Architect goes into red after work on Saudi scheme put on hold
Bjarke Ingels Group’s UK business has plummeted to a £4.2m loss following its biggest project being put on hold, resulting in a wave of redundancies.
More than half of the firm’s London office had been working on the scheme in Saudi Arabia following a hiring push after the firm was awarded the job in February 2024.
But the practice was told by its client last November that the work had been halted.
BIG’s UK arm has now posted its accounts for the year to 31 December 2025, revealing it slumped from a profit of £3m in 2024 to a loss of £4.2m last year despite increasing its revenue over the period from £28m to £32m.
In its business review for the year, the firm said its results had been “negatively affected by the unexpected pause of the company’s largest contract resulting in financial losses and the need for reductions in headcount”.
It said the stoppage on the Saudi project had created a “challenging end” to the financial year and its operations in the Middle East continued to be affected by a “general depression” in the region in the first months of 2026.
The firm, whcih was behind the Serpentine Pavilion in 2016, also said its business in the region had been weighed down by the complexity of working across multiple jurisdictions and cross-border tax frameworks, which it said it expected to “remain an area of complexity going forward”.
While it said it remains confident in its ability to operate successfully across international markets, the firm said its “current focus is centred less on rapid expansion and more on the quality of our architectural output, organizational resilience, and operational effectiveness”.
The office handed out no dividend payments in the year after paying out more than £7.3m in 2024.
BIG has been contacted for comment.
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