In 2000, Alsop won the Stirling Prize, the most prestigious architecture award in the United Kingdom, for the Peckham Library in London.

When he was 16 his father, an accountant, died, and being bored with school, at the private Eaglehurst College[2] he left to work for an architect, doing his A-levels at evening classes.

[3] He worked briefly for Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew, a couple who had been instrumental in introducing modernism to Britain in the 1930s, then joined Cedric Price for four years.

[5][6][7] Alsop's first major commission was a swimming pool for Sheringham in Norfolk in 1984, followed by a visitor centre for Cardiff Bay.

The building, now considered a major work of late 20th century architecture and a Marseille landmark,[8] nicknamed Le Grand Bleu,[3] was designed by Alsop and Störmer, and developed its visual identity through the design process in collaboration with the architectural artist Brian Clarke,[9] with the completed building externally clad in Yves Klein blue glass, with one elevation formed of a 1,200 m2 artwork by Clarke screenprinted in ceramic glaze onto the facade.

[13] Alsop admitted to never being very good at handling finances, and his practice went through several difficult periods, including the cancellation in June 2004 of plans to build a "Fourth Grace" to be built on Liverpool's Pier Head waterfront.

[14] In early 2006, Alsop sold his practice to a design conglomerate called the SMC Group to concentrate on architecture.

Before Alsop begins to work on a new project, he uses painting to clear his mind, think freely and create an uncontaminated design approach.

"[19]For him, the act of painting together with working closely with the client and the local community are necessary ingredients in urban design and architecture.

Alsop featured significantly in Iain Sinclair's book Ghost Milk (2011), especially the chapter "In the belly of the architect".

The book is a critique – written using the literary technique of psychogeography – of the capital used to drive through vanity planning projects such as the London Olympics, and Alsop's unbuilt planning projects in the north of England, such as Supercity, are seen as typical of these, where the architect fantasizes about how architectural design solves social and economic problems.

[21] Alsop's architectural talents may be the subject of controversy built up an international reputation and a degree of celebrity and professional recognition, described by the Observer as "number three in the hierarchy of British architects after Lords Rogers and Foster".

[36] Alsop also conducted a series of workshops with psychiatric patients at London's St Charles, Chelsea and Westminster hospitals, creating large communal artworks.

Major Exhibitions: Alsop and his wife lived between an Edwardian mansion flat in London and a converted stable block in Norfolk.