Hawkins\Brown

About Hawkins\Brown

Hawkins\Brown is a British architecture practice founded in 1988 by Roger Hawkins and Russell Brown, who set out with the explicit intention of building a practice that could be a force for good. The studio works across the United Kingdom and Ireland and describes its purpose in a single line: it creates buildings that tell stories about people.

The practice frames its architecture as socially and contextually driven, summarising the position as serious about society and human about architecture. Its projects engage with community engagement, new ways of working, research, sustainability, mixed uses, culture, new buildings, retrofit and the public realm.

From District to Doorknob

Hawkins\Brown uses the phrase from district to doorknob to describe the range of scales at which it operates. That covers masterplanning and urban regeneration at one end and detailed component design at the other, and it reflects a practice that treats the fine grain of a building as continuous with the wider place it sits in rather than as a separate exercise.

Project work spans housing, higher and further education, workplace, civic buildings, transport and culture, with named schemes including the University of Central Lancashire campus, Park Hill in Sheffield, Waltham Forest Town Hall, East Croydon, Kings Stables Road in Edinburgh, Tiger Way, Burridge Gardens and Hilton House.

Employee Ownership

Since 2021 Hawkins\Brown has been 100 per cent employee-owned. Every colleague is a co-owner, and the practice argues this keeps the business fresh and accountable. Governance runs through an employee council whose peer-elected members act as a conduit between staff and the trust board, operations board and design exchange, debating everything from design process and diversity to day-to-day operational matters.

B Corp Certification and Fair Work

The practice is a Certified B Corporation, part of a global community of businesses meeting high standards of social and environmental impact, accountability and transparency. Hawkins\Brown links the certification directly back to its founding intent in 1988, and publishes its B Impact Score openly.

It is also a signatory to the Scottish Government's Fair Work First policy, aligning its internal policies with the seven Fair Work First themes, and publishes gender pay gap reports.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Five employee advocacy groups operate within the practice, each with a defined remit. Wellbeing focuses on personal growth and physical and mental health. &everyone works to broaden access to the architectural profession by engaging with young people. ED&I celebrates diversity within the practice and across the industry. HB\REACH concentrates on increasing ethnic diversity in the profession. HB\LGBTQ+ brings together LGBTQ+ colleagues and allies around an open and inclusive practice.

Net Zero and Carbon

Hawkins\Brown has measured its Scope 1, 2 and 3 carbon footprint since 2019, progressively improving accuracy and coverage. The practice is registered with the Science Based Targets initiative and has committed to cutting Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 90 per cent by 2030, and total emissions including Scope 3 to a 1.5 degree trajectory by 2050 or sooner. It has additionally guaranteed to purchase carbon removals annually to maintain carbon neutrality while working toward net zero, and publishes a carbon reduction plan.

Crucially, the commitment extends beyond the practice's own operations to the carbon footprint of its designs, with targets set and emissions monitored at project level.

Why Hawkins\Brown Matters to the AEC Industry

Hawkins\Brown is one of the clearest UK examples of a design practice building accountability into its structure rather than its marketing. Full employee ownership, B Corp certification, published pay gap and carbon data, and an elected employee council together form a governance model that other practices increasingly study. Its combined strength in retrofit, housing and education also places it squarely in the sectors where UK demand is concentrated, and its district-to-doorknob framing offers a useful way of thinking about continuity between urban strategy and construction detail.