Mr Timothy Smith

About

I teach a design Unit on the MArch Architecture (RIBA 2) in the Department of Architecture and Landscape at the Kingston School of Art. I am a qualified British architect with more than 18 years' experience in architectural practice in the UK and Switzerland.

I am an experienced and successful teacher and academic leader: I have taught undergraduate and postgraduate architecture courses since 2007, led BA and Postgraduate architecture courses for ten years, and contributed to Department management. The work of my students has been published and exhibited in the UK and internationally, and won industry awards. I have extensive experience of innovative course and curriculum development, and in my Academic Leadership roles I have proactively supported colleagues in the development of inclusive teaching practices and effective academic management.

As a teacher I have an international profile and have been invited as a guest teacher and lecturer in the USA, Sweden and Switzerland, notably at the Catholic University of America where I have been a Visiting Scholar since Spring 2022.

In 2022 my teaching partner Jonathan Taylor and I were only the 11th awardees since 1982 to receive the ICAA Arthur Ross Award for Education in New York City.  We were awarded the RIBA Traditional Architecture Group's Achievement Award 2020 in recognition of our teaching success.

I am partner of Timothy Smith & Jonathan Taylor Architects, a practice with a "reputation as one of the most interesting classical practices of their generation". I have been invited to lecture on the work of the practice in the UK, Europe and USA and projects by the practice have been exhibited internationally and published in the UK architectural press.

Academic responsibilities

Senior Lecturer, MArch Architecture (RIBA 2)

Qualifications

  • 2017: Senior Fellow Higher Education Academy
  • 2007: RIBA Part 3, Examination in Professional Practice in Architecture, London Metropolitan University
  • 2005: RIBA Part 2, Postgraduate Diploma in Architecture, London Metropolitan University
  • 2004: RIBA Part 1, BArch (Hons) Architecture, Edinburgh College of Art
  • 1999: Foundation Studies in Art & Design, Leeds College of Art & Design

Teaching and learning

I have led PSRB accredited RIBA 1 and RIBA 2 Architecture courses from 2012 to 2022, including preparation for 5 yearly RIBA visiting accreditation boards in 2012 and 2017 and interim visits, and responding to any recommendations arising therefrom.

I lead the only design studio on an accredited European architecture course to teach the classical language of architecture, an approach which is integrated with my practice-based research.  This work with students has been exhibited and published in the UK and internationally.

I have made a substantial contribution to teaching and learning of a diverse student body through innovative curriculum development such as the RAF course structure 2013, a full course re-write in 2021, and creative approaches to learning and assessment. I have worked with and supported a diverse range of students, from a variety of social, educational, and cultural backgrounds. One of my students won the WCCA Assael Award for Tenacity 2019.

I was awarded an AWG bid in 2015 to secure funding for a  0.3FTE SL to work with students at risk of non-progression in L4 and L5, and to analyse progressions statistics, this led to improved progression at PAB 2015 and won the prestigious NEON Widening Access Initiative (Retention and Success) Award 2018.

I was Department lead on a Faculty assessment and feedback project led by the Associate Dean for Learning & Teaching, 2016.

Under my leadership BA Architecture rose 27 places in the Guardian League table 2019 following a substantial rise in NSS results 2018.

Work by my MArch Unit 6 students was exhibited at Drawing Matter, Shatwell Farm 2019, and Lisbon Architecture Triennale 2019 as part of the exhibition What is Ornament? curated by Giovanni Piovene and Ambra Fabi, and published in the first Register publication, Fragments, in collaboration with Drawing Matter.

My MArch Unit 6 design students are regularly awarded the RIBA Traditional Architecture Group Student Prizes and work by my students in Kingston, Sweden and the USA has been published in the Institute of Classical Art & Architecture's annual peer-reviewed journal The Classicist, every year since 2019.

I was invited to meet HRH The Prince of Wales at a reception where he personally commended my work in November 2018.

MArch Unit 6 student selected by the Department Architecture & Landscape as one of the RIBA Silver Medal nominees 2020.

Qualifications and expertise

  • ICAA Arthur Ross Award for Education 2022
  • University of Miami, FL, USA, William H Harrison Guest Critic in Classical Architecture, Upper Level Design Studio Spring 2021: I have been invited to teach a funded upper level studio which includes a publication and exhibition budget
  • RIBA Traditional Architecture Group Achievement Award 2020
  • Board member, INTBAU Englesberg Summer School in Classical Architecture
  • Kingston University Retake Task and Finish Group, KSA representative, 2019
  • Advisory committee member, ICAA Education Forum 2020, University of Notre Dame, IN, USA (event postponed due to COVID)
  • ICAA Education Forum, Catholic University of America, Washington DC, USA, September 2018
  • Committee member, Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects Education Committee, representing Schools of Architecture
  • External panel member Lincoln University Periodic Academic Review, architecture courses, July 2018.
  • RIBA Part 3 examiner Lincoln University 2021

Undergraduate courses taught

Postgraduate courses taught

Business, knowledge transfer and international

Visiting Scholar, Catholic University of America, Washington DC, Spring 2022-ongoing, teaching design studio and leading on design studio curriculum review.

University of Miami William H Harrison Guest Critic in Classical Architecture, Upper Level Design Studio Spring 2021, FL, USA: I was invited to teach a one-semester funded upper level studio which includes a publication and exhibition budget. I gave a public lecture as part of the post. 

I negotiated and agreed an academic Affiliate Agreement between the School of Art & Architecture, KSA and the International Network for Traditional Building Architecture and Urbanism (INTBAU) to provide academic recognition of their Engelsberg Summer School in Classical Architecture, plus continuing and ongoing academic support. The agreement includes my membership on the board of the summer school and provides an annual income to the School of Art & Architecture.

I negotiated a new student and staff exchange agreement with IUAV Venice 2019. Of particular interest is their MA Architecture taught in English.

As part of our MArch recruitment strategy, I negotiated with pre-existing Erasmus partners in Europe for them to host MArch Year 1 students which had previously not been possible, bringing MArch into the KSA study abroad offer for the first time.

Qualifications and PROFESSIONAL expertise

  • Lecture to the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture (February 2021) and accompanying interview published in Stoa, the journal of the student society of the School
  • Smith & Taylor Architects were invited to the jury of the Addison Mizner 2019 awards, Palm Beach, FL, USA for the ICAA Florida chapter. I visited for the award presentations in February 2020
  • Scientific committee of the Journal of Traditional Building, Architecture & Urbanism, an annual, online, peer-reviewed, bi-lingual (English and Spanish) journal published by INTBAU Spain with the support of the Richard H Driehaus Charitable Trust.
  • Editorial board of Classical Florida, a forthcoming ICAA chapter publication on the work of the Florida chapter membership.
  • Advisory committee member, ICAA Education Forum 2020, University of Notre Dame, IN, USA (postponed due to COVID).
  • Public lecture AHO Oslo School of Architecture, 2019.
  • Paper given at ICAA Education Forum 2018, Washington DC.
  • Lecture to University of Miami, 2021.
  • Lecture to TU Munich, 2021.
  • Lecture to Catholic University of America, 2022.

Professional practice, knowledge exchange and impact

"Timothy Smith and Jonathan Taylor enjoy a reputation as one of the most interesting classical practices of their generation" Ellis Woodman, Director, Architecture Foundation

Timothy Smith & Jonathan Taylor Architects is a small practice with a distinct and growing reputation for our interest in classicism and its potential as a living language of architecture. We do not engage with this way of thinking for nostalgic or sentimental reasons but as a foundational armature for a sustainable and robust architecture of the future.

With Hans van der Heijden Architect, we won a place on the London Borough of Southwark's Framework Agreement for Architectural Design Services. We qualified on Lot 7, an innovative lot which sought "talented, idealistic" new practices for civic and public housing projects.

Recent projects include 8 new houses in Cambridgeshire (2021), Georgian Townhouse, (2020) Bakery conversion to mixed use multi-residential units (2020), Teddington Folly (2016).

Projects have been shortlisted for: the Brick Awards 2017; Architect's Journal Small Projects competition 2011; a housing competition for Peabody 2013; an RIBA Yorkshire Award 2011; in 2016 the practice was shortlisted in a competition for the refurbishment of the Institute of Psychoanalysts.

I was editor and co-editor from 2013-2017 of the Department's lecture series of guest practitioners, since 2016 titled "Register". I selected, invited and hosted speakers and in 2017 I interviewed the eminent architect Professor Hans Kollhoff (Berlin) for a Register podcast. Register is one of the top 10 design podcasts worldwide

Qualifications and expertise

  • ARB registered architect
  • Work by my MArch Unit 6 students was exhibited at Drawing Matter, Shatwell Farm 2019, and Lisbon Architecture Triennale 2019 as part of the exhibition What is Ornament? curated by Giovanni Piovene and Ambra Fabi.
  • My MArch Unit 6 design students were awarded the RIBA Traditional Architecture Group Student First Prize in 2019 (Aleksandra Zenfa) and 2020 (Anthony Fitheoglou), Third prize 2020 (Lewis Silburn) and Commended 2020 (Manraj Bhogal).
  • Work by my MArch Unit 6 design students and Engelsberg Summer School in Classical Architecture students was published in the Institute of Classical Art & Architecture's annual peer-reviewed journal The Classicist, in 2020, 2019 and 2018.
  • On of my MArch Unit 6 students was selected by the Department Architecture & Landscape as one of the RIBA Silver Medal nominees 2020
  • Smith & Taylor Architects interviewed by Ellis Woodman, Director of the Architecture Foundation, for Register podcast
  • Alternative Histories, exhibited in London, Brussels and Dublin, 2019-21
  • Smith & Taylor work exhibited at Lisbon Architecture Triennale 2019 as part of the exhibition

Professional and scholarly affiliations

  • RIBA Chartered Practice
  • University of Miami William H Harrison Guest Critic in Classical Architecture, Upper Level Design Studio Spring 2021, FL, USA: I have been invited to teach a one-semester funded upper level studio which includes a publication and exhibition budget
  • Advisory committee member, ICAA Education Forum 2020, University of Notre Dame, IN, USA (postponed due to COVID).
  • Editorial board of Classical Florida, a forthcoming ICAA chapter publication on the work of the Florida chapter membership.
  • I sit on the scientific committee of the Journal of Traditional Building, Architecture & Urbanism, an annual, online, peer-reviewed, bi-lingual (English and Spanish) journal published by INTBAU Spain with the support of the Richard H Driehaus Charitable Trust.
  • Smith & Taylor Architects were invited to the jury of the Addison Mizner 2019 awards, Palm Beach, FL for the ICAA Florida chapter.

Leadership and management

I was Course Leader BA (Hons.) Architecture from 2012 to 2017. I have been Course Leader MArch Architecture since 2017.

Since 2012 I have sat on the Department of Architecture & Landscape Department Management Group, making a significant contribution to the strategic and day to day management of the Department.

In 2019 I sat on Kingston University's Retake Task and Finish Group, representing KSA in consultation and recommendations to RFC relating to retake examination timings.

I was Department lead on a Faculty assessment and feedback project led by the Associate Dean for Learning & Teaching, 2016.

In 2013 I developed a new BA Architecture course structure which supported the KU Revised Academic Framework pedagogic principles while meeting the PSRB criteria and supporting the values of the earlier course and the wider department.

Faculty Staff Engagement Group member 2013-14 chaired by Prof. Steven Spier.

Social media

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