They set up a studio and designed a pub for which they won the Best New Pub design award in 1999. This set architects Stephen Bates and Jonathan Sergison on a path designing public buildings. Now, their studio, Sergison Bates, has 35 team members who work on major urban projects all across Europe. These include, for example, the transformation of a former Citroën factory and showroom in the heart of Brussels into a museum of modern and contemporary art. But they are also exploring a number of different housing models capable of addressing the new needs that come hand in hand with the shifting social demographics of our time. In addition to some large-scale residential projects in London, Brussels, Paris, Zurich, Antwerp and Munich, they have recently completed a care campus in Flanders and sheltered housing which provides specialised care for residents with early-onset dementia. In his Urban Talks lecture entitled Figures, Doors and Passages, Stephen Bates will discuss the philosophy behind the studio's architecture.