Born in Brighton in 1946, Piers Gough studied at the Architectural Association in London between 1965 and 1971.  After this, he worked alone or with his future partners, before the practice CZWG Architects LLP, was set up in 1975. 

Principal buildings of the practice include: China Wharf, Cascades, The Circle, Wolfe Crescent, Dundee Wharf and Batsons & Regents Wharves all in London’s Docklands; 200 Aztec West; various buildings at Bryanston & Uppingham Schools; the Street-Porter house in London, 66 Vauxhall; Summer’s Street, Soho Lofts, Bankside Lofts, Bankside Studios and The Glass Building in London; the Westbourne Grove Public Lavatories and flower kiosk; new galleries at the National Portrait Gallery; Steedman Street at Elephant & Castle and the ‘Bling Bling’ building at Liverpool One. 

His café at Brindleyplace in Birmingham won a Royal Fine Art Commission & British Sky Broadcasting Building of the Year Award in 1998.  In 1999, theGlassBuilding won a National Homebuilder Design Award for Best New Housing Development of the Year, as did Bankside Lofts in SE1 for Best Restoration and Conversion of an Existing Building, which also won a Civic Trust Award.

In 2001, Piers’ Green Bridge at Mile End Park in East London won an RIBA Award.  In 2003, Fulham Island won the Evening Standard London Lifestyle Award.

The Masterplan for the Gorbals in Glasgow has won universal acclaim as an exemplar of inner city regeneration.  Masterplans for a City Science quarter in Glasgow; Brewery Square, Dorchester; Phoenix Quarter, Lewes; areas around the Arsenal Stadium in Holloway; the Vaux site in Sunderland and Ladbroke Green in Notting Hill Gate have followed. 

Piers has lectured extensively in Europe, North and South America, Australia and China.  He has taught at Middlesex Polytechnic and the Architectural Association School as a Final Year’s Unit Master and in the graduate school and has been a visiting professor at both the Mackintosh School in Glasgow and the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology.  He is a regular contributor to the architectural press, newspapers, magazines, radio and television including ‘Shock of the Old’ series on Channel 4 and has judged a number of architectural competitions. 

Piers was appointed a CBE for services to architecture in the 1998 Queen’s Birthday Honour List.  He was elected a Royal Academician in 2002. 

He is currently a Commissioner of CABE, Design Champion for Kent and a Trustee of Trinity Buoy Wharf. 

He has been the president of the Architectural Association and on its Council from 1990-99, on the Advisory Committee for the London Docklands Development Corporation, Commissioner of English Heritage and on the Cultural Strategy Group of the Greater London Authority.