Christopher Blust

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT CHRISTOPHER BLUST

Chris provides 16+ years’ experience and was highlighted as Building Magazine\'s 40 under 40 class of 2025. As a Design Director he contributes a broad strategic expertise from across AKT II’s global portfolio: from the unprecedented restoration at Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings, and the forthcoming retrofit of London’s New Zealand House, to the iconic new Zayed National Museum in Abu Dhabi.In western England, Chris has overseen the transformative heritage regeneration at Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings: the world’s first iron-framed building. The project has received a plethora of awards, including the prestigious European Heritage Europa Nosta Award in Conservation and Adaptive Reuse. Across his varied contexts he’s been championing the maximum reuse of each site’s existing structure – applying a ‘first principles’ approach – to help drive a unified AEC response to the climate crisis.Internationally, Chris has recently completed overseeing the landmark new Ismaili Centre in Houston, having also worked on the Zayed National Museum in Abu Dhabi as well as the new Central Bank of Iraq in Baghdad. Recently, Chris has begun contributing to the transformation of the former Ku Klux Klan auditorium in Fort Worth, where repurposing a monument to hate will become a beacon of truth-telling, reparative justice, and liberation.At the micro scale, Chris has had a leading role in delivering many iconic jewels around the world. This includes the thin white precast spiralling ribbon of the Duke of York Restaurant on Kings Road, London, and the innovative ribbed CLT biophilic structure at Maggies Yorkshire in Leeds. Recently, Chris was announced as joint winners for the inaugural AlMusalla Architectural Prize for conceiving a demountable, and materially experimental scheme where date palm frond waste is used innovatively in the structure and is spared from going to landfill. The award winning design will be showcased at the 2025 Islamic Biennale in Jeddah.