Chris Wilkinson and Jim Eyre are co-founders of Wilkinson Eyre Architects, the first practice to win the Stirling Prize twice and the only one to win it two years in a row.
The first win was for Magna, the Science Exploration Centre in Rotherham, and the second was for the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, which connected Newcastle and Gateshead and acted as a focal point for regeneration in the area.
Wilkinson and Eyre’s work combines art, engineering and science. Other results include the serpentine bridge across the river Shannon which links two parts of the University of Limerick, the Jubilee Line station at Stratford and the new swing bridge on the Manchester Ship Canal. They’ve ranged from grand waterside locations like Liverpool Arena and Convention Centre to educational facilities like Bristol Brunel Academy and Maggie’s Centre, the Oxford self-help centre for cancer sufferers and their families.
They’re noted on the international stage too, with the Guangzhou International Finance Centre and the Singapore Gardens by the Bay among their biggest overseas projects.
Images from left: Stratford Regional Station, London UK and Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Gateshead UK.
What made you decide to become architects?
CW: A desire to improve the quality of the built environment.
JE: I decided at an early age, maybe 12. I just liked the idea of designing, but hadn't done any at the time. I was better at art and the practical side of maths and physics than the other subjects.
What are you working on right now?
CW: The Siemens Urban Sustainability Centre in the Royal Victoria Docks; the Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth Naval Dockyard; a Student Forum at Exeter University; a Leisure Centre at Worthing, all of which are under construction, and a Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centre, which is about to start.
JE: The New Bodleian project turning Giles Gilbert Scott's depository in Oxford into a library for special collections. Also, a new office building in Euston and an unusual bridge for a bank in the City.
Which of your projects are you most proud of?
CW: I’m proud of all of our work. I think Stratford Station and Stratford Market Depot for the Jubilee Line Extension marked a turning point for the practice, underlined by the success of our bridge projects. My favourite project is always the one I’m working on at the moment and I guess that would be the Maggie’s Centre in Oxford.
JE: The Jubilee Line Project at Stratford was a highlight, and of all the bridges, Gateshead Millennium Bridge and the Bridge of Aspiration in Covent Garden’s Floral Street are particularly special.
Who or what inspires you?
CW: I never cease to be inspired by nature and its beauty and function. In architecture, I’ve been greatly inspired by Palladio, Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier for different reasons.
JE: My inspiration is always the specific circumstances of a site, physical or historical, and the challenge of resolving often seemingly disparate briefs and constraints. For elegance and proportion, Palladio and Mies van der Rohe excel, for ingenuity it's the 19th century engineers like Brunel, Telford and the Stephensons. For wonder, it's the unbelievable diversity of natural forms.
If I wasn’t an architect I'd be a...
CW: Painter, because that’s my other passion. I spend much of my spare time painting and drawing.
JE: Sculptor, as I always seem to have an idea in mind.