Wai-Piu Wong (principal)
Wai-Piu (Dip Arch, MA) qualified as an architect in 2004 and has worked and collaborated with award-winning practices since this time, most recently with Gort Scott Architects. With DSDHA and Cottrell and Vermeulen Architecture he has worked on education and community buildings that have been award winning and published widely.
In conjunction with practice, Wai-Piu is also a design tutor at undergraduate and postgraduate level, having previously taught at the University of Cambridge, Cass Architecture School, Central Saint Martins, Nottingham University, and currently Sheffield University where he is the studio leader for the Urban Ecologies studio, which looks at regenerative design as a tool to tackle the climate crisis and build resilient communities. His studio teaching focuses on the need to understand a given site, topographically, ecologically, and importantly at the human level. Designing community engagement programs with local residents is as important as learning to design buildings, while developing sustainable building briefs that are appropriate to the community, sympathetic to the context, and fitting to the city.
Research output with the students has included, ‘The Caledonian Road, Living on The Edge,’ ‘Along The A11 from Whitechapel to Bromley-By-Bow, A Linked Campus,’ ‘Camberwell, A Place for Interventions.’
Lefkos Kyriacou (principal)
Lefkos (Dip Arch, MA) qualified as an architect in 2005 and currently lives and practices in London. He has worked on projects for a variety of educational, community and religious client bodies. Lefkos spent seven years at the award-winning Cottrell and Vermeulen Architecture. In 2014 he established Figure 1 Architects and built up an extensive portfolio of residential and commercial projects including both new build and renovations. Lefkos is a Certified Passive House designer and holds a Level 5 Diploma in Retrofit Coordination and Risk Management.
In conjunction with practice, Lefkos has been a researcher and teacher at the Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge. He was a Research Associate for Conflict in Cities and the Contested State (2005-2013), focussing on urban conflict in contested cities in Europe and the Middle East including Jerusalem, Belfast, Nicosia and Mostar. He produced the maps and drawings for the book Locating Urban Conflicts: Ethnicity, Nationalism and the Everyday and was a co-author of The Struggle for Jerusalem’s Holy Places. He was a Bye-Fellow and Director of Studies for Architecture at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. Lefkos was a founding member of the Centre for Urban Conflicts Research and a research supervisor for the Mphil in Architecture and Urban Design, both in Cambridge. Lefkos is currently a Professional Studies Advisor for the Royal Institute of British Architects on their Part 3 Course (Advanced Diploma in Professional Practice in Architecture).