Twenty years of brilliance: Christophe Egret’s legacy at Studio Egret West

Twenty years after founding the very successful transdisciplinary architecture and design practice Studio Egret West with David West, my friend and constant collaborator for all that time, Christophe Egret, has decided to step down as a director of their business. The wider world of architecture is richer for his talent and will be the poorer without him jointly helming one of the UK’s most consistently innovative practices.

When Christophe and David started their practice in 2004, my long-time colleague Richard Upton gave them one of their first jobs – a modest residential building in Sidcup. I remember vividly their first sketched proposals for a building that looked like it might be more at home in a space cartoon than a planning application. But, of course, that’s how it works.

At the early stage of a new job, win your client’s heart, knock them off their chair, make them feel like your sketch is the most beautiful thing they’ve ever seen. There’s plenty of time for practical matters later in the process. And this is how our relationship has played out over the last 20 years – right up until the week of his departure, Christophe continued to knock our socks off.

My last meeting with him was a design team update on a residential project at Mayfield, our large regeneration scheme in Manchester where Studio Egret West led the masterplanning and the design of the multi-award-winning public park. As he sat quietly listening to his colleagues make their presentation and the feedback from me and my colleagues, trying hard to articulate between us what we wanted, he sketched away.

When it was his turn to speak, he simply held up his sketchbook. “Something like this?” he said, holding up a beautiful, spot-on, coloured sketch that you would be happy to put in a frame and hang on the wall. Typical.

I’ve spent a lot of time with architects in the last 20 years, from large, established practices that made me feel like I was a cog in their well-oiled engine to small start-ups with little experience but lots of ideas. Cathedral Group, the company Richard Upton started in the mid-90s, built its reputation by punching well above its early weight, developing plans for large regeneration schemes.

Since that first scheme in Sidcup and through Cathedral’s morph into U+I and now as part of Landsec, Christophe, David, and their team have been constant partners. We’ve worked on more than 20 projects together. We’ve tried to spread our wings many times, but when you have a winning formula, why would you change it?

The quality of Studio Egret West’s work and their creative thinking has been central to the success of this partnership, but much more than that are the personal relationships that fuel it. It’s something special, the relationship between a designer and their developer client.

Whenever I hear a sorry tale (there are many) of the breakdown of such a relationship, I can invariably diagnose that not enough energy has been put into mutual understanding, respect, and friendship. I hope Christophe would agree with me when I say we have developed bucket-loads of each of these over the years.

The rare and symbiotic relationship between Christophe and David was also at the heart of our most successful projects – developed into an even more compelling offer as their team expanded both in size and across many disciplines. We work with few other designers who have such an instinctive response to a new scheme, able, in very short order, to write a compelling story about place, community, purpose, social and community development, and how life will be for those who will live and work there, long before any buildings get designed.

David is the consummate storyteller and strategic thinker, Christophe the thoughtful aesthete who translates the story into beautiful architecture. Never have I once seen them disagree, such is the strength of their mutual respect for each other’s skills.

I learned to trust Christophe more than I can say, not just for what he argued, but for how he argued it

It’s a lesson in partnership at the head of a practice – know what you’re good at, stick to it, develop it, and build, every day, on your respect for your partner’s skills. There is no place or need for professional jealousy or rivalry.

On a personal level, the ability to build a relationship with your key clients that tips into friendship is incredibly valuable. I learned to trust Christophe more than I can say, not just for what he argued, but for how he argued it. I talk to so many architects who complain their clients don’t listen to them enough, don’t ask them for their solutions, don’t use enough of the skills they have. It’s a very precious talent to be able to communicate your ideas with confidence and modesty to your client in a way that works. It can be learned.

All of this sounds a little like an obituary. It’s not meant to – Christophe is about to start a new chapter in his creative life, and Studio Egret West will grow from strength to strength. I suppose I’m getting to an age now where my close, career-long colleagues are starting to wind down from the grind of daily practice work.

It’s been nice to reflect on all that I’ve learned from Christophe in the last 20 years. Personally, aside from the beauty of his architecture, the most impactful things have been the gentle thoughtfulness, kindness, and humour that pervade everything he does. It’s compelling and very infectious.

So what of Studio Egret West and our work together? It will continue to flourish.

The practice could not be in the hands of more talented people than David, Lucas Lawrence, and their growing team. Continued success is assured by Christophe’s generous and rooted design philosophy – I know from my own experience of losing my closest colleague and inspiration when Richard Upton stepped away from our business in 2022, that Egret West’s team members will continue to do their work in such a way that would make Christophe proud.

His influence over the practice, and over my work with my colleagues, will be deep and long.