Accelerating students to meet their potential in this hyper competitive field. 35 years in education and practice plus 2 best selling Nai010 architectural books.

Find out more about Steven

• When did you develop an interest in your chosen field and in private tutoring?

  I spent two weeks in an architectural office as a work experience kid when I was 15. The passion for architecture has been with me since then! But I found architectural practice bound up most of my time in project management and documentation. Education and research let me stay at the forefront of ideas. Also, instead of designing maybe two or three buildings per year, I got to be involved in the design of dozens of buildings: all my students' projects, for which I could offer advice.

• Tell us more about the subject you teach, the topics you like to discuss with students (and possibly those you like a little less).

  I am most experienced as a design studio leader and tutor, and as a history and theory lecturer. That means getting designs into shape, with clear explanations to present through drawings, models and words during crits. It also means helping students write better essays, by clearing away distractions and bringing their reading and writing on track. But I have also been able to help students with construction, drawing and project management assignments. I have. after all, been in and around this industry since the 1980s, so most of it I know like the back of my hand. What I can't help with, unfortunately, is anything to do with computer drafting or modelling. I haven't touched that since I left practice.

• Did you have any role models; a teacher that inspired you?

  I was very fortunate as an undergraduate student to have Professor Barry Maitland as my school's dean, and as an engaged and talented lecturer. He had come to us from Cambridge where he was part of the generation of thought leaders who shaped what we know as urban design. He brought many of those people to Newcastle, and gave us opportunities to learn from and work with some truly great thinkers.
  
  Later, when I started lecturing, my first duty was to work with Glenn Murcutt, to organise his first masterclass. It was wonderful to work so closely with an architect who has influenced the architecture of a whole nation, with a distinct idiom.
  
  From 2012 to 2017, I enjoyed some prominence in my own right. That was thanks to two books I published with NAi010, the press that people like Rem Koolhaas and MVRDV are with. For those years I was sharing stages and socialising with a venerable who's who in our field. As an undergraduate, I would have been voted the LEAST likely to reach such a position. I keep that in mind when I'm tutoring struggling students. Any could be luminaries in the future.

• What do you think are the qualities required to be a good tutor?

  Students come to me in a state of confusion, and do the worst possible job at explaining whatever problems they are facing. While I want to empathise with them, I am not helping them if I can't see things from the side of their lecturers too. If there is time, I like to read the assignment document before the first lesson, so less time is lost to confusion. I'm trying to help someone go from being a quivering mess, to someone with the confidence to quickly pull together a coherent design presentation or essay.

• Provide a valuable anecdote related to your subject or your days at school.

  Our architectural history lecturer was so boring, we would line our heads up with a classmate's ahead, and slink onto the floor. As many as a half dozen of us would be down there, having a nap. I vowed not to be like him. His problem, I realised, was he was insecure, and hiding behind a mask of superiority. That was what made him so boring!

• What were the difficulties or challenges you faced or are still facing in your subject?

  I wrote my PhD about Louis Kahn, who had a lot of great things to say about architecture. One, was that he thought the hardest thing about architecture, wasn't giving a building a style, or even clear planning. It was deciding what to actually do. If you think about it, any program can be put in a tower, as easily as it can be spread out or pushed into the shape of a cube. So, a big challenge is deciding on a strategy, then having the courage of your convictions to carry that strategy through.

• Do you have a particular passion? Is it teaching in general or an element of the subject or something completely different?

  Architectural education favours the bold, but timid students are the ones who come to me for help. My goal is to give them the confidence that comes from knowing they have a reasoned proposal, possibly more reasoned than the proposals of their overconfident classmates who barged in.

• What makes you a Superprof (besides answering these interview questions)?

  So much about architecture, and education especially, is by and for "la petite bourgeoisie" (aka, snobs). I am not from such a privileged background, but as an author and thought leader, made it to the top of the field. I am uniquely positioned to help the next generation of working class and multicultural students, make it past those mediocre types who think of themselves as gatekeepers, and have the success they deserve for their efforts and talent.