In the studio with Chris Wilkinson RA

The dome of St Paul’s spans the skyline, with the near spire of St James’s Clerkenwell, and further away the echoing, tapered point of the Shard, uniting old London and new. For an architect, or for anyone, Chris Wilkinson RA has a dream outlook from the windows of his fourth-floor office. Without preamble, the view alone takes us straight to the heart of what it means to be a world-leading architect in the 21st century. Tradition and change, familiarity and innovation, the challenges and conflicts these present, are all there at a glance.

Tall, lean, in white shirt and black trousers that match the practice’s functionally elegant monochrome surroundings, Wilkinson has an air of level-headedness and clarity – essential for someone who, as the new RA Treasurer, oversees the Royal Academy’s finances. These have become more complicated, he explains, with the development of Burlington Gardens, "bringing with it an enlarged campus, more space, more staff".

He doesn’t dodge issues. "We’re in the Anthropocene", he says, using the climate scientists’ current buzzword. "We’re in an age in which, for the first time, man has the ability to destroy the planet. As architects we have to face up to the environmental responsibilities. Sustainability, looking at the implications of what we build, has always been an aspect of our work. More than 50 per cent of the world’s population now live in cities. Do we build towers, or do we spread out over the land? I’d say we have to build up."

At 103 storeys, the spectacular, subtly curvaceous glass Guangzhou International Finance Center (2010), his first commission in China, remains one of the country’s highest buildings.

His practice WilkinsonEyre has other tall projects in Toronto, Sydney and the City of London, but finding new purpose for pre-existing, often iconic, structures is central to the practice. Gasholders London (2018) is a residential development created within original Victorian iron gas-holder frames.

Perhaps his most eye-catching redevelopment of all is Battersea Power Station, originally by Giles Gilbert Scott RA.

"Battersea has had a long history of people trying to develop it. It’s had bigger problems than anyone foresaw. The [listed] external walls and towers remain but there was a lengthy process of removing asbestos. And the chimneys were rotting and damaged by pollution." The project, scheduled for completion in 2021, provides specialist retail and office space (the base for Apple’s European HQ) alongside homes. A huge roof-scape edged by town houses is, in Wilkinson’s works, "like a London square, with a garden in the middle, but high above the ground."

An only child with a talent for drawing, Wilkinson decided he wanted to be an architect in his early teens. "I was at the cathedral school in St Albans, and always loved going into that building. My father was a surveyor. Among his friends I always found the architects to be the most interesting!"

After completing his architectural studies in 1970 he worked with Norman Foster RA at Foster Associates – "I was very lucky. They were trail blazers" – before going on to work with prominent British architects from the generation ahead of him, including Michael Hopkins RA and Richard Rogers RA. They provided collegiate support when, aged 38, Wilkinson set up his own practice, then partnering with Jim Eyre in 1987 and renaming the company WilkinsonEyre in 1999. "In the early days Richard and Michael passed work on – architects look after each other."

His first big break was Stratford Market Depot, part of the Jubilee Line extension, in 1991.

Dyson Research and Development Campus, Malmesbury...

and Kew Gardens.

"It was a period of 'doing things', which opened exciting opportunities for architecture. The risks weren’t quite the same as they are now. It’s a lot harder."

Wilkinson’s architecture may be at the cutting edge of innovation but he still believes in the importance of drawing. He paints, too, working in acrylic on canvas, his renewed interest prompted in part by his wife, Diana Edmunds. "Diana studied art as a mature student at Camberwell and loved it so much that I started drawing more too. It brought me back to fine art, and it helps the way I see and remember buildings.”

He published a book of his drawings, The Sketchbooks of Chris Wilkinson, in 2015.

Drawing is vital to his working life in every respect, and his Zen activity. "Compared to what I do all day in an office, it takes me somewhere else. It’s too easy for architects to become too immersed in technical issues. Using computers is a huge bonus, but for me drawing is a way of working through ideas. I need to draw in order to design. It’s central to the creative process. It makes me look."

Hear more from architects at the Royal Academy.