Richard Paxton was born in 1956. Having studied architecture at
Kingston University, he went to work in the offices of Ahrends, Burton
& Koralek, where he was involved in the design of the Cummins
Diesel Factory in Scotland. In 1985 he established his own practice with his future
wife, Heidi Locher, who had formerly worked for Terence Conran.

Paxton
Locher designed the Soho Theatre and the
Jerwood Space in Southwark, but they are revered in particular for the imaginative domestic projects
they have undertaken both for themselves and for distinguished clients
(including Douglas Adams and Griff Rhys Jones).

Notable among them is this apartment on Corsica Street, which they designed for their own use as part of the conversion of a former industrial building in the 1990s. The building was divided into
a number of units, and the architects took this penthouse for
themselves. With its dramatic space and internal swimming pool, it
quickly became one of the most iconic apartments of its time.

In an article about Paxton Locher inGrand Designs, Kevin McCloud wrote: “…above all else, what impresses me is how
Richard [Paxton] understood the idea of enclosure. For him walls didn’t exist to
support the roof but to provide shelter and comfort. He knew how to
articulate the shapes in a building to make you feel relaxed, nurtured
and protected so that when, with a flourish, the roof opened, you
didn’t cower in he wind but felt instead kissed by a breeze. He
understood that great Corbusian truth, that the business of
architecture is to create relationships: with a building, with people
and with the world at large.”

In 2002, Paxton designed another house for his family and offices in a Primrose Hill
mews. When he died in March
2006, he was working on yet another home, a low-energy building in Hampstead designed in conjunction
with the renowned engineer Max Fordham.

Kenneth Powell wrote an obituary on Paxton for theIndependent, saying: "Like other architects of his generation, Paxton was preoccupied with
the issue of how new and old could be made to work together to
regenerate the city. He was adept at realising the potential of
difficult sites that would have defeated the typical developer. His
early death means that we shall never know how these talents might have
been put into practice on a larger canvas."