Largest firms ranked in annual survey

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The largest 50 architectural practices have grown their UK chartered workforce by 5.7% in a year, an exclusive survey by Building Design’s sister title has revealed

The top 50 architects, compiled by Building as part of its annual Top 150 Consultants survey, shows practices have grown strongly over the past year.

The data (see below) shows the top 50 practices increased their combined UK-based architectural workforce from 17,259 to 18,235. The firms also grew their total chartered workforce across all disciplines by 8% to 40,688.

The table shows BDP took the top spot this year in the rankings, which are based on total number of UK-based chartered architects, swapping places with Foster & Partners. Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, Allies and Morrison and Sheppard Robson complete the top five.

The wider Top 150 Consultants survey, which also includes engineers, surveyors and project managers, showed an increase in economic pessimism in the industry over the next 12 months.

The findings show 35% now expect conditions to get worse, compared to just 2% last year. Four in 10 respondents have a negative view of the economic outlook over the next 12 months, compared to just 1% last year. The survey was carried out in the summer before last month’s mini-budget and the resulting market turbulence.

Rank   UK architectural staff Total UK chartered staff Total UK staff Offices
2022 rank 2021 rank Firm Chartered architects Architectural technologists Non-chartered/technical 2022 2021 2022 2021 UK
1 2 BDP 344 27 103 540 546 900 947 10
2 1 Foster + Partners 248 6 440 295 270 1,367 1,208 1
3 3 Allford Hall Monaghan Morris 245   114 245 299 464 500 3
4 4 Allies and Morrison 183 1 84 189 191 314 326 4
5 5 Sheppard Robson 175   168 175 163 379 313 3
6 new Atkins 137 33 69 642 586 977 923 46
7 6 Stride Treglown 126 14 106 165 182 335 351 9
8 8 TP Bennett 124 26 24 159 147 379 345 3
9 10 Purcell 118 6 41 140 119 252 194 11
10 9 EPR Architects 116 5 49 121 111 188 194 2
11 7 Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios 115   35 115 111 191 180 4
12 15 Aecom 108 7 44 1,790 2,588 6,534 6,679 31
13 13 Ryder Architecture 99 42 114 155 111 310 242 5
14= 11 HTA Design 97 3 60 126 113 251 247 4
14= new Scott Brownrigg 97 7 30 105 110 178 176 4
16 new Mace 94   136 1,238 1,059 4,096 3,573  
17 14 Arup 92   76 2,309 2,126 6,603 5,915 15
18 19 Pick Everard 88 47 14 432 406 613 583 15
19 12 AHR 86 7 57 113 110 267 246 8
20 16 Corstorphine & Wright 84 28 83 112 98 221 174 11
21 18 HLM Architects 73 23 54 108 83 227 181 5
22 new ADP Architecture 70 1 40 71   125   6
23 new Fletcher Priest Architects 68   16 68 67 117 108 1
24 25 Mott MacDonald Group 60 178 33 4,372 3,672 7,972 7,058 27
25 20 JMArchitects 58 2 32 60 59 97 93 4
26 new Stephen George + Partners 56 37   93 71 119 90 5
27 29= Ridge and Partners 53 3 48 583 357 856 639 13
28 21 3DReid 51 18 21 69 67 105 99 5
29 new HKS Architects 49 1 9 50 41 82 72 1
30 new Todd Architects 46 11 7 57 47 73 59 3
31 22 Broadway Malyan 42 2 54 44 56 113 121 3
32 24 Norse Consulting Group 40 12 34 175 174 439 540 10
33 29= Buttress Architects 39 1 21 40 39 67 57 2
34 23 Atkins Walters & Webster 38 8 9 46 55 71 71 3
35 27 LSI Architects 34 14 16 48 51 83 82 2
36= new Hunters 33 5 7 49 44 74 69 1
36= 38= ECD Architects 33 2 22 36 28 61 50 3
38 31= Stockwool 31 2 7 33 32 45 48 1
39 36= Arcadis 30 4 72 2,509 2,319 4,075 3,881 26
40 31= Whittam Cox Architects 28 22 57 50 54 130 138 3
41= 31= Pozzoni Architecture 26 20 5 46 50 57 60 2
41= new Associated Architects 26 4 18 30 26 53 44 3
41= new Flanagan Lawrence 26   5 26 24 31 33 1
44 41 R H Partnership Architects 25 2 8 27 24 39 34 3
45= 40 Ingleton Wood 23 9 17 99 102 213 215 6
45= 38= Holder Mathias 23 8 7 31 35 43 45 2
47 42= Kier Business Services 18 2 14 84 81 174 170 5
48 44= Kendall Kingscott 16 15 23 75 74 172 165 5
49 44= Noviun 14 3 14 18 19 34 38 1
50 46= Bailey Partnership 13 17 9 72 62 122 101 6

 

Postscript

The Top 50 Architects was collated as part of Building Design’s sister publication Building wider Top 150 Consultants survey which also includes surveyors, engineers and project managers.

 

Full Top 150 Consultants 2022 coverage on Building

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