The conversion of Wolverhampton's former Co-operative department store into apartments, a flagship fashion store in the Bullring and a series of inside-out loft apartments in the Jewellery Quarter. The list goes on at one of the region's newest and most creative architecture practices. Kinetic AIU (Architecture, Innovation, Urbanism) was formed in Birmingham in April 2003, through a mutual passion for innovation in architecture and a bias towards imaginative urban regeneration projects.

Having already picked up an array of high-profile commissions, 2004 will see much of their early work come to fruition and firmly establish them as the "ones to watch". The brainchild of directors Bob Ghosh, John Shakeshaft and Michael Young, the Kinetic AlU philosophy is a desire to confront difficult commercial and technical realities, while still retaining a commitment to the avant-garde.

Ghosh, a former director at Glenn Howells Architects (Birmingham), and Young, formerly an associate at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (London), first met at the Leicester School of Architecture in 1984. They remained in contact through their mutual interest in urbanism, before another passion, amateur football, brought them into contact with Shakeshaft, a project leader at Birmingham 's Associated Architects. Within six months of their initial discussions, Kinetic AIU had been formed and already has a prestigious and diverse range of clients.

Those clients include cutting-edge fashion house Allsaints, who chose Kinetic for their flagship store in Birmingham 's Bullring development, and Metropolitan Apartments, who commissioned Kinetic to develop proposals for a series of loft fit-outs including the radical idea of an inside-out loft, which features a fully functioning living environment without the use of conventional walls.

Other successful commissions include the a glazed entrance pavilion for one of London's busiest mosques, as well as the wining entry in a limited design competition for West Properties' high-density River Place in Manchester, featuring 138 apartments and a ground-floor retail unit.

The company's founders argue that their yo'uthful and forward-thinking approach should not detract from their combined 40 years experience. This has seen them work on everything from residential, arts and retail to offices, healthcare and education projects, in locations as far afield as Singapore and Solihull, Warsaw and Walsall. They are encouraged by the level of interest in the practice within such a short timescale, but the aim is to now spread their work internationally, as Ghosh explains. "It is evident that large-scale regeneration is taking place in most UK cities and developers are beginning to embrace cutting-edge ideas in order to maintain their position within the marketplace," he tells Business Property Review. "Our aim is to fuel this process in the UK, as well as further afield. We are in discussion about projects in Asia, USA and Far East, in a bid to spread the Kinetic AIU manifesto on an international level."