黑洞社区

John McAslan looks haggard. Is it the rumour that one of his prize projects, the Crossrail station at Bond Street, will be axed in the government鈥檚 public spending review? Or perhaps he鈥檚 braced, like so many architects, to lay off a swath of staff? It鈥檚 neither, he says.

He is stressed because he鈥檚 been poring over some 350 entries to a competition for housing in Haiti: McAslan has taken on the immense responsibility of choosing the designs for the bulk of permanent housing to be built for the 1 million Haitians who need homes urgently after January鈥檚 earthquake (see factfile, below).

He is frank about the time this is taking. 鈥淭oo fucking much! That鈥檚 why I have tonnes of mouth ulcers and a cold. Don鈥檛 get me wrong - I鈥檓 honoured and committed - but there鈥檚 huge pressure to act fast and so much to do.鈥�

McAslan says the job is taking up a quarter of his time, but 100% of his 鈥渉eadspace鈥�.

Despite this, he has quite a lot going on elsewhere too: as well as Bond Street, he鈥檚 doing the dramatic new concourse at King鈥檚 Cross, the firm鈥檚 biggest and most complex current project. It is worth half a billion pounds in construction costs and stands starkly in the glare of public scrutiny (not a clever project to mess up). So mouth ulcers aside, how is McAslan bearing up?

Financially, he says his practice is doing okay. Although the firm had yet to post its latest results at Companies House at the time of going to press, McAslan predicts turnover of 拢10.8m for the 120-strong firm in 2010, which will be its highest since it launched in 1996.

In terms of profit, again, McAslan鈥檚 work in Haiti, which is paid but non-profit-making, appears to be uppermost in his mind. 鈥淚 genuinely have no idea,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 can tell you we aim for a 15-20% profit though.鈥�

Later his PR reveals the firm is forecasting 拢950,000 in pre-tax profit for this year.

Suggesting he does have at least some idea about finances, McAslan adds: 鈥淲e have never been in debt.鈥� Neither has the practice, unlike most architects, suffered 鈥渕ajor redundancies鈥�, he says. 鈥淲e鈥檝e always kept things pretty lean.鈥�

That鈥檚 not to say he鈥檚 impervious to the economic gloom. For a start, the practice works on schools, colleges and universities, potentially exposing it to the fallout from the scrapping of the 黑洞社区 Schools for the Future programme.

鈥淚t鈥檚 hard, it鈥檚 very hard.

Anyone who鈥檚 doing anything in architecture right now is doing well,鈥� he says.

But McAslan says the mood in the industry has improved. 鈥淭here is a nervousness but things always slow down over summer and it doesn鈥檛 feel like the black hole of September 2008, so I鈥檓 optimistic. We鈥檙e even hiring a few students.鈥�

Still, he can鈥檛 have missed the speculation surrounding the future - or not - of Bond Street Crossrail station. But he denies the project is under threat: 鈥淭here was talk that it was at risk but, no, it鈥檚 proceeding. It will continue to be scrutinised for costs, of course, and we are being asked to rationalise the design to save costs - for instance, reworking the M&E strategy to save needing a triple basement but that鈥檚 what you should be doing anyway.鈥�

As positive as he is about the UK market, the practice is also heavily involved in overseas markets, with a third of its business emanating from outside the UK. Current projects include the $80m Stanislavsky Centre in Moscow, a 600ft2 pair of residential towers in Istanbul and the Cultural Forum, which is part of Qatar鈥檚 拢3.5bn Heart of Doha project. Is he consciously planning international expansion? Not exactly.

鈥淲e鈥檇 like to do more in Qatar, particularly in the schools market. But we have a simple view of work: if we get invited to bid for something, we will do. If we get appointed, great, and we鈥檒l then aim to develop that relationship and win more work.鈥�

He admits there are shortcomings with this approach: 鈥淢aybe we could have more rigour and aggression, but I would rather start with a relationship than nothing.鈥�

The international market has not always been plain sailing for McAslan, however. Five years ago, the firm attempted to partner with a firm in China and left after it did not get paid. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 have the right relationships and we didn鈥檛 set up proper payment procedures. It鈥檚 quite hard to get paid properly in China as you have exchange rate controls and so on to negotiate.鈥�

He has learned some harsh lessons: 鈥淣ow when we work internationally we try to set up simple payment procedures and we have a good finance team.

But you grow into that and adapt to your experiences. Although, thankfully, I don鈥檛 get too involved with that sort of thing.鈥�

As if to prove the point, his thoughts turn back to the mountain of Haiti proposals he鈥檒l be sifting through this weekend.

鈥淭he pile is this thick,鈥� he says, with a hand hovering at least a metre over the desk. Doesn鈥檛 he mind this distraction from his day job? 鈥淟ife鈥檚 not only about architecture,鈥� he says.