The Architects Series – A documentary on: AHMM is the 30th instalment of this event organized by THE PLAN magazine for Iris Ceramica Group. The webinar will take place on Thursday, June 15, from 7 pm (CEST) / 6 pm (UK BST) / 1 pm (US EDT), and will include the screening of a 30-minute video documentary followed by a lecture by Simon Allford. Participants will need to register for the event on the Iris Ceramica Group website. The webinar will stream live from ICG Gallery London.
Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM) is an international architecture firm founded in 1989 by Simon Allford, Jonathan Hall, Paul Monaghan, and Peter Morris, the four of whom met at the Bartlett School of Architecture. From day-one, the practice embraced a highly successful design approach that has seen four grow to a team of over 500, with three offices (London, Bristol, and Oklahoma City), and projects across the UK, Europe, India, and the Americas. Since 2017, a majority share in the company has been owned by its employees.
Three principles underlying all AHMM’s projects are economy, elegance, and delight. The firm is committed to creating buildings that will last through time, whose success is not only defined by their intended use, but also by their ability to adapt to new circumstances. They are buildings intended to integrate with, and contribute to, the city around them and become a unique background to each individual’s everyday life.
The studio has won many awards and received praise from the press and public in various sectors. In 2015, it won the RIBA Stirling Prize, the UK’s most prestigious architecture award, for Burntwood School. The practice is also recognized for its ability to reinvent historical buildings, such as the Television Centre, the Barbican, and New Scotland Yard, as well as for the design of innovative shopping, residential, and educational centers in London, the UK, and internationally. Recent projects include Soho Place, which has been described as a “huge urban puzzle” that includes office spaces, a theater, and a new public space on one of London’s busiest streets.
The entire AHMM team see research and development as a central element of an iterative design process. Each office has the support of internal and external professionals, who guide the teams through the lifecycle of each project. This has allowed the studio to develop a complete and conscious design approach that focuses on the sustainability and performance of every building. Specialized in-house teams – including Building Performance, Knowledge Systems, Digital Design, Technical Design, Construction Risk Management, and Materials Research – use lifecycle analysis tools to assist development and design, inform and address client priorities, and contribute to the innovation and development of the entire construction industry. An example is AHMM’s Net Zero research project with Innovate UK and UCL, the results of which were recently published in Net Zero in Use: A Guide for Architects, which has helped broaden the awareness of professionals of the carbon lifecycle.
Simon Allford
Executive Director, Head of Design Studio
From AHMM’s base in London Simon leads a studio that works in the UK and internationally, engaging public and private clients in the exploration of a particular architecture’s potential to offer delight as well as utility. Simon works on a wide range of scales and typologies. Notable projects include the Angel, Tea and Yellow Buildings as well as Adelaide Wharf, the Saatchi Gallery and Chobham Academy. He recently completed White Collar Factory on Old Street, offices for Google and YouTube at Pancras Square, a tower at 240 Blackfriars, three mixed use projects on Regent Street for the Crown Estate, and an academic building for the University of Amsterdam. He is currently working on projects around the UK, in Europe, the US and India
Simon is a Trustee of the London School of Architecture and has been chairman of the Architecture Foundation, a trustee of the Architecture Association Foundation, and a visiting professor at The Bartlett and Harvard Graduate School of Design. He has previously been Vice President for Education at the RIBA and a Chair of Design Review at CABE, and is a judge for the RIBA Awards. In September 2021 he began his two-year term as President of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
Simon engages in the broader architectural discussion as a writer, critic, teacher, judge of competitions, frequent lecturer, examiner, advisor and commentator.
