RIBA Chartered Architect and Practice Director offers tutoring in design, technical, visualisation and representation, theory and dissertation support, and professional practice, based in London.

Find out more about David

• When did you develop an interest in your chosen field and in private tutoring?

  As a child I was always building things, mostly with Lego, and my dad is an engineer, so I grew up around conversations about how things are designed and put together. At school I studied Fine Art, which gave me the creative side. Architecture brought those two interests together, the making and the art, and I have stayed with it through three degrees and more than 15 years in practice. Teaching started during my MA at Leicester, when I worked part-time as a studio tutor. I found I enjoyed it as much as design work itself, partly because explaining an idea to someone else is the quickest way to understand it properly yourself. Now that I run my own practice, tutoring is how I keep that connection with education alive.

• Tell us more about the subject you teach, the topics you like to discuss with students (and possibly those you like a little less).

  I teach architecture in the broadest sense: design development, technical drawing, visualisation, theory and dissertations, portfolios and professional practice. My favourite conversations are about how an idea survives contact with reality, from planning and budgets to how a building is actually put together, because that is where students often feel least confident and where practice experience helps most. I also enjoy working with existing buildings, which make up much of my own work and are full of interesting constraints. What I enjoy least is software taught for its own sake. Tools matter, but I would always rather teach them through a real project than through isolated exercises.

• Did you have any role models; a teacher that inspired you?

  The teacher who influenced me most was Dalibor Vesely, who taught me architectural theory. He saw architecture as part of a wider culture, shaped by how people live, gather and give meaning to places, rather than as a set of technical problems or visual styles. He was critical of design that becomes purely instrumental, where efficiency and technique crowd out what a building is actually for. That has stayed with me throughout my career, and it is something I try to pass on to students: a good design needs a clear idea of the life it supports, not just a convincing image. I have also learned a great deal from the architects I worked for early on, who showed me how much care goes into the parts of a project nobody sees.

• What do you think are the qualities required to be a good tutor?

  Honesty matters most, delivered with care. Students need to know clearly what is and is not working, but feedback is only useful if they leave knowing what to do next. A good tutor also listens before advising, because the real problem is often not the one the student brought in. Patience matters too, especially in architecture, where students are learning to think in a new way as well as acquiring skills. Finally, a tutor should know the subject from practice and not only from books, so they can explain why things are done the way they are.

• Provide a valuable anecdote related to your subject or your days at school.

  During my MA, I was tutoring undergraduates at the same time as completing my own studies. In the same week I could be presenting my work at a crit and then sitting on the other side of the table reviewing theirs. It taught me how differently work reads from each side. Things I thought were obvious in my own drawings were often invisible to the people reviewing them. I still use that lesson with students today: your portfolio or presentation has to make sense to someone who was not in your head while you designed it.

• What were the difficulties or challenges you faced or still facing in your subject?

  Architecture asks you to be creative, technical, commercial and diplomatic all at once, and nobody is equally strong in every area. For me, the challenge early on was bridging the gap between the conceptual work valued at university and the detailed, regulated reality of delivering buildings. Running a practice brings new challenges, such as balancing design time with management and keeping pace with changes in regulation, technology and the profession itself, including the current reform of how architects qualify. These are the same tensions students face, which is why I talk about them openly.

• Do you have a particular passion? Is it teaching in general or an element of the subject or something completely different?

  Within architecture, my passion is existing buildings: finding the hidden potential in a place and giving it a new life, rather than starting from a blank site. It is careful, inventive work that draws on both sides of my early interests, understanding how something is built and imagining what it could become. Much of my practice’s work is built around it. Drawing remains a constant, both by hand and digitally, as it is still the way I think through a problem. Teaching sits alongside both, because helping someone see their own work more clearly is one of the most satisfying parts of what I do.

• What makes you a Superprof (besides answering these interview questions :-P)?

  I bring the perspective of someone who is still practising, not just someone who has studied architecture. As a RIBA Chartered architect and practice director, I deal every week with design, planning, technical detail, contracts and clients, so I can show students how their work connects to the profession they are entering. I tailor each session to the student’s own project and deadlines, give feedback that is honest and actionable, and I genuinely want students to leave each lesson more confident than when they arrived.