Hot fifty – John McAslan Family Trust

Architect John McAslan is behind the John McAslan Family Trust, which supports projects largely relating to young people in the arts and education, as well as film, TV, music, dance, drama and sport.

UK initiatives include the annual RIBA/ICE McAslan Bursary, which votes one or more bursaries of up to £10 000 to support emerging architects and engineers, individually or in teams, for projects that enhance the quality of life within a local community. Ideally, the projects have an environmental or ecological focus and bursary recipients are expected to contribute 25 per cent of project costs from other sources.

It has also worked with organisations such as the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Society of Arts in London, as well as the Christopher Place speech, language & hearing centre and the New Horizon Youth Centre.

Outside the UK, the charitable trust has initiated or supported projects in Mumbai, in India, and Morocco, for example, working to provide shelter for children or adults in need.

McAslan’s architectural practice John McAslan & Partners has an international reputation for quality work. Projects in the design arena include the reconfiguring of the Peter Jones department store in London’s Sloane Square and the restoration of the Modernist De La Warr Pavilion at Bexhill-on-Sea.