Our guest this week is the architect John McAslan.
John was born Glasgow and later studied architecture at Edinburgh University before following his father to the United States where he worked for architecture firms in Baltimore, Maryland and Cambridge, Massachusetts.
He returned to London in 1980 to take up a job at Richard Rogers’ practice. Four years later he and then colleague Jamie Troughton left to start their own firm, Troughton McAslan. Following Jamie’s return to Scotland, in 1996 John went on to found John McAslan and Partners – as the practice is known today
The practice has delivered a huge body of critically acclaimed work around the world. And was recently longlisted with Triad Architects for the RIBA’s International Prize for Kericho Cathedral in Kenya.
But the practice has also delivered a large body of award-winning work in London, including the Roundhouse, Friends Meeting House and the new Western Concourse at Kings Cross Station to name just a few.
John McAslan + Partners was named World Architect of the Year in 2009 by Building Design magazine and John was awarded the CBE for services to architecture in the 2012 Queens New Year’s Honours list.
I joined John in his practice’s London office just off the Euston Road, where I started, perhaps unavoidably for a podcast, by fawning over his Scottish accent.