Deborah Saunt is an Australian-born British

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

urban designer Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of people ...

and academic. She co-founded the London-based architecture, urban design and spatial research studio DSDHA with David Hills.

Early life and education

Saunt was born in

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Australia, and grew up in Kenya and England. She attended

Heriot-Watt University Heriot-Watt University () is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1821 as the School of Arts of Edinburgh, the world's first mechanics' institute, and was subsequently granted university status by roya ...

Edinburgh College of Art Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histor ...

and the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. Saunt gained her PhD with the

RMIT University The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (abbreviated as RMIT University) is a public research university located in the city of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia., section 4(b) Established in 1887 by Francis Ormond, it is the seventh-o ...

Practice Research Programme, was awarded a Fellowship in the Built Environment from the

Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 is an institution founded in 1850 to administer the Great Exhibition, Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, which was held in The Crystal Palace, London. The founding Presid ...

Career

Saunt's first architectural work was with van Heyningen and Haward followed by a role in the early 1990s on the British Library in London under

Colin St John Wilson Sir Colin Alexander St John Wilson, Royal Institute of British Architects, FRIBA, Royal Academy, RA, (14 March 1922 – 14 May 2007) was an English architect, lecturer and author. With his partner MJ Long, Wilson spent over 30 years progressing t ...

and

MJ Long Mary Jane Long, Lady Wilson, OBE (July 31, 1939 – September 3, 2018), known as MJ Long, was an American architect, lecturer and author, best known for her work as a principal architect partner on the British Library in London with her husband ...

. She later worked for MJ Long's practice, Long and Kentish, before starting to teach in 1997 at the

Architectural Association School of Architecture The Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, commonly referred to as the AA, is the oldest private school of architecture in the UK. The AA hosts exhibitions, lectures, academic conference, symposia and publications. Histo ...

. She has since held teaching appointments at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne The École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (, EPFL) is a public university, public research university in Lausanne, Switzerland, founded in 1969 with the mission to "train talented engineers in Switzerland". Like its sister institution E ...

, the

, and was appointed th
Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor of Architectural Design
at

Yale School of Architecture The Yale School of Architecture (YSoA) is one of the constituent professional schools of Yale University. The School awards the degrees of Master of Architecture I (M.Arch I), Master of Architecture II (M.Arch II), Master of Environmental Desi ...

. She also worked for

Tony Fretton Tony Fretton (born 17 January 1945) is a British architect known for his residential and public gallery buildings, as well as other British and international design work. He graduated from the Architectural Association (AA) and worked for vario ...

. Saunt established DSDHA with David Hills. With DSDHA, Saunt has designed a flat-iron building for Bosideng on

South Molton Street South Molton Street is a street in Mayfair, London, that runs from Oxford Street to Brook Street. Bond Street tube station, Bond Street Underground station is at the north end of the street. The street was built in the mid-18th century as part ...

, a residential block for the Riverside development on the

Greenwich Peninsula The Greenwich Peninsula is an area of Greenwich in South London, South East London, England. It is bounded on three sides by a loop of the River Thames, Thames, between the Isle of Dogs to the west and Silvertown to the east. To the south is the ...

, an

Olympic Village An Olympic Village is a residential complex built or reassigned for the Olympic Games in or nearby the List of Olympic Games host cities, host city for the purpose of accommodating all of the delegations. Olympic Villages are usually located clos ...

block in East Village, a studio-gallery for

Edmund de Waal Edmund Arthur Lowndes de Waal, (born 10 September 1964) is an English contemporary artist, Pottery, potter and author. He is known for his large-scale installations of porcelain vessels often created in response to collections and archives or ...

West Norwood West Norwood is a largely residential area of south London within the London Borough of Lambeth, located 5.4 miles (8.7 km) south south-east of Charing Cross. The centre of West Norwood sits in a bowl surrounded by hillsides on its east, ...

, and a jewellery studio for Alex Monroe in

Bermondsey Bermondsey ( ) is a district in southeast London, part of the London Borough of Southwark, England, southeast of Charing Cross. To the west of Bermondsey lies Southwark, to the east Rotherhithe and Deptford, to the south Walworth and Peckham, ...

. In 2009, DSDHA’s St Anne’s SureStart Centre in

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in northeastern Essex, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the county, with a population of 130,245 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census. The demonym is ''Colcestrian''. Colchester occupies the ...

was nominated for the EU Mies Van der Rohe Award. Saunt and Hills designed a new building for Christ's College in

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...

, for which they were shortlisted for the RIBA

Stirling Prize The Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize is a British prize for excellence in architecture. It is named after the architect James Stirling, organised and awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). The ...

in 2010. Saunt is a commissioner for the Independent Transport Commission, a member of the Expert Advisory Group for

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

, a Board Member of the City Property Association, and was a jury panel member for the international competition to re-imagine London's

Grosvenor Square Grosvenor Square ( ) is a large garden square in the Mayfair district of Westminster, Greater London. It is the centrepiece of the Mayfair property of the Duke of Westminster, and takes its name from the duke's surname "Grosvenor". It was deve ...

. She has lectured at the

Royal Academy of Art The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

and regularly broadcasts on architecture and her belief in the broadest participation in city-making. She has been included in Forbes 500 and in

Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...

’s Progress 1000 of the most influential people in London. Saunt "has always looked beyond the confines of the building" in high-profile spatial strategies, urban masterplans and public realm projects. She is active in the democratisation of architecture and the celebrating the role of women in the profession, setting up the

Jane Drew Prize The Jane Drew Prize is an architecture award given annually by the ''Architects' Journal'' to a person showing innovation, diversity and inclusiveness in architecture. It is named after the English modernist architect Jane Drew. Background ...

in Architecture and is a Founding Director of the

London School of Architecture The London School of Architecture, known as the LSA, is a small independent higher education provider based in London. It is England's first independent school of architecture since the Architectural Association opened in 1847. History In the ...

, where she is now a trustee.

Personal life

Saunt is married to her business partner, David Hills. They live in

Clapham Clapham () is a district in south London, south west London, England, lying mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, but with some areas (including Clapham Common) extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. History Ea ...

with their two children.

References

External links

www.dsdha.co.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saunt, Deborah Living people Australian expatriates in England Australian women architects New South Wales architects Architects from London British women architects Alumni of the University of Cambridge Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of Heriot-Watt University People from Croydon Australian emigrants to England 21st-century Australian architects 21st-century British architects 20th-century Australian architects Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century Australian women 21st-century Australian women