Skip to content


Senior director of the world renown practice Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (architects of the Centre Pompidou – with Renzo Piano, the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff and current expansion of the British Museum) Graham Stirk returns to Arnolfini to present recent work, including the design and construction of the 50-storey Leadenhall Building currently on site in the City of London.

High Rise and Other Stories Lectures:

To coincide with the Architecture Centre’s Autumn exhibition, High-Rise by Peter Bobby (9 October to 17 November), hear two of Britain’s most accomplished architects present their work, including two radically different approaches to high-rise design, curated by the Architecture Centre in partnership with UWE.

For the lecture in this series hear about the work of Graham Stirk.

Graham Stirk joined the Richard Rogers Partnership in 1983, was made director in 1988 and senior director in 1995. He has been involved in the design of a number of prestigious UK and worldwide projects.

Graham – together with Ivan and Richard Rogers – is evolving the practice’s language of design, to create sustainable and thought-provoking architecture. His intellectually rigorous approach to the analysis and interpretation of a client brief and site informs the process and form of architecture to create functional, flexible and elegant designs.

For many years he has brought innovative, rational and clear design leadership to many of the practice’s high-profile projects including: an expansion of Lloyd’s Register Headquarters and 88 Wood Street, in London, Bodegas Protos, a winery in northern Spain; the Leadenhall Building; NEO Bankside residential; One Hyde Park; and an extension for The British Museum to provide a flexible series of exhibition and conservation spaces.

The Leadenhall Building

This 50 storey tower opposite the practice’s iconic 1986 building Lloyd’s of London rises to a height of 224.5 metres, its slender form creating its own distinctive profile within an emerging cluster of tall buildings in this part of the City of London. The building’s tapering profile is prompted by a requirement to respect views of St Paul’s Cathedral, in particular from Fleet Street. The tower’s design ensures that from this key vantage point the cathedral’s dome is still framed by a clear expanse of sky.

The scheme also delivers an unprecedented allocation of public space – the lower levels are recessed on a raking diagonal to create a spectacular, sunlit seven-storey-high space complete with shops, exhibition space, soft landscaping and trees. This new public space will provide a rare oasis within the dense urban character of the City of London.