Founding Director, DSDHA
Deborah is a Founding Director of DSDHA, leading high-profile spatial strategies, urban masterplans and public realm proposals. Projects include the reinvention of the National Youth Theatre’s London headquarters, the refurbishment of London’s iconic Economist Plaza in St James’s and a new mixed-use building on Piccadilly for The Crown Estate. Urban scale work includes the regeneration of a 600–home estate for London Borough of Southwark with a strong focus on engagement, the creation of Cundy Street Quarter, a new 2.4–acre mixed-tenure neighbourhood in Westminster, the redesign of the public realm around the Royal Albert Hall, the public realm framework for the West End Project including the reimagining of Tottenham Court Road, and Exchange Square – a new park for the City of London above Liverpool Street Station.
Much of her work is concerned with democratising architecture, having set up the Jane Drew Prize in Architecture, and helping to redefine the role of architecture in the 21st century – addressing people’s emerging needs in the context of rapidly shifting environmental, technological and social conditions. She is a Founding Director of the London School of Architecture, which focuses on broadening access to the profession and building new collaborative forms of research and practice, and regularly talks and writes on issues of diversity and innovation in the built environment. Deborah was awarded a Fellowship in the Built Environment from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 and has held academic appointments at Yale School of Architecture, Universidad de Navarra, EPFL and the University of Cambridge.
Deborah gained her PhD with the RMIT Practice Research Programme and studied architecture at the University of Cambridge and Heriot-Watt University.
