Piers Gough co-founded his own architectural practice while he was still at college, at the age of only twenty-two.
He made his name during the redevelopment of London’s Docklands, though you can also see his work in Liverpool (the golden “bling bling” building), in Nottingham, where he built a centre for Maggie’s cancer charity, and in Glasgow, where he designed the masterplan for the redevelopment of the Gorbals.
He’s won numerous awards for his buildings, not least for his bright-green triangular public lavatory in London’s Westbourne Grove.
And six of his buildings have been listed by English Heritage, protected for posterity.
He’s been president of the Architectural Association, he’s a Royal Academician... which all sounds steady enough, but trying to sum up his style, the Architects Journal said: “One’s never certain whether one is in a town house, a country house, a castle, or a gigantic piece of sculpture.”