About me
I am Principal Lecturer in Architecture at the School of Architecture + Cities and the Director of the Fabrication Lab at DCDI. I have taught at the University of Westminster since 2011. I was previously educated at University College London (BSc (Hons) First Class in Psychology 1995; PhD in Social Psychology 2000; DipArch and MArch Architecture 2011), and the University of Westminster (BA (Hons) First Class in Architecture 2007).
My research interests are in the use of new technologies as media for architectural design and the construction of the built environment. I teach a MArch Design Studio with Richard Difford and Francois Girardin, as well as leading design and fabrication workshops across the School of Architecture of Cities.
I have been the Director of the Fabrication Lab for the College of Design, Creative and Digital Industries for 10 years, developing it from a 100m2 digital workshop to a 1500m2 specialist Lab encompassing a diverse range of new analogue and digital technologies. The Lab operates as an innovative platform for a wide-ranging teaching, research, and knowledge exchange activities and projects, with a multi-disciplinary team of 40 staff and trained Lab Assistants.
Teaching
I teach on the core MArch Design module as a design studio tutor. The studio has explored the design of various complex environments including factories and ports, with a particular focus on the potential impact of technologies on both what is designed and the processes used to create architecture.
At undergraduate level I teach a number of core short-burst teaching workshops introducing fabrication and representation in the context of new technologies and emerging architectural media, as well as coordinating the practical elements of teaching for numerous modules from the School of Architecture and Cities and School of Applied Management.
Research
My research is based in the Fabrication Lab and includes three main areas: learning through making; automated manufacturing; embedded systems and the Internet of things. The Lab has been a centre for nearly 10 years for experimentation in novel ways of introducing creative technologies in higher education, involving new training courses, short-burst teaching festivals and three international fabrication festivals. I have simultaneously been developing the Lab as centre for investigated small-scale automated manufacturing, with a view to democratising digital fabrication tools and opening high-quality design-led architecture to a wider audience. Finally, the Lab serves as a platform for exploring the next generation of applications for embedded systems in the built environment and for further exploiting the possibilities of the Internet of things.
Publications
For details of all my research outputs, visit my WestminsterResearch profile.