Mr Andy Humphreys

Biography

I have been teaching since 1996 initially at Kingston University where I became Degree Course Director in 1998 and also ran Design studio III Justine Langford, and also ran Technology in BA years 1, 2 and 3. I left Kingston in 2007 to concentrate on practice and taught part time as a studio assistant in design studio V with Darren Deane and Adrian Ball from 2008 - 2010 at the University of Nottingham. In 2011 I joined the University of Plymouth, initially to support studio teaching in the March school with Dr Krzysztof Nawratek, Simon Bradbury and Professor Bob Brown, Joining the school in 2012 as BA program lead and running the degree studio re[de]fined Vernacular; r[d]v, initially with Rob Hilton and Tim Offer and later with Hayley Anderson and Nicky Fox. At Plymouth I now run BA3 design studio and teach Technology in BA 2 + 3, and assist with Communications and design Studio in BA yr 2 along with Dr Ricky Burke. In 2019 I helped set up the BA (Hons) Architectural Studies programme in Hong Kong as part of UoP's TNE provision.

My research is primarily studio practice based and because of my practice experience can work across a range of modules allowing for a more integrated approach to modules within the program structure. The work with studio teaching is based upon an architecture of place making, and situated narratives, working with external agencies to bring a wider 'lens' to the studio conversation. Studio work has allowed for collaboration with Ivybridge Council, Plymouth City Council Open Spaces, Compassionate Plymouth. There have also been live build projects at Dartington Hall Trust, The National rust and woodland Trust and more recently Plymouth Diversity Business Incubator, that enable the translation of drawing to building to enable students to engage with the full design process from to full build. I have contributed chapters to Lateralisms Vols I + II, as celebration of studio V work at the University of Nottingham, and to From Redundancy to Renewal a celebration of the studio work from r[d]v here at eh University of Plymouth.

In 2014 I was awarded the UPSU SSTAR Awarded for best personal tutor and in 2019 Highly commended for the UPSU SSTAR warded for best programme lead.

I am an external Examiner at the University of the Arts Norwich and at Brighton University. I have been a guest critic at many schools of Architecture within the UK, and also at California College of the Arts San Francisco CA School of Architecture, The University of California Berkley School of Architecture, and École
d’Architecture, Strasbourg France.

2012 - present Lecturer in Architecture, Programme Lead BA (Hons) Architecture + BA 3 year and studio lead

2019 - present Programme Lead BA (Hons) Architectural Studies (Hong Kong)

2020 - 2018 Acting Associate Head of School Architecture

2017 - 2018 Associate Head of School Architecture

2016 - 2019 Programme Leader BA (Hons) Architectural Technology and the Environment

2009 - 2011 Assistant Studio Tutor BA Studio V diversity of Nottingham

1998 - 2007 Degree Course Director Studio III lead Kingston University School of Architecture and Landscape

1996 - 1998 Part time studio tutor Kingston University School of Architecture and Landscape.

Live Projects at the University of Plymouth:

2022 – ‘Diversity through eating’ A courtyard kitchen and dining room for the Diversity Business Incubator Plymouth.

2020 – ‘Hibiki Hideout’ – Fingle Woods Dartmoor and outside educational room for the national trust and woodland Trust, constructed exclusively from material on site.

2019 – ‘Big Tent’ – The Dartington Hall Trust – a dismountable ‘common room’ for the Camp Site .

2018 – ‘Bird Hide’ – The Dartington Hall Trust – a live build project, celebrating the ecology of a newly reinstated wetlands at Queens Marsh.

2017 – ‘Tiny House’ – The Dartington Hall Trust – a live build project, focusing on the Locally sourced material and a study in micro living.

Qualifications

1997 Member of the Architects Registration Board

1997 Post Graduate Certificate in Professional Practice RIBA Part III(UCL)

1995 Diploma in Architecture RIBA Part II (UCL)

1992 BSc (Hons) Architecture RIBA part I (UCL)

My professional Career started off as an Architectural Technologist, qualifying in 1983, and was a medium sized architectural practice based in central London. there was soon a design team, and became a design team lead, having undertaken this role for 2 - 3 years I decided to continue in education and commence my formal architectural education, which commenced at UCL in 1989.

Upon completing my Part I and continuing thereafter until 2012 I ahem been involved in a loose cooperative of Architectural Practice, again based in central London primarily working on socially driven projects, working with charity organisations, and housing associations, on projects either for ethnic minority groups, children and young adults with learning difficulties, and care homes. I have a large wealth of practice based experience, that has informed my teaching and allowed me to integrate the range of the teaching criteria into studio design teaching. Upon Completion my Part II, I was invited to teach at Kingston University school of Architecture and Landscape, taking on a full-time post and course director by 1998/99.

Professional membership

Architects Registration Board [ARB]

Roles on external bodies

2017 - 2021 External Examiner for the BA (Hons) Architecture Programme University of the Arts Norwich

2018 - 2022 External Examiner for the BA (Hons) Architecture Programme and Master of Architecture Programme Brighton University

2017 - 2020 SCHOSA member for UoP School of Architecture

Teaching

Teaching interests

My interests in teaching are related to enabling and empowering students to take the lead through their own preoccupations through the vehicle of a studio brief as a scaffold from which individual ideas can emerge.

I do not believe in projects or teaching being 'prescriptive' but prefer an model that sets out a framework as an invitation that students can engage with and introduce their own interests, Such models encourage collaborative working, interdisciplinary working and peer to peer learning, This sets up an environment of mutual reciprocity enabling students to work in environments and test their soft skills within a supportive learning environment.

Design project briefs as a framework rather than instruction and engaging with external agencies allows students to find elements relevant to their own fields of interest to full engage with any project brief, to identify their own interests, which in turn enables students to graduate with a real sense of purpose and agency going out into the world.

I teach across a range of module here at the University of Plymouth with Design studio, Communication and Technology and also contribute to the lecture series in year 2 History Theory and Critical Context.

And I have run workshops and been a guest critic at.

The Bartlett

Brighton University

Ecole d'Architecture Strasbourg

Kingston University

London Metropolitan

Oxford Brookes University

South Bank University

The Welsh School of Architecture

California Institute of the Arts

The University of California Berkley School of Architecture,

Profiles

Lecturer in Architecture

School of Art, Design and Architecture (Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business)

Qualifications

Professional membership

Roles on external bodies

Teaching interests