HISTORY - The Beginnings
ACP started with two small basement rooms in Bloomsbury just before the Second World War and registered the name Architects Co-operative Partnership in 1939. The eleven founders had just finished their 5-year course at the Architectural Association.
The war overtook the fledgling ACP with the partners soon absorbed by other occupations. Nevertheless one partner, an American citizen, was able to continue work in England as architect to Enfield Cables, which was to bear unforeseen fruit when the war in Europe ended.
The notion of working together as a group came naturally to the founders of ACP. They rejected the concept of the architect as prima donna dominating the supporting cast, and they thought a combination of like-minded architects on an equal footing could examine problems more deeply, cover a greater range of expertise and produce more rational and efficient solutions.
ACP’s founding partners were committed to the modern international movement in architecture and to creating buildings that were socially relevant and enhanced the environment in which they stood; values that the practice still holds today.
