Director, Spark Architects
Stephen graduated from the Royal College of Art London in 1984, where he was a Gulbenkian scholar. He began his undergraduate professional career at YRM in London, working on the North Terminal of Gatwick Airport. Upon graduating, he worked at the London office of Richard Rogers and Partners, designing the project installations for the Rogers room of the Rogers Foster Stirling exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1985.
In 1990, he joined Alsop and Lyall as Project Architect for the award-winning Hôtel du Département des Bouches du Rhône in Marseille. Stephen was promoted to Director in 1994 and Partner in 2000, primarily responsible for the company’s overseas projects. Following his time in Marseilles, he worked in Hamburg, Berlin and Rotterdam.
In 2000, Stephen set up the Asia studios and designed the Clarke Quay Redevelopment, Singapore, winner of Cityscape Asia Best Waterfront development in 2008. In 2009, along with former colleagues – Stephen established Spark. He was responsible for the design of Raffles City Beijing, winner of Best Future Mixed Use project at the Cityscape Asia Awards 2008 and Raffles City Ningbo, Best developer Mixed Use award at the Cityscape China Review Awards 2008. Stephen was also involved in the design of Shanghai International Cruise Terminal, Winner of MIPIM Asia’s Best Mixed Use development Award 2011. Stephen’s recent accomplishment includes Rihan Heights, a residential development in Abu Dhabi, Paragon City in Semarang, Indonesia? the redesign of Starhill Gallery, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia and HomeFarm, a Spark research on urban farming and aged care living, winner of the Experimental Future Category at World Architecture Festival in 2016.
Stephen has lectured extensively throughout Europe and Asia, speaking most recently at the Retirement Living World China 2014 conference in Shanghai. He has taught at universities in the UK, Germany, France, China, Hong Kong and Singapore. Stephen is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
