Laurie Abbott

Laurie Abbott
RIBA (Hon. Fellow)

Laurie Abbott has consulted on more than eighty projects in over ten different countries during the last 30 years.  Laurie has worked on a number of prestigious projects, including the Pompidou Centre and initial concept work for Lloyd’s of London.   He spent 5 years as head of the Japan office in Tokyo, overseeing 9 projects including the Kabuki-cho Tower, the Iikura Building in Tokyo and experimental research for a tower building incorporating a wind turbine to generate power. Other projects in the Far East include the Seoul Broadcasting Centre, an industrialised housing scheme in Korea and a major stadium at Saitama, near Tokyo.

His work includes commercial buildings throughout Europe and the USA.  As Director responsible for environmental research, his specialisation in this field can be seen in the scheme for the Daimler Chrysler offices and housing project at Potsdamer Platz, Berlin.  Current commercial Spanish projects in Barcelona and Viladecans include major hotel and conference centres, offices, and the redevelopment of the Arenas bull-ring. He has also designed residential schemes in Sagaponac, New York and Palisades, Los Angeles. He was involved in the original competition for Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport and has worked on T5’s process over the last ten years. 

Laurie has been involved in the evolution of design concepts for many of RRP’s masterplan projects including the Coin Street Development and the Royal Academy Exhibition ‘London as it could be’ in 1986 (which also featured Norman Foster and James Stirling).  The aim of this latter project was to halt the further decline of London’s pedestrian network, revitalise the River Thames and break the isolation of the South Bank.

Other masterplans include the strategic plan for The Royal Docks – a key development in London’s Docklands that marked the beginning of RRP’s reputation for urban planning, as well as a major development of the Pu Dong financial district in Shanghai. Laurie has worked on masterplan projects for Val d’Oise in France, as well as for Viareggio, Castello, and currently Scandicci, all in Italy. More recent UK schemes include East Manchester and Newcastle upon Tyne. In addition, he has been developing research projects on working models for strategic interactive masterplanning.

Laurie was also closely involved in many aspects of the preparation of the Urban Task Force report, Towards an Urban Renaissance, chaired by Richard Rogers and published in 1999.

Date Joined RRP: 1977
Date Director at RRP: 1992
Education: RIBA (Hon. Fellow)
Date and Place of Birth: Danbury, Essex, 1940