Deborah Saunt

Deborah Saunt ARB, RIBA, PhD, is an Australian-born British architect, urban designer and academic. She co-founded the London-based architecture, urban design and spatial research studio DSDHA with David Hills.

Deborah Saunt
Born
New South Wales
Alma materUniversity of Cambridge
OccupationArchitect
Spouse(s)David Hills
PracticeDSDHA

Saunt “has always looked beyond the confines of the building” in high-profile spatial strategies, urban masterplans and public realm projects [1]. She is active in the democratisation of architecture and the celebrating the role of women in the profession, setting up the Jane Drew Prize in Architecture [2] and co-founding the London School of Architecture, where she is now a Trustee [3]. The LSA focuses on reimagining the way architecture is taught and practiced.

She gained her PhD with the RMIT Practice Research Programme, was awarded a Fellowship in the Built Environment from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851[4] and has held academic appointments at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne and the University of Cambridge. In 2020, she will be the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor of Architectural Design at the Yale School of Architecture.

She is a commissioner for the Independent Transport Commission [5],a member of the Expert Advisory Group for Historic England, a Board Member of the City Property Association [6], and was a jury panel member for the international competition to re-imagine London’s Grosvenor Square [7]. She has lectured at the Royal Academy of Art [8] and regularly broadcasts on architecture and her belief in the broadest participation in city-making.

She has been included in Forbes 500 and in Evening Standard’s Progress 1000 of the most influential people in London [9].

Early life and education

Saunt was born in New South Wales, Australia,[10] and grew up in Kenya and England.[11] She attended Heriot-Watt University/Edinburgh College of Art and the University of Cambridge.[12]

Career

Saunt's first architectural work was with van Heyningen and Haward followed by a role in the early 1990s on the British Library in London under Colin St John Wilson and MJ Long. She later worked for MJ Long’s own practice, Long and Kentish, before starting to teach in 1997 at the Architectural Association School of Architecture, the Royal College of Art and at the University of Cambridge. She also worked for Tony Fretton.

Saunt established DSDHA with David Hills. With DSDHA, Saunt has designed a flat-iron building for Bosideng on South Molton Street, a residential block for the Riverside development on the Greenwich Peninsula, an Olympic Village block in East Village, a studio-gallery for Edmund de Waal in West Norwood, and a jewellery studio for Alex Monroe in Bermondsey. In 2009, DSDHA’s St Anne’s SureStart Centre in Colchester was nominated for the EU Mies Van der Rohe Award [13]. Saunt and Hills designed a new building for Christ's College in Guildford, for which they were shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize in 2010.[14]

Exchange Square

In 2018, DSDHA completed the refurbishment of the Economist Plaza in London, designed by Alison and Peter Smithson [15] and now renamed in honour of the couple. Ongoing work includes a new building on Piccadilly for The Crown Estate[16], the Cundy Street Quarter, a new 2.4-acre neighbourhood in Westminster [17] , the redesign of the public realm around the Royal Albert Hall [18], and a new park for the City of London[19].

References
  1. "Free Spirits". RIBA Journal. February 2015. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  2. "Jane Drew Prize Launches with Wit and Affection". Architects Journal. January 1998. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  3. "People". Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  4. "Her Majesty The Queen officially opens the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Steps at the Royal Albert Hall". November 2013. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  5. "Commission Members". Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  6. "Our People". Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  7. "International call for ideas to re-imagine London's Grosvenor Square". June 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  8. "Freedom and creativity symposium". November 2015. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  9. "The Progress 1000: London's most influential people 2019 – Business: Property". October 2019. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  10. Bevan, Robert (18 November 2014). "Designs on London: how architectural couple Deborah Saunt and David Hills plan to put their imprint on significant chunks of the capital". London Evening Standard. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  11. "Deborah Saunt". Icon. October 2005. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  12. Glancey, Jonathan (3 December 2004). "Concrete achievements". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  13. "St Anne's Community & Sure Start Centre". 2009. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  14. Stockley, Philippa (1 October 2012). "London's top architects: Deborah Saunt". Homes & Property. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  15. "The Smithsons' Economist Plaza renovation by DSDHA is revealed". Wallpaper*. June 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  16. "DSDHA wins approval to rebuild office in London's Piccadilly". Architects' Journal. April 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  17. "Creating Cundy Street Quarter: Deborah Saunt, spatial strategist". July 2010. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  18. "Her Majesty The Queen officially opens the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Steps at the Royal Albert Hall". November 2013. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  19. "DSDHA submits plans for park at Broadgate". Architects' Journal. March 2019. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
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