DSDHA

Profile

DSDHA was established by Deborah Saunt and David Hills in 1998. The studio is founded on a persistent search for new forms of beauty through active design, research and agency, within an ethos that “the City is our Client”; their work blurs the boundaries between infrastructure and architecture, art and urbanism, always questioning our preconceptions of the city.

The studio has built an international reputation, delivering a range of high profile individual buildings, macro-scaled urban strategies and research projects; it has received 17 RIBA awards and has been twice nominated for the Mies van de Rohe Prize for European Architecture.

Recent examples of DSDHA’s projects include several major schemes in the metropolitan centre, a case study home exploring the densification of London’s backlands, and various award winning education projects including the Stirling Prize shortlisted Christ’s College. DSDHA is currently engaged in a series of public realm improvements in the area around Tottenham Court Road and The British Museum, as well as for the Royal Albert Hall – a project that resulted from a research fellowship Deborah undertook for the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. In addition, the studio contributes spatial design expertise on a pro bono basis to several community-focused projects such as the re-imagination Vauxhall.

Deborah and David also lead the studio's research; they regularly write and broadcast on architecture and have taught widely, including at EPFL (Lausanne), University of Cambridge, Architectural Association (AA), Royal College of Art (RCA), the Cass School of Architecture, London School of Architecture (LSA) and University of Navarra in Pamplona.

Biography

Deborah Saunt founded the award-winning architectural studio DSDHA in 1998. Her work blurs the boundaries between landscape and architecture, art and urbanism, and questions our preconceptions of the city.

Deborah recently completed a PhD thesis as part of the RMIT Practice Research programme - of which she is now an ADAPT-r fellow. Having taught internationally, she is currently Director of Inter-Practice at the newly founded LSA (where she also leads a Design Think Tank investigating London’s Cultural Infrastructure) and is a visiting professor at the University of Navarra, Pamplona. She has been a member of various prestigious advisory boards and judging panels, as well as commissioner for the Independent Transport Commission (ITC). Deborah believes passionately in the democratisation of architecture, setting up the Jane Drew Prize in Architecture.

Prior to establishing DSDHA Deborah studied at Cambridge University and the University of Edinburgh and worked with Tony Fretton and MJ Long in London.

David Hills is one of the founding directors of DSDHA.  He has been responsible for a broad range of projects including Edmund de Waal’s Studio and Gallery in South London, a range of residential projects in central London, Stirling Prize nominated Christ’s College in Guildford, and a number of mixed use and education projects. All of the work fuses an interest in materiality and art with inventive architectural approaches.

After studying at Cambridge University School of Architecture, David worked for Tim Ronalds and Erick van Egeraat in Rotterdam and London prior to establishing DSDHA with Deborah Saunt in 1998. He has lectured widely in the UK and abroad and has been a unit master at London Metropolitan University, Cambridge University and the AA during the past 10 years.  He is a CABE National Design Review Panel Member and a Design Council Built Environment Expert.