EP 025516 June 2026 · 49 min
A KPF Director's Honest Advice for Young Architects
49:01
What does it really take to build a long-term architecture career inside a global practice?
About this conversation
Stephen Drew speaks with Francesco Casella, Director at KPF, about career growth, working at scale, and what young architecture professionals can learn from staying, developing and leading inside one major studio.
The conversation covers:
How to get hired by large architecture practices
What helps Part 2s, Part 3s and early-career designers stand out
The value of staying with one firm and building trust over time
Topics in this episode
Transcript
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Opening of the conversation
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- · Stephen Drew
Stephen Drew
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Architecture Social show there. On this episode I am talking to an architect who is director of the London practice of Cpaf. Now, this is a large company that we might have seen in America, in London, but this architect in particular also has a journey to how they got here. And we're going to learn together all of the cool bits and all the tips and tricks that this person has learned. So hopefully we can swipe and deploy them into our own careers as well. So on that note, I have the fantastic Francesco Casella, who is a director at Kpf. Francesco, how are you, my friend? Are you okay?
- · Francesco Casella
Francesco Casella
Very good. Thank you, Steven, and thank you for having me.
KPF projects
The work behind the conversation.
London, United Kingdom
One Crown Place
A mixed-use Hackney city block combines new homes, workplaces and hospitality with the careful reuse of Georgian, Victorian and 1970s buildings.
View project →London, United Kingdom · 2024
One Nine Elms
Two slender mixed-use towers bring homes, a Park Hyatt hotel, amenities and an active public plaza to the Nine Elms riverfront.
View project →
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