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 tuitor, 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 is now '"Will Alsop at RMJM"'. Alsop currently has practices in Beijing, London, Shanghai, Singapore and Toronto, which he visits regularly.
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 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.
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