Sergison Bates architects was formed by Jonathan Sergison and Stephen Bates in 1996 and is based in London. With combined skills in architecture, construction research and urbanism, the practice is involved in a variety of projects at different scales, ranging from urban planning to public buildings and housing in the UK and mainland Europe.

The first building completed by the practice, the award-winning Public house in Walsall (1998) showed how seemingly modest public buildings may contribute significantly to urban regeneration and demonstrated an interest in exploring known types and forms in architecture. This has been further explored within the complex environment of affordable housing in which the practice has developed skills and experience since its award winning semi-detached housing project in Stevenage was completed in 1999. Extensive research into environmental construction and project procurement (including prefabricated timber panel construction, ‘breathing wall’ construction and Project Partnering), led to the completion of a number of highly regarded schemes in London and the southeast of England, including the award-winning Assisted self-build project in Tilbury, Essex (2003). Housing remains a central concern for the practice and two affordable housing schemes of 44 mixed tenure homes for Circle Anglia and 59 mixed tenure homes for London & Quadrant are currently on site in north and east London respectively.

Urban studies and Framework plans carried out in town centres and industrial locations within the Thames Gateway area of East London have allowed the practice to bring a strong design ethos to the political and social complexities of strategic planning and urban development. Team work is a vital part of these processes and the practice has proven skills in working and communicating with local authorities, government agencies, interdisciplinary consultants and end users. Successful framework plans carried out for Barking Town Centre (2004) and Woolwich (2004) have led to major regeneration projects being carried out, including a number of the London Mayor’s ‘100 Public Spaces’. Since 2004 the practice has been part of the Planning and Urban Design Consultancy Panel advising the London Development Agency (LDA) on regeneration, development and urban design issues. Masterplans and design codes have been developed for a number of sites in connection with the 2012 London Olympics, including the Beckton Waterfront Business Park (2005), an urban strategy study in West Ham (2007) and a masterplan for a sustainable industrial park in Dagenham Dock (2007).

Working in sensitive, urban and rural locations of historical significance, the practice has demonstrated how to make a unique architecture which is both rooted in context, aesthetically appropriate and contemporary. The competition project for the Cultural history museum in Bornholm, Denmark (2003) has drawn much attention and current projects, such as the new City library in Blankenberge, Belgium and the Centre for applied arts in Ruthin, north Wales are redefining the social and cultural uses of existing places, transforming the local context.

The exemplary nature of projects with which the practice is often associated includes the DfES pilot scheme for experimental classroom buildings. Known as ‘Classrooms of the Future’ (2003), buildings were completed at three schools in Bedfordshire that demonstrated sustainable design, technological infrastructure and new spatial configurations for classrooms at nursery, primary and secondary stages.

A priority in the way of working within the practice is to consider the feeling and quality of spaces for living, working or public use. Careful consideration is given to the choice of material used and to the way it is detailed, how it will weather and how it may be maintained and this often leads to surprising and innovative uses of simple materials such as the cement and timber panelling in the award-winning Mixed use development in Wandsworth (2004), the slurried brickwork in the Studio house in Bethnal Green (2004) or the pigmented concrete at the Centre for the applied arts in Ruthin (2005-2008).

Working on projects outside the UK is a growing reality for the practice and work is currently being carried out in Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Switzerland. This includes ten houses in Montemor-o-Novo in Alentejo as part of a new residential development for a private landowner, a 93-room home for senior citizens in Flanders and an apartment building and community crèche in the city centre of Geneva.

The practice of 14 includes nine architects, three assistants and two administrative staff and is organised within a flexible team structure. The design and management of each project is led by Jonathan Sergison and Stephen Bates, working in close collaboration with third partner Mark Tuff and the project architect of each team. Direct contact is maintained between the partners and the client from inception to completion. Project teams are formed to suit resource requirements, developing the project through model making, technical research and drawing production. The partners encourage continued collaboration with other highly experienced members of the design team, including cost consultants, structural and environmental engineers and landscape architects with whom the practice has built up well-established working relationships over a number of years.

The practice’s projects have been widely published in national and international architectural journals, including a 2G monograph (June 2005) and a dedicated issue of Werk, Bauen + Wohnen (May 2005). Jonathan Sergison and Stephen Bates have published two collections of essays (‘Papers’, 2000 and ‘Papers 2’, 2007) and produced a book and exhibition, ‘Brick-work: thinking and making’, detailing eight case studies of built work and competition entries. First shown at ETH Zurich (October 2005), the exhibition has subsequently toured a number of European cities including London, Dresden, Hamburg, Vienna and Barcelona.

Both partners have taught at several UK and mainland European schools of Architecture, regularly lecture in the UK and abroad and write on architecture. They held a joint Visiting Professorship at ETH, Zurich between 2003 and 2005, were invited to run the annual Taller Vertical at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura (EsArq) at the Universidad Internacional de Catalunya (UIC) in Barcelona in October 2006, and were Visiting Professors at EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) in 2006-2007. Jonathan Sergison has recently been appointed as Associate Professor at the Accademia di architettura, Mendrisio (2008-2011).

Sergison Bates architects' international outlook and reputation has been growing steadily and the practice was awarded the Erich Schelling Medal for Architecture and the Heinrich Tessenow Gold Medal in Architecture in 2006.