PROMINENT Winchester architect Robert Adam has left the firm he founded.

Mr Adam has opened a new firm, called Robert Adam Architectural Consultancy.

He says this will give him a platform for independent design work and will allow him to pursue his creative interests alongside his academic and publishing work.

He is one of the best-known architects in Britain working in a classical style, and his designs, houses, offices, public building, have been built across the country. over the years he has frequently clashed with modernist architects, with Mr Adam arguing that traditional design is still highly relevant and desirable.

Mr Adam will carry on working on projects with ADAM Architecture and looks forward to keeping up a friendly and productive relationship with his former colleagues.

Mr Adam, who lives in Crawley, said: “Retirement is not a good thing for architects, why discard over 50 years of experience? This is a new chapter in my career. I look forward to working without the burdens of a large practice but still able to take on new design and consultancy projects. I can continue to design, which has always been at the centre of my life, and also spend time on academic research, writing and charitable activities."

He has just published, Time for Architecture: on modernity, memory and time in architecture and urban design, with Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

He is a visiting professor of urban design at the University of Strathclyde.

Mr Adam is continuing to masterplan a new town in Sussex, an urban extension for Nottingham, two major country houses in Yorkshire, country houses in Perthshire, Sussex and Hampshire, and a new villa in Hamburg.

Adam Architecture, formerly Robert Adam Architects, Winchester Design and Evans Roberts and Partners, is one of the largest professional firms in Winchester.

Since its re-formation by Mr Adam in 1992, it became the largest architectural firm in Europe specialising in traditional design.

He will continue to work with ADAM Architecture alongside his own design and consultancy work.