Biography

I was born in London in 1956, but raised and schooled in north west Essex. Since the age of sixteen, apart from a brief spell on the north Yorkshire moors, I have lived in London. My working life has been centred around making buildings and furniture, and some theatre. First I worked as a labourer, then respectively as a steel fabricator, carpenter, maintenance manager for a community arts theatre, set designer and builder, and then as a furniture designer and maker. For the last 18 years I have been an architect, a designer of ‘things and places’. For the last ten years Duncan Kramer and I have worked together; a wonderful stroke of good fortune. Our joint practice is firmly grounded in making and, what should be at the core for all designers, enabling.

I have a diploma in independent study (art and politics of engineering) and a degree in Architecture. I love doing useful work and being with good people, both of which I’m fortunate to do. I live in Hackney with Lucy Bristow and our two sons Orin and Gabriel. I’d be a very happy man if I earned a bit more money.

Material

Material is a multidisciplinary design and production group founded some ten years ago by Duncan Kramer and Dan Monck. Our work is designing furniture, exhibitions, and buildings, both in whole and in part. At the heart of our ethos is a close affinity with making.

Material’s concerns are:

• understanding the client
• ensuring functional needs are met
• achieving elegant and sustainable solutions
• the need for good collaboration between client, designers, and producers
• maintaining a critical debate on practice and product.