Fred Pilbrow: 'I don't like aggressive shape making'

What got you started?
Cambridge. I started the course with only a vague idea about architecture, but within a fortnight I was completely hooked and realised I had been fortunate to chance across my life’s vocation.

Who was your most inspiring tutor?
Eric Parry

Which architect have you learnt the most from?
Norman Foster

Which living architect do you most admire?
My friend, Gianni Botsford

What “great” architecture leaves you cold?
Shouty and aggressive shape making - often French.

What is your best project?
At KPF I designed the Rothermere American Institute at the University of Oxford - my first “proper building” and a great labour of love.

What project do you most regret losing?
Ecceleston Place Masterplan - a competition winning proposal for Grosvenor which I did whilst I was a Partner at PLP. The design explored how lessons could be drawn from Belgravia’s historic fabric to inform the shaping of the contemporary city. Grosvenor felt it was a little too large to trust to my young practice.

What part of the design process do you most enjoy?
Making. I love the moment when something that started life as an imagined idea, space or place begins to take physical shape.

What is your Achilles’ heel?
Resisting the urge to go on refining and improving an idea.

Which house would you most like to live in?
My own.

What is your favourite city?
London.

What building would you most like to see demolished?
Semley House, Ebury Square.

You can work in whichever city you want at any point in history - where and when would you choose?
London 1880, perhaps articled to Norman Shaw.

Which are the most important relationships of your working life?
Those with my Partners, Tal Ben-Amar, Keb Garavito Bruhn, Sam Yousif and Clare Ralph.

What would be your dream commission?
Small scale opera house, ideally floating.

What is your favourite architectural book?
I’m currently really enjoying Andrew Saint’s ‘Life of Norman Shaw’

What is your favourite novel?
The White Hotel by D.M. Thomas

What are you listening to?
“Into the Woods” Steven Sondheim

What have you sacrificed for your career?
Since setting up my new practice earlier this year, the financial security and peace of mind of my family.

What does your family think of your work?
They have been amazingly supportive especially since the new practice (see above).

Your child tells you they want to be an architect. What do you tell them?
My son Solomon (12) did say, at a recent school interview he was considering architecture as a career. I was delighted, but suspect that his other talents - for words and for music - may draw him in other directions as he gets older. On architecture, I’m reminded of Jonathan Miller’s description of opera directing - when it’s going well you can’t believe someone is paying you for it, when it’s going badly no amount of money is compensation.