Andrew Whalley

Early life

Whalley was born in Elizabeth, South Australia, the son of an electronics engineer at the Woomera Test Range. At an early age he moved to Connecticut, United States of America where his father worked on the UGM-27 Polaris Project. He moved to Dollar, Scotland in 1970 and was educated at Dollar Academy. His architectural education started at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow, in 1980. He was taught in his final year by professor Robin Webster and he joined his practice Spence and Webster in 1983. He worked there until 1986, when he left to attend the Diploma School at The Architectural Association School of Architecture, London.

Career

Whalley joined Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners, now Grimshaw Architects, in 1986, immediately after completing his education. He worked with Jan Kaplicky on the firm's first exhibition and catalogue Practice Product and Process. The exhibition opened in January 1988 in the Florence Hall of the Royal Institute of British Architects and displayed large models and full size building components along with drawings and photographs. Shortly after the exhibition, the firm was selected to design the Waterloo International railway station, which was awarded the Royal Institute of British Architects President's Building of the Year Award in 1994.

In 1990, Whalley, along with Fiona Galbraith and Chris McCarthy, designed a new type of roof structure which was featured in architectural magazines. It was included in their shortlisted entry in a contest for design of the Glasgow Eurodome, but was not the final selection.

IN 2003, Whalley was a presenter at the "Performative Architecture: Instrumentality Plus?" symposium at the University of Pennsylvania.

Whalley was one of the lead architects on he Eden Project, a botanical garden housed under two large domes.

As well as building architecture, Whalley has also designed interiors and furniture.