Move aimed at boosting presence in the region

PRINGL Brandon, an architecture and design leader in the UK and the UAE, has joined top international design firm Perkins+Will in line with its plans to boost its presence in the Middle East and Continental Africa region.

Perkins+Will has been ranked number one in the Architect 50 list produced by the American Institute of Architects’ magazine.

With this merger, Pringle Brandon, which has enjoyed its second consecutive year of double digit growth, said its London and Dubai offices will be known as Pringle Brandon Perkins+Will.

The partners, Jack Pringle, Chris Brandon, William Poole-Wilson, John Drew, Fiona Ballance and Linzi Cassels continue to lead the combined businesses in London. They also continue to oversee the Dubai office, supported by managing director of Dubai, Steven Charlton, and design director, Diane Thorsen.

By joining forces with Pringle Brandon, the number one workplace architect in London, Perkins+Will continues its strong geographic expansion through partnership with a top UK firm that was established 26 years ago, said a senior official.

“We continue to operate as normal. This merger allows us to pursue our strategic business aims, while maintaining the standards of excellence and innovative design we are renowned for,” remarked Steven Charlton, the managing director of Pringle Brandon in Dubai.

“We are able to offer more services to existing and future clients and deliver larger projects, thanks to an increased team in Dubai and support from a team worldwide,” he added.

For clients in the Middle East as well as those in Turkey, CIS countries, and continental Africa and India, the merger means cross practice exchange with a collective global knowledge and continued localised expertise with greater access to international talent and design exposure.

The move provides both firms greater opportunities at a global level. Perkins+Will provides integrated design services including architecture, interior design, branded environments, and urban design.

The combined list of key clients span multiple sectors including corporate & commercial, education, healthcare, hospitality, media, science & technology, sports & recreation and transportation.

“Pringle Brandon’s stature in corporate interiors, workplace strategy and more recently architecture, is a compelling complement to Perkins+Will as it enhances our ability to provide local resources to clients throughout  Europe and the Middle East,” remarked Phil Harrison, the president and CEO of Perkins+Will.

“Not least, Pringle has been a vanguard for transforming sustainable architectural practices in the UK. This kind of enterprising leadership exemplifies our shared commitment to sustainable design, research and innovation and is the kind of talent that we’ve had great success integrating and supporting as we grow strategically,” he added.

On the merger, Jack Pringle, its joint founder said, “After two years of expansion and success through the recession, we need to keep developing our practice and we are convinced that Perkins+Will’s combination of design excellence, broad expertise and ethos of social and environmental responsibility both meshes with who we are and enables us to take our client offering to an entirely new level.”