David Leech

David Leech Architects is a new London-based architectural practice established in 2016 by David Leech.

David Leech: The Form-Givers lecture series #4

David Leech Architects is a new London-based architectural practice established in 2016 by David Leech after 13 years working in several European offices. The practice was set up to pursue contemporary projects across a diverse range of type, scale and budget, from furniture to building. Driven by a desire for efficiency – to design cost-effectively and economically – the practice delights in working with everyday materials and techniques.

Through new juxtapositions, exaggeration and subverted associations, David Leech Architects seeks to articulate playfulness and joy revealing something special and unique. The practice is interested in buildings that do not unveil themselves at once but rather:

• reveal their attitude, position and beliefs over time
• enjoy vagueness and ambiguity
• try to avoid overtly attaching to any particular style, movement or doctrine

In the period since setting up the practice, it has been shortlisted in a Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) housing design ideas competition and were finalists for the Pocket Living Community Centre and Nursery architectural competition in Haringey, London. The office has recently completed its first built works for two house projects in Dublin, Ireland, in 2017. One of the houses was recently published in Italian architecture journal, Domus, and has just been awarded an Architecture Association Award of Ireland 2018.

The lecture by David Leech, also a studio tutor here at The Cass, is the fourth of the Form-Givers Lecture Series at The Cass, organised by senior lecturer James Payne. The lecture series is about young practices throughout Europe, confident and inventive Form-Givers who are delivering their first projects. Lecturers will discuss architectural language and form in their practice, research or teaching.

The talks are free and open to the public.