As suspected, Will Alsop wasn’t out of the game for long. The foul-mouthed StirlingPrize winner announced less than two months ago thathe was leaving Archial, né SMC, the British architectural conglomerate that had bought up his smallish practice but three years earlier. NowBDreports that Alsop hasteamed up with RMJM, and he will launch an atelier within the international powerhouse based in Battersea called Will Alsop at RMJM. “I like the overall vision they have for the future and the fact that it’s really global,” Allsp toldBD. “In Archial, the only international bit was me.”

Indeed, RMJM has been on a bit of a tear lately, including a big push stateside when it acquired Princeton-based Hillier in 2007. AsBDnotes, they have been teaming up with renowned architects of late, includinga project with Frank Gehryfor Glasgow Metropolitan College—that job was won by Atkins, though Archial was also bidding—and “a number of undisclosed projects” with Jean Nouvel. The strategy could backfire, however, as it might subordinate RMJM’s generally successful work. Says aBDsource: “I know they’ve been talking about working with a number of big names but it seems rather strange in that they have been pushing this notion that they are a number one design practice in their own right… a firm that can already compete with the Fosters of this world.”