Chris Bearman

Chris often leads the early design stages of our projects, and is committed to our approach to contextual design, believing that rich responses can emerge from both an understanding of a site’s immediate context and from its wider setting within a city.

He has an important role in shaping our housing work, completing a number of sensitively designed schemes. This has ranged from high-rise residential towers such as Two Fifty One to and Aldgate Place estate regeneration projects such as West Hendon to large-scale private developments like Goodluck Hope. Earlier works such as Grosvenor Waterside and Barrier Park East were significant in establishing the practice’s approach to high density living. He is particularly proud of the redevelopment of Highbury Stadium in north London into a new London square surrounded by more than 700 homes. Many of the practice’s masterplans have a significant housing component as well, and Chris has contributed to these, ranging from Lincolnshire Lakes to Brent Cross Cricklewood. Overseas, he has been involved in projects including hotels in Bangalore and District//S, a compact housing-led project on the edge of Beirut’s old city.

An admirer of the work of Alvar Aalto, Chris taught at Helsinki University of Technology and Tampere University of Technology in Finland, and he has lectured throughout Europe and the UK, and is a chair of the South Eastern Design Review Panel.

He trained at Kingston University and worked in Finland for Helin and Siitonen, and in England, for Richard Reid before joining Allies and Morrison in 1988.