The Global Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. Andy's work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
About Andy
I have been teaching since 1996 initially at Kingston University where I became Degree Course Director in 1998 and also ran Design studio III Justine Langford, and also ran Technology in BA years 1, 2 and 3. I left Kingston in 2007 to concentrate on practice and taught part time as a studio assistant in design studio V with Darren Deane and Adrian Ball from 2008 - 2010 at the University of Nottingham. In 2011 I joined the University of Plymouth, initially to support studio teaching in the March school with Dr Krzysztof Nawratek, Simon Bradbury and Professor Bob Brown, Joining the school in 2012 as BA program lead and running the degree studio re[de]fined Vernacular; r[d]v, initially with Rob Hilton and Tim Offer and later with Hayley Anderson and Nicky Fox. At Plymouth I now run BA3 design studio and teach Technology in BA 2 + 3, and assist with Communications and design Studio in BA yr 2 along with Dr Ricky Burke. In 2019 I helped set up the BA (Hons) Architectural Studies programme in Hong Kong as part of UoP's TNE provision.
My research is primarily studio practice based and because of my practice experience can work across a range of modules allowing for a more integrated approach to modules within the program structure. The work with studio teaching is based upon an architecture of place making, and situated narratives, working with external agencies to bring a wider 'lens' to the studio conversation. Studio work has allowed for collaboration with Ivybridge Council, Plymouth City Council Open Spaces, Compassionate Plymouth. There have also been live build projects at Dartington Hall Trust, The National rust and woodland Trust and more recently Plymouth Diversity Business Incubator, that enable the translation of drawing to building to enable students to engage with the full design process from to full build. I have contributed chapters to Lateralisms Vols I + II, as celebration of studio V work at the University of Nottingham, and to From Redundancy to Renewal a celebration of the studio work from r[d]v here at eh University of Plymouth.
In 2014 I was awarded the UPSU SSTAR Awarded for best personal tutor and in 2019 Highly commended for the UPSU SSTAR warded for best programme lead.
I am an external Examiner at the University of the Arts Norwich and at Brighton University. I have been a guest critic at many schools of Architecture within the UK, and also at California College of the Arts San Francisco CA School of Architecture, The University of California Berkley School of Architecture, and École
d’Architecture, Strasbourg France.
present Lecturer in Architecture, BA 3 year coordinator
2023 - resent Programme Lead BSc (Hons) Architecture NSBM Sri Lanka [course starting September 2024)
2019 - present Programme Lead BA (Hons) Architectural Studies HKU Space Hong Kong
2020 - 2018 Acting Associate Head of School Architecture
2017 - 2018 Associate Head of School Architecture
2016 - 2019 Programme Leader BA (Hons) Architectural Technology and the Environment
2012 - 2023 Programme Lead BA (Hons) Architecture
2009 - 2011 Assistant Studio Tutor BA Studio V diversity of Nottingham
1998 - 2007 Degree Course Director Studio III lead Kingston University School of Architecture and Landscape
1996 - 1998 Part time studio tutor Kingston University School of Architecture and Landscape.
Live Projects at the University of Plymouth:
2022 – ‘Diversity through eating’ A courtyard kitchen and dining room for the Diversity Business Incubator Plymouth.
2020 – ‘Hibiki Hideout’ – Fingle Woods Dartmoor and outside educational room for the national trust and woodland Trust, constructed exclusively from material on site.
2019 – ‘Big Tent’ – The Dartington Hall Trust – a dismountable ‘common room’ for the Camp Site .
2018 – ‘Bird Hide’ – The Dartington Hall Trust – a live build project, celebrating the ecology of a newly reinstated wetlands at Queens Marsh.
2017 – ‘Tiny House’ – The Dartington Hall Trust – a live build project, focusing on the Locally sourced material and a study in micro living.
Teaching
My interests in teaching are related to enabling and empowering students to take the lead through their own preoccupations through the vehicle of a studio brief as a scaffold from which individual ideas can emerge.I do not believe in projects or teaching being 'prescriptive' but prefer an model that sets out a framework as an invitation that students can engage with and introduce their own interests, Such models encourage collaborative working, interdisciplinary working and peer to peer learning, This sets up an environment of mutual reciprocity enabling students to work in environments and test their soft skills within a supportive learning environment.
Design project briefs as a framework rather than instruction and engaging with external agencies allows students to find elements relevant to their own fields of interest to full engage with any project brief, to identify their own interests, which in turn enables students to graduate with a real sense of purpose and agency going out into the world.
I teach across a range of module here at the University of Plymouth with Design studio, Communication and Technology and also contribute to the lecture series in year 2 History Theory and Critical Context. And I have run workshops and been a guest critic at.
The Bartlett Brighton University Ecole d'Architecture Strasbourg Kingston University London Metropolitan Oxford Brookes University South Bank University The Welsh School of Architecture California Institute of the Arts The University of California Berkley School of Architecture,
Contact Andy
Room 112, Roland Levinsky Building, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA
+44 1752 585194
andrew.humphreys@plymouth.ac.uk
