy of Arts website
• Radio interview of William Alsop on 4 April 2005 at the A Palaver website (available as stream)
• Interview with Will Alsop(video)

Architectural projects

• The Alsop House, Lower Mill Estate, Somerford Keynes, Gloucestershire
• The Peckham Library, London, on the Galinsky website
• The Sharp Centre for Design, Toronto, on the Galinsky website
• The Public, West Bromwich