Lee Ivett - Academic Staff

Lee is the Head of the Grenfell-Baines Institute of Architecture and Academic Lead for the Architecture and Construction subject areas. As well as managing these subject areas, Lee also leads on the delivery of our final year Master of Architecture Design Thesis module and contributes to teaching across our architecture and architectural technology programmes.

As well as leading the BSc. (Hons) Architecture course, Lee is also a practicing architect and widely published writer and critic on architecture, art and design. He is a regular contributor to the Architectural Review, the Architects Journal, the RIBA Journal and Architecture Today. His work and opinion has been sought and published extensively in print and online media such as Dezeen and Arch Daily. He considers teaching, research and practice to be one and the same and develops and delivers a pedagogy that invites the students to engage in all three areas as a critical and creative process of enquiry and empathic learning.

Lee Ivett is an award winning architect, designer, artist and urbanist with a track record of developing transformational long term projects with third sector organizations. His mode of practice is intensely generative, developing low-budget socially-focused projects from scratch largely for marginalized communities within the UK and beyond as a means of identifying ideas and developing local agency and capacity. Lee works with artists, makers, dancers, choreographers, growers, academics, musicians, community members etc. to prototype and generate the activity that ultimately creates a demand for the social, cultural, economic and environmental re-imagination of place. Lee has been recognized internationally for the impact and quality of his work; exhibiting, producing and presenting work in Poland, Hungary, Nuremburg, Los Angeles, Venice and Ljubljana over the last ten years.
In 2016 Lee was selected for inclusion in New Architects 3 - the definitive survey of the best British architects to have set up practice since 2005 and represented Scotland at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale; creating an award winning and critically acclaimed community space within the Venetian neighbourhood of Dorsoduro. Lee's alternative approach to architectural practice was recently recognised by the Architects Journal, being one of the 25 architects working in the UK to be profiled as an industry 'Disruptor'. Lee was also one of only 30 architects selected by the Architecture Foundation to select and profile a significant architectural project as part of their 30th anniversary event series. View the film.

Qualifications

Awards

Areas of Interest / Expertise

External Affiliations / Memberships

Lee's research is currently engaged in the following areas of investigation:

Civic typology and visual language - this research has been conducted through the curation of two exhibitions curated for and produced through The Architecture Fringe festival; 'New Typologies' and 'Frankentypes'. The work of Architecture Fringe can be evidenced on the Architecture Fringe website.
Alternative models of education related to the built environment, particularly those that are cross-disciplinary and collaborative. I Co-founded the annual live-action summer school Test Unit to explore Recently completed publication examines the critical context within which Test Unit seeks to operate as a means of exploring alternative approaches to regeneration and education. Myself and Ambrose Gillick have recently published a book through the Glasgow Urban Lab that explores the theoretical context that informs Test Unit and which identifies the territory within which we operate and impact. The book takes the form of a selection of essays, interviews and opinion pieces from ourselves and invited contributors. ISBN 978-1-9996221-1-4
Alternative models of regeneration that explore community led, grassroots methodologies as a counterpoint to the 'masterplan' as a drawn proposition of large scale, large capital physical change. This research is explored through his practice, Test Unit Summer School, the Regeneration and Waterfront Heritage Research Network; in particular the award winning Riverside Solidarity project operating between Gdansk and Govan. Techniques for creating the capacity for communities to prototype potential place and programme have been explored through the delivery of the Pollokshields Playhouse project (2015-2016) and The Happenstance.

Use the links below to view their profiles:

Conferences & Events

Negroni Talks #21 – The Joy of Architecture, 2020
Virtual Unit #1 – Coping During Covid 19, 2020
Negroni Talks #13 – Who’s Your Daddy?, 2019
London School of Architecture – Guest Speaker, 2019
Architecture Foundation Biennale Symposium - Guest Speaker, 2019
University of Strathclyde Guest Speaker, 2019
Turncoats Debate Series: Fuck London, 2019
‘The Happenstance’ -Venice Biennale, 2018
Workshop Leader at Studio in the Woods, 2017, 2018 and 2019
Invited contributor, workshop leader and co-organiser at CAN Actions Festival Kiev, 2018
Future Architecture Platform Shift’17 – Tiny Change Makes the Difference, 2017
Heritage and Waterfront Regeneration River Cities Network Symposium Gdansk and Glasgow, 2017
Guest Speaker
Twins Debate Series – Dead Centre - Brighton, 2017
New Architects 3 Book Launch at the British Pavilion Venice, 2016
Then/Now - Symposium on Public Art Practise, 2016
Making Space – Children in Scotland Conference, 2016
Architects Journal Alternative Practice Symposium for Design Junction, 2016
ITAC3 Next, Best and Radical Practice in Participatory Arts Conference - Edinburgh, 2016
Workshop Leader at Hello Wood, 2015, 2019
BIO50 24th Biennial of Design, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2014