Able Partners
Areas of expertise: office, hospitality, and urban activation.
Able Partners are an architecture practice creating innovative, bold, and sustainable solutions to the challenges of the built environment. Their aim is to create experiences, buildings, and places which inspire people and enhance the cities they live in.
Able Partners champions straightforward language, transparency in the design process, and collaboration with a wide range of people and industries. The solutions to the challenges faced in the world lie in questioning conventional thinking and finding inspiration from unexpected places.
The practice is known for their optimistic and colourful approach; and willingness to develop original solutions. Most of their work involves the radical adaptive reuse of existing buildings and spaces, taking bold steps to extend their useful life, and show them in a new light.
Phone +44 330 5519 499
Address 55 Whitfield Street, London, W1T 4AH
Website www.ablepartners.co.uk
LinkedIn able partners
Tell us about your practice?
The first half of our careers was spent designing and building large new buildings and it’s looking increasingly like the second half will be spent extending the life of those which already exist. We are excited about the opportunities our cities provide to address the shared challenges we face. We believe that architects should be optimistic co-ordinators and that a wide variety of views and experiences should be heard to deliver great projects.
What differentiates you from other architects?
Through our projects, podcasts, and research we are not only finding new ways to imagine the built environment but also new ways to collaborate and deliver buildings. As well as working with developers and development managers to create fantastic designs we also work directly with contractors to add specialist advice and trouble shoot problems which occur. We are open minded and experienced at delivery meaning we can help on any part of the project.
How do you describe your approach to design?
We are dreamers that deliver. Having been part of teams that changed the skyline of cities we know what can be achieved by thinking big and working hard. We are optimistic, bold and collaborative, while being focused and practical about what needs to happen. We grew up on a design diet of high-tech and post modernism and think buildings can afford to be expressive and interesting as well as affordable and sustainable.
Why do clients come to you?
We are experienced, technically strong, and willing to challenge received wisdom with new ideas and technologies. We are big scheme architects but with a boutique business, so can be deployed to solve complex challenges on big projects as trouble shooters as well as designing schemes of our own. Clients like our bold, clear, confident approach to design and how their priorities get driven into the projects.
What kind of clients do you work with?
Our clients are innovative, open minded, and ambitious for change. Most are professional clients from investors and development managers, though to contractors and building occupiers but we work with a whole range of stakeholders.
What projects are you currently working on?
Much of our work reimagining buildings is currently focused on enhancing central London office space. These are fundamentally sound buildings whose useful life can be extended for another generation by upgrading their systems and enhancing the space to match current market needs. We still see a large demand for good office space and people with older buildings are keen to upgrade them to lure the best tenants.
What have been your highlights from the past year?
Three things spring to mind. Firstly, we completed two fantastic workspaces at 72 Welbeck street and 22 Rathbone street this year, both in Westminster (London) where we have our studio, and are proud to have some completed projects and happy clients.
Secondly, we have conducted some exciting research on the use of natural stone as structural elements with the engineers Webb Yates and a specialist contractor called The Stonemasonry Company, and we will see some of that research make it into a built product this year.
Finally, we have grown the team and have some brilliant people who are helping us evolve into a great practice.
Is there anything exciting on the horizon?
We are in the process of designing a brand-new central London attraction which should be operational for visitors by the end of the year. It is incredibly exciting and should change the conversation on what is possible with existing buildings. Watch this space.
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