14 INSIGHTS
Broadway Malyan PRACTICE PROFILE
Tom Boddy speaks to Broadway Malyan about their journey to becoming a global architectural firm, and how the practice philosophy has evolved to increasingly embrace “holistic building design”
I
t was in 1958 in Weybridge, Surrey that Cyril Broadway and John Malyan decided to team up and found a practice together. Their focus from the start was on housing schemes and housing competitions in that sector. Even today as a global AJ100 practice with over 400 employees, 60% of Broadway Malyan’s work comes from residential projects. Ian Apsley, group managing director, comments: “Housing and designing for the community has always been one of our main priorities – this has included some very big masterplans with thousands of homes, but also many designs for individual houses.” Since its origins, the practice has grown “organically,” says
Apsley, which was “very much led by clients.” In the early 90s their reputation led to the firm taking overseas commissions for the first time, and in 1995, the practice opened up their first studio outside the UK, in Lisbon. The following decade saw BM expand east, opening offices in Warsaw, Abu Dhabi, Singapore and Shanghai. Today the practice has 15 studios around the world. But the firm’s international growth hasn’t all been smooth
sailing, and there have been “growing pains” along the way, says Apsley. The evolution of the firm can be split up into “three generations of leadership;” the second being when it embarked on overseas expansion.
Any major practice spreading its reach across the globe is likely to run into challenges over the course of its existence. Apsley alludes to issues that Broadway Malyan faced at this time: “Some of the work we did back then in London faced quite a lot of controversy with the UK architectural press.” The firm had just become a limited company, was growing fast, and “did lose some focus.”
Apsley joined the practice in 1999, which coincided with what he says was “a huge change.” He explains: “Becoming international required a huge cultural shift, which formed the basis of the completely different practice we are today” The last decade has seen BM move into its third “generation” of leadership, becoming employee-owned in 2016 – a project led by Apsley. “This was really about looking to the future, stabilising the business and making us resilient – we don’t rely on individual investors anymore.” He adds: “This process has put the ability to drive influence into the hands of the people that love the firm, and want to see it thrive onto the next generation.”
Although the firm now has a global network of studios, Apsley says they have never lost their core focus on the UK. “The UK is more than a third of our business, and the market where we deliver the greatest variety of services.”
Lakes by Yoo – Cotswolds retreat
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ADF OCTOBER 2021
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