David Chambers

Before becoming an Associate of the Spring Cohort 2023, David worked in private practice at Aberrant Architecture, an architecture and design practice in London that he co-founded. He has delivered civic, cultural and community projects at a variety of scales and is an experienced facilitator of community involvement in design and regeneration.

Some of his notable projects include the first architecture residency at the V&A Museum, featuring at the Venice Architecture Biennales’ British Pavilion and exhibiting as the guest of honour at DesignTO Festival in Toronto. Aberrant Architecture received a Graham Foundation research grant and wrote 'Wherever You Find People: The Radical Schools of Oscar Niemeyer', Darcy Ribeiro and Leonel Brizola, published by Park Books.

In addition, David has taught Architecture at Central St Martins and the University of Brighton and is a member of the South Downs National Park’s Design Review Panel.

Rother District Council

During his placement at Rother District Council, David worked strategically within the Place and Climate Change Directorate, providing design leadership on various projects, including transforming the De La Warr Pavilion. He was responsible for placemaking policy formulation and developed ‘Live Well Locally’, one of the twin overall priorities of the emerging Rother local plan.

David produced a new major scheme and design pre-application advice note, embedding the use of Building for a Healthy Life (BHL), the design assessment framework developed with Homes England and the NHS. He also produced a document setting out the design process steps that the council expected development schemes to take from inception to completion.

He produced and implemented a design training program and BHL assessment toolkit for development management and planning policy officers to help embed the use of BHL and build an inclusive design-led culture within the Council.