I am Head of Central Saint Martins and Pro Vice-Chancellor at University of Arts London. Educated in architecture and philosophy, I started out as a practising architect before moving into academia.
All my research has revolved around the social and political conditions of architecture, taking a critical view of architecture as an autonomous discipline defined by aestheticized and technical objects. Instead I have argued for architects to engage with the messy reality of everyday life, and see this as an opportunity and not a threat to self-defined notions of perfection.
This approach has been manifested through built work (notably 9 Stock Orchard Street with Sarah Wigglesworth), exhibitions (i.e. curating the British Pavilion at the 2006 Venice Architecture Biennale) and a sequence of books and articles.