Terry Farrell, architect who designed MI6 building, dies

"Farrells, the architecture practice he founded, announced his death "with deep sadness", saying: "Terry was frequently called a maverick, radical and a non-conformist which he relished." His typical building style was post-modernist, exuberant and playful, with his famous commissions including London's MI6 building and the headquarters for ITV's 1980s breakfast show TV-am, with giant breakfast eggcups perched on the roof."

"In 1980 they parted and Farrell established his own practice. His breakthrough came in 1982 with the headquarters for TV-am in a repurposed canalside warehouse in north London's Camden. It was colourful and over-the-top, full of witty references to the architecture of the past, like a pastiche of a Japanese temple, a Mesopotamian ziggurat (temple tower) and a massive cartoon cutout keystone, suspended in a skeletal arch of brightly coloured tubula"

Sir Terry Farrell (1938–2025) was a British architect known for post-modernist, exuberant and playful buildings. Major commissions included London's MI6 building and the ITV TV-am headquarters with giant breakfast eggcups. He trained in the 1960s influenced by American modernism, then practiced with Nicholas Grimshaw producing sleek, hi‑tech minimal buildings like an aluminium-clad north London block. Farrell split from Grimshaw in 1980 and formed Farrells, moving toward ornamented pastiche and urbanist projects. The TV-am canalside warehouse (1982) showcased colorful references to historical forms. Farrell maintained a commitment to urbanism that influenced government policy. He died aged 87.

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