Last updated April 29th 2022
BDP
BDP, formerly Building Design Partnership, is one of the largest interdisciplinary practices of architects, designers, engineers and urban specialists in Europe. Founded in 1961, BDP has a strong track record in all major sectors in the UK, including health, education, workplace, retail, urbanism, heritage, housing, transport and leisure. The firm specialises in integrated working and combining its expertise across disciplines, locations, sectors and building types and employs just under 1,300 people.
In March 2016, BDP was acquired by a leading Japanese engineering practice, Nippon Koei, for £102.2 million to form an integrated design group with international reach; a move which the UK firm believes will transform its business model in international working.
According to the latest AJ 100 league table for 2021, BDP ranks as the second-largest UK architects” practice with total fees from projects delivered from UK offices of £59.2 million and a complement of 353 UK architects. Total architects fees paid to UK and overseas offices were £91.9 million.
The group works across the UK and Ireland and has developed a network of international studios in recent years. In Europe, the group has studios in London, Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Birmingham, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Cardiff. It also has studios in Canada, China, India, Ireland, MENA, Netherlands, Singapore and Peru.
Major projects where the firm has been involved in recent years include Sheffield Hallam University, where BDP has designed the masterplan. It is also working on the huge refurbishment of the Palace of Westminster and on the refurbishment of Whitehall”s Old Admiralty Building. BDP is also lead consultant and design delivery architect for Google”s new King”s Cross Campus project in London.
The firm was also involved with Manchester Metropolitan University’s new Institute of Sport and the recently-completed refurbishment of Cardiff University’s Bute Building – home to the Welsh School of Architecture. BDP’s refurbishment of Lancaster Castle won a major national prize from the Civic Trust.
Early in 2019, BDP made a ”strategic investment” in Toronto-based Quadrangle, a Canadian architect and interior design practice, as a platform for growth across Canada and North America. Following the acquisition, the group has ambitious plans for the North American market.
In July 2021, the firm acquired Pattern Design, which gave it global expertise in sports stadia design; a sector where it hopes to win and deliver major international projects. BDP also aims to boost the share of its work undertaken in international markets – a third of its revenue came from outside the UK last year – and set up more studios outside the UK.
In the firm”s latest annual report published in November 2021, group chief executive Nick Fairham highlighted the firm’s three year business plan focused on locations, professions and sectors. The firm aims to consolidate its workload and turnover over the next 12 months and focus on sectors where it anticipates increased activity in the short term such as healthcare, sports and transportation.
Financials
To view the financials for BDP Holdings, which owns Building Design Partnership, visit Companies House and use Company ID 4045864.
Despite the impact of Covid BDP had a good year financially in the 12 months to June 2021. Turnover dipped by 5% to £124.1 million, down from £131.3 million previously and the company reported an operating profit of £13.4 million, up from £13.0 million previously. Pre-tax profit rose to £13.1 million from £12.7 million. Meanwhile, shareholders funds rose slightly to £35.9 million and a dividend of £8.0 million was paid. Net cash balances stood at £29.6 million – following the Pattern acquisition – down from £36.9 million. The firm said the results benefitted from ”exceptional levels of collaboration between locations, professions and sectors.”
Operations
Business secured in the workplace (36%), education (10%), health (19%) urbanism (6%) and retail (7%) and housing (14%) were the largest sectors in the group”s £124.1 million income in 2020, with smaller operations in leisure and others. The UK accounted for 71% of the firm”s work followed by Canada with 14%, China 3% and MENA 3%.
BDP has maintained a healthy pace of new activity in early 2022. In April, the firm was appointed appointed by The Super Slow Way to design a linear park along a 23-mile section of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal in East Lancs involving major improvements to infrastructure and buildings.
In the defence sector, BDP was appointed in spring 2022 to Tilbury Douglas’s team on the detailed design phase of the new Catterick Integrated Care Campus alongside the army base in Richmond, north Yorkshire in what is a joint venture between the NHS and the MoD.
In late 2021, the University of Bristol unveiled plans to to relocate its dental school to the city centre with an interdisciplinary team from BDP providing a feasibility study to identify a new site in the city”s Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone which has received planning consent for change of use.
Meanwhile in the health sector, BDP was part of the design team that developed the temporary NHS Nightingale Emergency Hospitals at the height of the pandemic and has recently overseen the completion of the first of 40 community NHS diagnostic centres – in a store in Poole – which are set to open in England.
In education, BDP was involved in plans to develop Sheffield Hallam University’s city campus, providing a key gateway to the city centre, which were approved in late 2021. Work on the first phase of the campus plan, to build three new buildings around a public university green, are set to start early in 2022.
Overseas, BDP has recently been appointed to deliver an urban regeneration masterplan for a former steelworks site in Chongqing, China in a landmark renewal of an urban space. Early in 2022, the firm also won an international competition to complete the urban design of the New Pujiang Centre in Shanghai, China.
Glenigan data
Figures from Glenigan highlight the scale and variety of BDP”s workload. They show that the firm is the masterplanner on a £30.7 million scheme of 420 homes and a hotel at Station Goods Yard at Bishop’s Stortford where work is set to start early in 2023 (Project ID: 02402845). Glenigan data also shows that BDP is an architect on a new £62.4 million academic building for the University of Hertfordshire where work started in early 22022 and is set to continue until early 2024 (Project ID: 20409635).
Conclusion: Solid base at home and a growing presence in Asia
As one of the market leaders on the UK architectural scene, BDP appears to be in good shape despite the uncertain times in its home market. Under its new Japanese parent, the firm is seeing rising profits and its healthy intake of new commissions and a growing presence in Asia bode well for its prospects. Even if major commercial building projects have become scarcer, the firm”s success in the health and particularly higher education sectors would seem to justify its plans for growth. With a solid base at home and the growth of remote working, the firm”s ambitions to expand overseas under its new owner and through more healthcare, sports and transport projects, suggest that it is likely to become a growing force on the international building design scene.
Winning Work with BDP
BDP has a head of sector for education, healthcare, heritage & culture, housing, sport, retail, transport, urbanism and workplace. The group also has specific contacts for architecture, engineering, design, town planning, landscape architecture, urban design, sustainability, lighting and acoustics.
Telephone and email contact details for all these work-streams and all the group’s offices in the UK and overseas can be found on the group”s website at www.bdp.com
Key contacts include:
Ruth Atkinson, architect director in London studio.
T 020 7812 8000
Email ruth.atkinson@bdp.com
Ged Couser, Principal, architect director in Manchester.
T 0161 828 2200
Email ged.couser@bdp.com