William Alsop and Jan Stormer (Architectural Monographs No. 33)

The position of Alsop & Stormer as one of Europe’s leading architectural practices was established firmly in 1990 with their innovative competition-winning scheme for the Hotel du Departement, Marseilles. Entering international competitions on a regular basis has engendered a keen interest for the firm in Europe, where Alsop was involved in collaborative work with European architects Jean Nouvel, Massimiliano Fuksas and Otto Steidle on the Tower Project for Herouville St Clair. The firm’s design philosophy believes in keeping a completely open mind about what architecture is. This is reflected in the recent ‘family’ of projects presented here which are accompanied by incisive texts: the National Centre for Literature, Swansea, the World Trade Centre, Nuremberg, and Kaufhaus des Nordens – the department store in Hamburg.