The millennium dawned in style with the completion of the first Xscape Indoor Real Snow Ski Centre at Milton Keynes. The practice continued its culture of research and innovation and developed a new leisure concept which combined indoor ski facilities with leisure and retail. The "Xscape" ski complex was born. The Milton Keynes project was followed by schemes at Castleford and Braehead.

Chill Factor E at the Trafford Centre in Manchester incorporates a slope which is 180m long by 40m wide making it the longest indoor real snow ski slope in the UK. Other sports and leisure projects include the English Institute of Sport in Manchester which became the fourth FaulknerBrowns' building to be used for the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games and the flagship English Institute for Sport at Sheffield which is a flexible multi-sport venue described by Sport England as one of the country's most impressive indoor sports venues.

Recognising the importance of diversification the practice identified a number of key markets which it felt would broaden its base of expertise. This strategy saw the formation of 'Mentor', with GHM Rock Townsend to deliver the Building Schools for the Future programmes and has delivered success at Leeds and Tameside.

2005 hailed the first British Council for Offices national award for Infolab21 at Lancaster University and the completion of the £140 million manufacturing and assembly plant for the wings of the Airbus A380. Our International portfolio of projects continued to expand with projects in Ireland, The Netherlands, France, Dubai and Malta.