BDP’s Chinese adventure rolls on
BDP's Shanghai studio, headed by Manchester's Steve Gillham, now employs 34 people working on 150 projects in 30 locations.
In BDP Manchester, eight design staff work solely on the Chinese design portfolio. The firm now plans to employ a dedicated Chinese design team co-ordinated by a Chinese national or Mandarin speaker in every one of its UK studios.
Work in China ranges from masterplans for new urban districts, to retail and tourism centres and education campuses. BDP also reported demand for its expertise in the contemporary re-design of historic buildings.
The firm recently won an international competition to provide architecture, landscape and lighting design in Shanghai for the Bund X-Change, involving the renovation of a cluster of urban blocks and historic buildings to form a new £100m world-class destination.
New projects include the Xi'an Jiao Tong partnership in Liverpool University's campus in Suzhou, a tourism centre and exhibition hall in Suzhou New District, and the Shanxi Broadcast development which comprises new film and television studios, a 240-metre tall office tower, hotel, conference centre and theatre.
Gillham said: "BDP has a long history and excellent reputation within all the sectors that China is looking to develop; Chinese clients are impressed at projects like Liverpool One which show how we can deliver large scale schemes sensitively and seamlessly."
