It’s a familiar story. A talented young architect gets to work for a big national firm. He or she gains valuable experience and knowledge about how architecture is done at a high level, but becomes frustrated at being only a small cog in a big machine. They leave and set up a precarious practice on their own in a shared space in a back street, helped by income from part-time teaching. They win some bigger commissions, and gradually prosper. At least it’s a familiar story in London. Not so much in Birmingham, where opportunities to prosper are fewer.

…