Eric Parry has developed a strong reputation for delivering beautifully crafted and high-quality contemporary buildings that respond to their context. His practice, Eric Parry Architects, is renowned for cultural projects involving sensitive historic buildings such as the restoration of the historic St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in Trafalgar Square and the highly acclaimed new extension for the Holburne Museum of Art in Bath, as well as several prestigious commercial projects in London’s City and West End including 1 Undershaft which will become the tallest building in the City of London crowning the new cluster of planned skyscrapers in the Square Mile. The practice’s work also include the Stirling Prize shortlisted schemes at 30 Finsbury Square and 5 Aldermanbury Square, One Eagle Place in Piccadilly and 8 St James’s Square – which broke UK’s rent record in 2015. International projects include the residential schemes Damai Suria in Kuala Lumpur and the Westminster Nanpeidai in Tokyo for Grosvenor. Eric’s approach is particularly sensitive to dense urban contexts, such as the City of London’s, the use of materials - including innovative uses of ceramic - as well as the integration of art within his buildings, engaging with artists from the early stages of the design process.His contribution to Academia includes fourteen years as Lecturer in Architecture at the University of Cambridge and lectureships at the Harvard University Graduate Design School and the Tokyo Institute of Technology. In 2006 Eric Parry was elected Royal Academician (RA), one of the highest accolades for a practicing architect or artist in the UK and also received an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from the University of Bath in 2012.
London-born architect and designer Edwin Heathcote is a renowned architecture critic and covers the latest in architecture and design for The Financial Times, as he has since 1999, and is the author of several books on architecture and design.
