text: I trained, qualified, and registered as an architect in the UK, but my passion for the built environment extends to the way in which cities, towns and villages are structured and how they function; the relationships between buildings; the way buildings and landscape combine together to create places; the infrastructure that makes the built environment work; the way in which people use buildings and places; and the elements that give places character and appeal.
  Above all, I’m driven by a belief in the power of beauty and good design. In my experience, the clearest path to approval, whether from a regulatory body or the community, is a design that is visually appealing and functional.
  A utilitarian design that merely complies with the regulatory framework is not good enough. Whatever we design for the built environment must, in some way, contribute to the common good.
  I am a qualified urban designer and a Chartered Member of the Royal Institute of British Architects with over 40 years of experience in private practice, State Government and at Curtin University as a sessional academic.
  I developed my passion for urban design at Oxford Brookes University (UK) where I studied under the authors of Responsive Environments – A Manual for Designers.
  In the roles of both Chair and specialist member on numerous Design Review Panels in WA, including the State Design Review Panel, and DevelopmentWA’s Land Redevelopment Committee, I utilise the ten design principles of SPP7.0 as the guiding framework to provide guidance to other professionals with a focus on an engaging ground level and adjacent civic space, high levels of residential amenity for liveability and integrated landscape, to create friendly, safe places with character.