Mark Middleton on leadership, learning and running a global practice

Mark Middleton is Group Managing Partner at Grimshaw, where he has spent three decades shaping some of the practice’s most significant rail, aviation and metro projects. After leading the London studio he is now based in Sydney, responsible for the practice’s eight international offices. Here he talks about growing up around building sites, the culture that defines Grimshaw, what it takes to run a global studio, and why he rejects the clichés of the profession.

Why architecture…

All my family are tradesmen. They were bricklayers and plumbers and I grew up playing in the sharp sand on building sites. I worked out two things. I didn’t want to do that job and I liked being around building. I was good at drawing and I wanted a professional role, not the work my dad and uncles were doing.

What keeps me going is the people. Realising architecture is part of it and walking around the spaces and buildings you create is incredibly rewarding, but in between that there is a lot of conversation, getting on with people and collaborating. When you are surrounded with good people it makes you want to come in every day.

How practical experience shapes better design…

My dad tried to teach me bricklaying. I was hopeless, but I used his tools to make dens. In the 70s they put dye in the sand and I would come home yellow and get scrubbed clean. That practical start made me very hands on. Early on I worked on the Jubilee Line as an industrial designer because I was interested in things. I curated my career to get to Grimshaws because I knew they were into castings and metal processing and forming.

My drawing style was graphicy and good for details. I could sit with an A3 pad and rattle through them. That mindset helps in design reviews. If a younger architect draws something unbuildable I can see straight away where they will have trouble and point them to the building process and manufacturing. Practices should take students on ride alongs. They should be on site and in meetings. Work from home is not great for young architects because they miss incidental conversations and those quick invitations to go to site. You have to be present to get opportunities.

Architecture school and a switch in work ethic…

I chose Dundee because it was in an art school and cheaper to live. I wanted to work in London but not study there. I had been a terrible student before uni. At Dundee the penny dropped. I treated it like a job. I was in studio from nine to six and I was organised. While everyone was at the coffee bar for the first weeks I was in the model shop making bases, so when the final drawings were done the models were ready. It changed my attitude to learning.

I went to Copenhagen on an Arasmus exchange for most of an academic year. It was formative. Danish students designed differently. It was about light and how it enters. They built big models and spent hours on solar analysis. Different people, different methods. Dundee also focused you because there was not much else to do.

Mark graduating from the University of Dundee

Joining Grimshaw, working with Sir Nicholas Grimshaw and staying in one job for 30 years…

Grimshaws were my favourite architects as a student and I really wanted to work there. I found it was not top down. Nick encouraged you to throw ideas on the table and fight for them. The most junior person could have the best idea. He would say it is an argument among friends and also say he will win a lot of arguments because he has been arguing longer.

I was given chances early by people like Andrew Wally. They backed you. That equality and opportunity is why I stayed. Now a big part of my job is upholding that legacy so younger architects get chances to originate ideas and to go after work, not just wait for tender invitations. The ability to win work is what defines an owner.

Becoming Group Managing Partner at Grimshaw…

We changed the business years ago so roles like Managing Partner or Group Managing Partner are roles, not destinations. You stay an architect. You still run projects and then hand the role on. It is a three year term and you can never do more than two. It keeps things fresh and keeps you connected to the market.

You are asked to do it. Your fellow partners put their faith in you. It should not be an ambition. It is a responsibility you take on and then walk away from. I still work on projects like West Metro and Sydney Airport. We won a big competition for Nugati station in Budapest which was cancelled because of the war, but I was fully involved.

Transitioning into leadership and staying close to projects…

Architects get promoted without training. Sometimes you do not know if someone will be good. I am naturally decisive, so I found it easier. In business the important thing is to make a decision. If it is wrong, have the humility to change your mind. There is no loss of face.

How the global studio runs, board and regions…

We do not run a fly in fly out model. Our studios are proper local studios connected to their cities and markets. Fees are pegged locally and the internationalness comes for free. If you want lessons from abroad we bring them, and if you do not, we do not.

I chair the global board, now with regional representatives. I am also Regional Managing Partner for Australia. We have North America, Europe and the Middle East as an opportunity region. My weeks are a structured set of meetings. I meet the chairman once a week. We have a global board every other week. It is early morning for me and late for the UK, good for America. We go through financials and strategic decisions.

There is a separate meeting for operational departments like marketing and sustainability. There are important non architectural people who need to be looked after and who have good ideas. We work on five year business plans. Then I do Sydney work during the day with projects and design reviews. I am supposed to be fifty fifty, but it feels like 200 percent. The trick is partitioning and not letting tasks expand. Consult, decide, communicate clearly and move on. Procrastination is the enemy.

Ambition, being asked to lead and the move to Australia…

It was not an ambition to be Group Managing Partner. I always thought I could be a director. I backed myself to have ideas, to work with people and to win work. Over time I realised I could do the job. You are asked to do it, which matters. Around the same time Lindsay and I wanted to move to Australia. I made one contingent on the other.

I had reached the end of London. We were nominated for the Stirling with London Bridge. I thought we should have won, but the zeitgeist was not with another giant London project after the year before. I wanted a smaller studio challenge. My connection with Australia goes back to Southern Cross Station which set up our Melbourne office. I had been back most years since.

Sydney felt different in a good way. You are closer to clients and ministers. They come to your office. You understand them better. In London there is a veil over the process. It is regimented and young practices struggle to break in. In Sydney I have been able to do schools, residential and industrial alongside transport. Studios have their own character. In Sydney we are more connected to developer clients and workplace resi than in London.

Making monster projects human for teams over time…

Architecture is slow. Expectations should be calibrated. Big projects move in stages. Design is in stages and development is in stages. On London Bridge we planned leadership over the site phase. I ran it, then the principal took it on when it went to site, then the associate principal, and so on. People cycled in and out. Knowledge can be passed on. The relationships are harder to hand over, but you can plan for that.

Project leaders can be reluctant to rotate because they think they hold all the knowledge. They do not. Some leaders are just lazy and keep it as it is. It is up to us to spot abilities and place people where they will grow. Generalists who can design, do commercials, manage site and details are rare. Partners tend to be generalists, but we need all the skills across a project. Break work down, keep it interesting and make sure people get the joy of visiting the public buildings they helped deliver.

Do big awards change anything…

The Elizabeth line was a complete work from industrial design up, and the Stirling was well deserved. It was nice for Nick after disappointments like Eden, Bilmer and London Bridge. We all felt a collective glow.

Does it change our business. I do not think so. People already know we are strong in transport. Awards are about zeitgeist and juries. It is hard to compare back to back housing in East Anglia to a central London station. I told Neil before his process to enjoy it. Winning or losing does not matter. My own favourite moment was a Sheffield event when everyone dodged the who will win question. I said Analise would win. It ticked all the boxes. I put a small bet on at 11 to one and wished I had put a thousand. It was a great scheme and transformative for them.

Film at Grimshaw, telling complex stories well…

Film has always mattered to me. As a kid I was dropped at the ABC on Saturdays to watch the Children’s Film Foundation. Later, as London managing partner, I did an MA in film because I wanted to become a better writer and sit at the back of a room and be taught again. I love the language of film and how it carries complex stories.

We made two films at Pulvo and Reading. I did everything from key grip to the edit and music. It was to show Nick how we could tell project stories. We have made 40 or 50 films now. Two or three a year. There is an archival legacy. You get the people who did the projects on record. The issue is architects want to tell the whole story and the edits balloon to seven minutes. Nobody cares. It has to be two and a half or three minutes. Discipline matters.

Filmic language has lifted our CGIs and animations. Use dolly shots. Use the grammar people already feel. The GoPro walk through like a video game does not sell an experience. We are selling an idea and a feeling. I enjoyed producing some kind of joy about Nick. We had a proper premiere near Piccadilly Circus and it was fantastic.

Speak plainly and drop the archi speak…

Architects should take complicated things and make them simple and then communicate them simply. Too often they wrap it in archy babble, self aggrandisement and pretentiousness. It turns people cold and it harms us with users, clients and collaborators. There is also a need to show how clever you are. It is like a magician explaining the trick straight away. Leave it simple. The building is about this. That is enough.

Those small choices that give some kind of joy matter. At London Bridge the timber softens and humanises the space. At Fton Center the light drops into a generous large space that lifts the commute. I rode the Elizabeth line from Heathrow and smiled. It felt easy and luxurious and spacious. I know what is behind the curtain and I was proud of what the business can do.

Lessons for young architects…

I was determined. I set a plan for my CV to get to Grimshore. My dad said let no one outwork you. I am not advocating long hours. I like normal hours worked super effectively. Do not let anyone outwork you.

Be decisive and do not procrastinate. At college there is pressure to have the idea. In design reviews I prefer five short sessions of ten to fifteen minutes where we pick a direction, test, and return, rather than one long self important meeting. Architecture is a way of operating that involves creativity and philosophy and social values, but it is collaborative by definition.

I have been lucky to work with generous people and I still feel lucky. I want many more years delivering amazing spaces around the world. I have not built anything in Sydney yet and that is an ambition.

The gripe with architect stereotypes…

I generally hate architects. The more you look like an architect, the less good you are. People swanning in with big glasses, all in black. It is like a middle aged man buying a sports car. You are making up for something, my friend. The best architects I know look normal. Architecture is normal. You are in the middle bringing everything together. It is collaborative, which is why you can do it into your eighties. The ones who burn out are the despots who try to run everything through themselves.

On architectural education and tutors…

One of my bugbears is tutors who have only just been students. What can you teach if you have not learned anything in practice. We had good tutors in Dundee. Older people with experience. It was more technical than wacky. High tech or vernacular, which suited me. We try to train teams to ask the right higher order questions. What is the problem you are trying to solve. Then the architecture comes later and responds to the parameters. Too many arrive with a preconceived idea and then try to shove the program into it.