Simon Allford has joined Dezeen Awards 2025 as a judge. Here, he talks to Dezeen about “the most complicated project” he has ever been involved in, as well as the key projects that best represent his studio.
For Allford, the core ethos of his award-winning practice, AHMM, has always been in the “making, remaking and repairing of the city”.
His work is underpinned by the idea that “ordinary buildings can, through understanding the essential ideas of use and construction, become ‘extra ordinary’, making architecture a delightful backdrop to the theatre of everyday life”.
Often working dynamically across scales, disciplines and cultures, the studio is currently working on projects in the UK, India and the USA. Previous overseas projects by the British studio include four houses made from converted shipping containers in Oklahoma City.
Read on for Allford’s pick of projects that best represent his studio’s work:
Citizen, USA, 2024
“Eighteen years ago, I met a long-standing colleague, Wade Scaramucci, in his hometown of Oklahoma City and, inebriated, we agreed to open an office there!
“He had stayed in London for a decade but recently moved back full-time to Oklahoma City, and our latest project there is Citizen, which overlooks the Oklahoma Bombing Memorial.
“Citizen is a host of very different businesses – a bank, bar, restaurant, incubator, club, hotels and offices, including a regional office for AHMM. Citizen is our American Gesamtkunstwerk – an essay on the benefits of the global exchange of ideas.”
Soho Place, UK, 2020
“This project for Derwent London took over 20 years from inception to completion and is the most complicated I have ever been involved in.
“It is an office, public space and theatre that accommodates hundreds of thousands of people above and below ground.
“I describe it like a Swiss watch built on an urban scale, and a remarkable example of architecture as urban assemblage. It is also a tribute to the importance of clients as collaborators, confidantes and patrons of good design.”
University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2018
“For our first international competition win in Europe, we reinvented an incomplete 1970s megastructure with a masterplan comprising a large series of laboratory and science buildings over a million square feet.
“We removed, recycled and remade large parts of the buildings to create a vibrant new mega architecture that accommodates seven lecture halls, seminar spaces, bars, restaurants and libraries, as well as a moot court and old Amsterdam’s first new bridge over a canal for more than a century.
“The project lasted over 15 years. We were also responsible for a host of young practices from around Europe who worked on individual buildings within our new masterplan, site and projects within the building. At the end, the city and its students are connected, and the building is used robustly, extensively and imaginatively.”
Walsall Bus Station, UK, 2000
“Our first international competition win, the project took an unpromising brief for bus shelters and reorganised a small part of Walsall to create a bus station that provides an essential public service as well as a useful civic presence.
“We used old and new technologies of reinforced and ferro cement concrete, utilising the then cutting-edge and now hopelessly outdated computer technology of the time.”
Caspar, UK, 1999
“We responded to The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s brief for affordable rented homes with an idea that evolved and resolved the ‘streets in the sky’ concept, where elevated walkways connect and act as streets within a high-rise building to promote social interaction and community.
“We pulled apart the traditional corridor apartment block so the streets became bridges in a sheltered, covered courtyard, all connected and communal, retreating via a private front door to a simple apartment with windows on both sides.”
Enter by 29 May!
To put your work in front of this year’s Dezeen Awards judges, log in or create an account via our new entry platform to begin your entries. Find out about this year’s categories here. Make sure you submit your projects by 23:59 London time on 29 May.
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Dezeen Awards 2025 in partnership with Bentley
Dezeen Awards is the ultimate accolade for architects and designers across the globe. The eighth edition of the annual awards programme is in partnership with Bentley as part of a wider collaboration to inspire, support and champion design excellence and showcase innovation that creates a better and more sustainable world. This ambition complements Bentley’s architecture and design business initiatives, including the Bentley Home range of furnishings and real estate projects around the world.
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