黑洞社区

London is to spearhead the international expansion plans of Aedas after a shake-up of the 拢131m turnover architect鈥檚 global structure.

Under the restructure, which has yet to be ratified, the London, continental European, African and Middle Eastern parts of the 2,031-strong business will come under the control of
a newly-formed Aedas International division.

The division will be run by a new global board that is likely to be chaired by the heads of the European and Asian arms. It will control all of Aedas鈥� business outside of the UK, east Asia and America. The three global hubs of the architect will continue to be New York, London and Hong Kong. A full announcement is expected in December.

David Roberts, chief executive of Aedas in Asia and member of the global board, said: 鈥淲e have recognised that London has to become the focus for our international activities. There鈥檚
no reason why we can鈥檛 have 300-500 people in London from the 80 there now.鈥�

The shake-up comes as the architect admitted the London and Asian regions had 鈥渢rodden on each other鈥檚 toes鈥� on bids, particularly in the Middle East, where it is working on schemes such as the Heart of Doha regeneration in Qatar (pictured).

Roberts added: 鈥淲e weren鈥檛 as joined up as we could have been and people were perhaps focusing on their parts of the business. Clients weren鈥檛 clear about which parts they were dealing with.鈥�

Brian Johnson, chairman of Aedas in Europe and a global board member, said the state of the UK public sector was a factor. 鈥淲e鈥檝e seen the decline of public sector work and are expanding the international side and the design side to make up for that. It鈥檚 looking like we鈥檙e heading for a double-dip recession.鈥�