Stelio Papastylianos

Director and Co-Founder

BEng(Hons), CENg, MICE

Prior to the creation of Agentia, Stelio spent 6 years as the Managing Director of AKT II. Working with Gerry, co-founder of Agentia, and the rest of the senior team at AKT II, he not only steered the ship through the incredible pressures of Covid, but led it to new highs.

During this period the practice not only survived, but thrived growing turnover, staffing levels, profitability, and taking the practice to new highs by diversifying both in disciplines and geographic locations. Stelio had final responsibility for all decisions in relation to business strategy, quality control, resourcing, training and the well manged running of all projects across all 30 teams and 5 offices.

Stelio was instrumental in the creation of the Geotechnical, Bioclimatic, Wind and Façade specialist teams as well as enabling the opening of new offices in Manchester, Cambridge and Toronto.

Stelio started his career working on site in the late ‘90’s in the Middle East, developing his career from Site Engineer to Project Manager working on prestigious projects for The Kingdom Holding Company in Saudi Arabia and the Four Seasons Luxury Resort in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

Stelio took the reigns at AKT II in 2019, stepping up from his previous role as Group and Project Director. He joined the practice in 2008 starting initially as an Associate. Prior to this he had honed his skills at the coal face in a smaller design consultancy that specialised in complex retrofit work.

Work

Prior to assuming the role of Managing Director at AKT II Stelio was a Project Director on many of the studio’s most complex projects, projects of bewildering diversity.

He has a wealth of experience in City centre office developments, tall buildings, cultural buildings and the retrofit projects. At 100 Liverpool Street and Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings we see exemplar outcomes in what can be achieved when reworking existing buildings. On Liverpool St not only did the improved building deliver 42% additional net area by exploiting every element of latent capacity whilst avoiding the need for costly foundation strengthening, but it was achieved with a laser focus on embodied carbon allowing British Land to deliver the first NetZero Building in their portfolio.

At Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings Stelio led a team achieving one of the most high profile retrofitting projects in the UK. Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings has been referred to as the ‘grandparent of skyscrapers’. When built in 1797, it was the world’s first iron-framed building, a new technology developed to give better fire protection, that paved the way for modern-day buildings such as London’s Shard, New York’s Empire State Building, and Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. As a flagship heritage regeneration project for Historic England, Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings has been brought back to life as an adaptable workspace, leisure destination, and social enterprise hub demonstrating how historic buildings can be sustainably reused after many decades in decline, through understanding, innovation, and a gentle touch to repair of the fabric.

An expert in tall buildings, he has recently delivered 1 Nine Elms, for many reasons one of the most complex tall residential projects the studio has delivered and is the tallest building in the Vauxhall Cluster. Other landmark tall buildings in his portfolio includes the 35 storey tapering Imperial West Tower. It offers both private apartments and accommodation for key workers, such as lecturers, researchers, and trainee doctors, to help attract and retain talent. In commercial offices it is fair to say that 240 Blackfriars sowed the seeds for the transformation of the south side of the river. This angular crystalline building designed by AHMM was a huge success and lifted the bar so that projects like Bankside Yards could be realised (also delivered by AKT II under Stelios MD role)

The recently completed development at Royal Mint Gardens near the Tower of London saw a large mixed use, residential led development constructed over the DLR and Network Rail viaducts carrying tracks to Fenchurch Street Station.

At AKT II, Stelio has collaborated with some of the world’s most prestigious architects, including David Chipperfield, KPF, Norman Foster, AHMM, PLP and Zaha Hadid, on projects that range from small-scale private residential blocks and footbridges, to huge masterplanning and large regeneration projects worth several hundred million pounds.

Having delivered residential, offices, bridges, stations and cultural buildings he has experience in most every typology and is equally deft in dealing with new build and complex retrofit.

Contact Stelio

Email: sp@agentia.design

Call: +44 7907 349898