Dhruv is a chartered architect (ARB, RIBA), chartered town planner (MRTPI), and recognised university educator (FHEA). He is a Senior Lecturer in Architecture and Urbanism, and serves as Deputy Programme Leader, MA Architecture and Urbanism and Knowledge Transfer Partnership lead at Manchester School of Architecture (Manchester Metropolitan University).   He holds professionally accredited degrees in architecture and planning from the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Newcastle University, where completed a PhD examining the social practices adopted by architects to negotiate housing quality during development management (ESRC funded doctoral studentship, NINE DTP).  

Dhruv’s teaching and research are informed by understanding developed in practice. He gained formative experience as Head of Design, Home Group, where he was responsible for promoting residential design quality across a national housing and regeneration programme. Later, as Head of Research and Practice Innovation, Metropolitan Workshop, he led a collaborative programme of research across the practice’s London and Dublin studios. This experience as a practitioner-researcher developed understanding about how to successfully implement strategies for collaborative, practice-based inquiry and dissemination that reflect the professional motivations of practising architects, planners and housing practitioners to undertake research for practice. His current research is concerned with:

  • the role of architects, planners and other housing practitioners, in the design and development of housing through standardised and alternative modes of production;
  • the impact of design governance and design practice on negotiated housing quality, as evidenced through design artefacts; and,
  • past and emerging forms of architecture and planning professionalism that define practice cultures in housing design. 

Dhruv remains active in the architecture and planning professions through professional examinerships, membership of professional and industry committees, and roles in external course accreditation. He is a member of the RTPI Partnership Board, University College Dublin and RTPI Membership and Ethics Committee, and former Chair of the RIBA Housing Expert Advisory Group.

I welcome applications from prospective doctoral candidates interested in examining the practical dimensions of housing design and quality, studying creative processes adopted by architects, planners and others to achieve it, and developing theoretical perspectives to better understand current design practices and promote housing innovation.  I am also interested in undertaking practice-led research and knowledge exchange in collaboration with architectural practices, planning consultancies, and housing developers, to articulate the realities of their practice and enhance their approach to delivering better quality housing and regeneration projects. 

Membership of Professional Associations

  • Fellow, Higher Education Academy (2017)
  • Chartered Town Planner, Royal Town Planning Institute (2014)
  • Chartered Architect, Royal Institute of British Architects (2011)
  • Registered Architect, Architects Registration Board (2011)

Academic and Professional Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy (PhD): Architects Authoring Housing Quality through Development Management: The Legacy of Professional Divergence between Architects and Planners after 1945, Newcastle University (2022)
  • Postgraduate Certificate in Advanced Studies in Academic Practice (HEA Descriptor 2), Newcastle University (2017)
  • Newcastle Teaching Award (HEA, Descriptor 1), Newcastle University (2016)
  • Postgraduate Certificate in Research Training (ESRC recognised), Newcastle University (2013)
  • Postgraduate Diploma in Architectural Practice and Management (Part 3 ARB/ RIBA), Newcastle University (2011)
  • Master of Science in Town Planning with Distinction (RTPI accredited, ESRC recognised), Newcastle University (2009)
  • Bachelor of Architecture with Honours (Part 2 ARB/ RIBA), Newcastle University (2008)
  • Certificate in Architectural Practice with Distinction, Newcastle University (2007)
  • Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies with Honours (Part 1 ARB/RIBA), Newcastle University (2005)

Leadership and Management Programmes

  • Award in Workplace Coaching, Institute of Leadership and Management (2012)
  • London Leadership Programme, Future of London (2011-12)

Academic Leadership Roles 

  • Module Leader, Design Synthesis, MA Architecture and Urbanism (2026). Developing and implementing a new module within revised postgraduate programme that supports students to create a practice-orientated portfolio by examining a significant practice issue (practice-led inquiry), or undertaking inquiry through studio-based processes and its creative outputs (practice-based inquiry).
  • Knowledge Transfer Partnerships lead, Research Leadership Committee, Manchester School of Architecture (2025-)
  • Deputy Programme Leader, MA Architecture and Urbanism (2024-)
  • Urban Laboratory Lead, Dwelling and Urbanism, MA Architecture and Urbanism (2023-). Founded to enable students to undertake a year-long, studio-based design and research project exploring longstanding challenges for housing quality in the United Kingdom and corresponding opportunities for housing innovation.  Academic practice within Dwelling and Urbanism is currently centred on Suburbia Reimagined, an extended project that supports students to develop design strategies for happier, healthier and more affordable suburban neighbourhoods in Manchester. Students are encouraged to develop design theses that critically engage with emerging approaches to design governance for housing quality; reflect on exemplars of housing design and practice that address recognised housing issues (e.g. healthy aging; suburban intensification; custom-build and co-housing); and situate their proposition in relation to the theoretically contested and intellectually stimulating concepts of suburbia, suburbanisation and suburban dwelling.
  • Module Leader, Research Methodologies and Events, MA Architecture and Urbanism (2022-)
  • Module Leader, Dissertation, MA Architecture and Urbanism (2022-)
     

Previous Employment

  • Visiting Lecturer and Associate Lecturer, School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Newcastle University (2014-)
  • Dissertation Supervisor, Welsh School of Architecture and School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University (2022-23)
  • Researcher in Residence, promoted to Head of Research and Practice Innovation, Metropolitan Workshop, London and Dublin (2015-21)
  • Doctoral Studentship, School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Newcastle University, NINE DTP (2015-19)
  • Design Manager, promoted to Head of Design, Home Group (2011-15), responsible for design team promoting housing quality across a national residential and regeneration programme by commissioning leading architects, undertaking effective design management, and enabling community engagement and design review. 

Professional Examinerships

  • Examiner for Prescribed Examination and UK Adaption Assessor, Architects Registration Board (2018-present; 2022-present)
  • Professional Examiner, PGDip Architectural Practice and Management (ARB/ RIBA Part 3), Newcastle University (2021-present)
  • Professional Discussion Assessor, Degree Apprenticeship End Point Assessment, Royal Town Planning Institute (2022-25);
  • Assessor, Assessment of Professional Competence (L-APC; DA-APC), Royal Town Planning Institute (2019-24; 2022-24).

External Examiner, External Course Accreditation and Quality Assurance Roles

  • University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol, including relevant architecture and environment modules (2025-present)
  • Chair, RTPI Partnership Board to School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy, University College Dublin (2023-present)
  • Vice Chair, RTPI Partnership Board to University of Manchester (2022-23)
  • Vice Chair, RTPI Partnership Board to Joint Distance Learning Consortia, led by UWE Bristol and Leeds Beckett in collaboration with the Open University, London South Bank and Dundee University (2017-21)
  • Member, Undergraduate External Examiner Review Committee, Newcastle University (2016-17)
  • Member, RIBA Visiting Board (2006-07)

Membership of Professional, Policy and Industry Committees

  • Member, RTPI Membership and Ethics Committee (2025-present)
  • Member, RTPI Accreditation Panel and Partnership Board (2017- present)
  • Member, Reference Group: Record of Competency, Architects Registration Board (2025-26)
  • Member, RTPI Regional Policy Sub-Committee (2019-24)
  • Member, Governing Council, National House Building Council (2019-22)
  • Chair, National Design Training Group (2020-21)
  • Chair, RIBA Housing Expert Advisory Group (2019-21)
  • Member, RIBA Practice and Profession Committee (2019-21)
  • Workshop Participant, Design Guide: Expanding London’s Public Realm, Greater London Authority (2020)
  • Consultative Group Member, RIBA Ethics and Sustainable Development Commission (2018-19)
  • Co-opted Member, RIBA Research and Innovation Group (2017, housing research theme)
  • Litmus Group, RIBA Journal (2017-20)
  • Member, Urban Room Group, Place Alliance (2015-17)
  • Stakeholder Advisory Group, Building for 2050, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (2021-22)
  • Invited Consultee, APPG for Healthy Homes and Buildings: Planning for Healthy Homes, Town and Country Planning Association/ UK Parliament (2020)
  • Consulting Member, Social Value Toolkit for Architecture, RIBA and Reading University (2020)
  • Invited Consultee, Closer to Home: Next Steps in Planning and Devolution, Institute for Public Policy Research (2016)
  • Member, RIBA Housing Expert Advisory Group (2014-19)
  • Member, Technical Steering Group, National Housing Federation (2012-14)
  • Member, Working Group: Home Performance Labelling Pilot, Housing Forum (2014)
  • Member, Working Group: Housing for the Information Age, Housing Forum (2014)
  • Invited Consultee, Farrell Review of Architecture and the Built Environment (2013)
  • Invited Consultee, Offsite Housing Review, Construction Industry Council (2013)
  • Member, Design Quality Group, Homes and Communities Agency, DCLG (2011-15)
  • Member, RIBA Educational Trust Fund Committee (2007-09)
  • Member, RIBA North East Council (2003-09)
     

Design Governance and Awards Assessor Roles

  • RIBA Awards Juror (2025)
  • Panel Member, Oxford Design Review Panel (Oxford City Council/ Design South East, 2020-24)
  • Panel Member, Design Review and Enabling Service North East (designe, 2020-2024).
  • RIBA Awards, North East (2013, 2016)
  • RIBA Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects Travel Award (jury member, 2008).

Research

Doctoral Supervision

  • Idil Akkuzu, İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi (İTÜ) (Istanbul Technical University) (co-advisor, with Dr. Nizam Onur Sönmez) (2025-27).

Grants

  • Dhruv Sookhoo (applicant), MMU Seed Fund (Developing Innovation Opportunities), Manchester School of Architecture Knowledge Exchange and Practice Innovation Project (MSA KEPIP) (2026, £5,950)
  • Sam Jacoby (principal applicant), Lucia Alonso, Seyithan Ozer, Dhruv Sookhoo (co-applicant), funded by RCA Research Impact Development Scheme, to examine housing associations’ adoption of national housing quality standards and development of approaches to enhance the impact of findings generated through Housing Standardisation for housing associations (2025, £34,450).
  • Dhruv Sookhoo (applicant), ESRC Doctoral Studentship through Northern Ireland and North East Doctoral Training Partnership (NINE DTP) (2015, £45,000).  

Funded Research Collaborations 

  • Idil Akkuzu, International Research Fellowship funded by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TUBITAK) to undertake research under the working title: Negotiating Design: How architects and community land trusts collaborate to delivery affordable, community-based housing developments (2025, £14,000).
  • Ava Lynam (Technische Universität Berlin), funded through MSA Research Environment Enrichment Fund to develop project reflecting on researcher dilemmas during the delivery of strategies for practice-based research within architectural practices (2024, £500).

Practice-based Research and Consultancy

  • Led Metropolitan Workshop’s research programme, including its annual research projects: A New Kind of Suburbia (2019-2020) and People Powered Places (2020-2022, with Ava Lynam, TU Berlin).
  • Invited by Mae Architects to contribute to a draft Housing Design Supplementary Planning Guidance (2019), the successor document to the London Housing Design Guide and later adopted by Greater London Authority as London Plan Guidance (2023).
  • Invited by National Housing Federation to review the Housing Standards Handbook: A Good Practice Guide to Design Quality for Affordable Housing (Levitt Bernstein, 2016)
  • Invited by Urban Design London to contribute to The Design Companion for Planning and Placemaking (Urban Design London, 2017)
  • Invited by Newcastle City Futures to act as design advisor for Newcastle City Futures: People, Place, Change, a high-profile, multi-media exhibition and events series exploring urban renewal over the past 75 years (2014).

Reviewer for Academic Journals 

  • Peer reviewer, Housing Norms and Standards: The Design of Everyday Life, special issue of Urban Planning (Cogitatio Press, vol. 9, iss. 2, June 2024).

Membership of Academic and Impact Advisory Boards 

Awards   

  • RTPI North East Chair’s 2015 Planning Excellence Award for Placemaking through Innovation, alongside Professor Mark Tewdwr-Jones (Director of Newcastle City Futures).

Research Outputs

Exhibitions

Sookhoo, D., 2025. A New Kind of Suburbia, Metropolitan Workshop, London and Dublin Studios.

Sookhoo, D., Coffield, E., Tewdwr-Jones, M., Fry, A., 2014. Newcastle City Futures: People, Place, Change, The Guildhall, Quayside, Newcastle upon Tyne, 23/5/2014 - 10/6/2014.

Sookhoo, D., 2010. Reinvigorating the North East: Architecture 1945-1979, Stephenson Works, Newcastle upon Tyne, 23/1/2010 - 27/2/2010.

Book Chapters

Sookhoo, D., 2023. 'Strategies for Collaborative Research in Architectural Practice: Communicating Metropolitan Workshop's A New Kind of Suburbia'. In Fiehn, R., Buchanan, K., Haward, M. (eds.) Collective Action! The Power of Collaboration and Co-Design in Architecture, RIBA Publishing, London.

Sookhoo, D., 2023. 'Views from Others (Duty to the Profession)'. In Rowlands, C., Dixon, A.B. (eds.) RIBA Ethical Practice Guide, pp. 131-132, RIBA Publishing, London.

Drage, J., Sookhoo, D., Deely, N., 2020. 'Case Study: Mapleton Crescent, Wandsworth, London'. In The Modular Housing Handbook, Routledge.

Reports

Sookhoo, D., Warwick, E., Deely, N., 2021. 'New Kind of Suburbia: Reflections for Future Practice and Thinking: Record of Exhibition Talks, Roundtable Findings and Practice Recommendations', Metropolitan Workshop, London.

Sookhoo, D., Deely, N., Bansor, G., 2019. 'A New Kind of Suburbia (Prospects 1)', Metropolitan Workshop.

Sookhoo, D., Tewdwr-Jones,, M., Houston, C., 2015. 'An Urban Room for Tyneside: an undergraduate design response to the Farrell Review's call for every city to have an urban room'.

Journal Articles

Sookhoo, D., Lynam, A., Buchanan, K., Haward, M., 2023. 'Co-producing affordable housing futures: tools for community participation', ARQ: Architectural Research Quarterly, 27 (3), pp. 268-277.

Tewdwr-Jones, M., Sookhoo, D., Freestone, R., 2020. 'From Geddes' city museum to Farrell's urban room: past, present, and future at the Newcastle City Futures exhibition', Planning Perspectives, 35 (2), pp. 277-297.

Latham, M., Sookhoo, D.A., 2019. 'New suburbia, now: The possibilites of modular construction', arq: Architectural Research Quarterly, 23 (2), pp. 195-200.

Prichard, D., Sookhoo, D., 2019. 'Recalling Milton Keynes: Visions of suburbia', arq: Architectural Research Quarterly, 23 (3), pp. 288-295.

Sookhoo, D., 2016. 'Ethics of Estate Regeneration', Royal Institute of British Architects Journal.

Sookhoo, D., Bauman, I., 2015. 'Ethics: What is the decent thing?', Royal Institute of British Architects Journal, 122 (11), pp. 73-73.

Tewdwr-Jones, M., Fry, A., Coffield, E., Sookhoo, D., Mitchell, D., 2014. 'A room within the city: a place for dialogue and planning imagination', Town and country planning : the quarterly review of the Town and Country Planning Association, 83 (9), pp. 382-389.

Non-Peer Reviewed Articles

Sookhoo, D., 2021. 'A New Kind of Suburbia', Urban Design Group Journal, 157, pp. 23-26.

Conference Papers

Akkuzu, I., Sookhoo, D., Sönmez, N.O., 2025. 'Negotiating Design: How Architects and Community Land Trusts (CLTs) Collaborate for Land-based and Community-based Housing Developments', European Network for Housing Research: Grand Paris 2025: Affordable Housing in Greening Cities, 30/6/2025 - 4/7/2025.

Sookhoo, D., Lynam, A., 2025. 'Reflecting on Researcher Dilemmas in the Delivery of Strategies for Research in Architectural Practice', Birmingham City University Placemaking Seminar Series 2024-25, 26/6/2025 - 26/6/2025.

Sookhoo, D., Lynam, A., 2024. 'People Powered Places: Developing a Practical Guide to Community Participation through Practice-based Research at Metropolitan Workshop', RIAS Social Sustainability Seminar: Happiness or Helplessness, Royal Incorporation of Architectures in Scotland (Online), 24/9/2024 - 24/9/2024.

Sookhoo, D., 2022. 'Suburbia Making Architects: Examining Architects' Priorities for the Production of Suburban Places through Autoethnographic Accounts of Home', Ethnographic and Visual Methods Seminar, School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Newcastle University, 15/9/2022 - 15/9/2022.

Sookhoo, D., 2021. 'Research as Practice: Practice as Research. Experiences of Undertaking Research within Architecture Practice', Guerrilla Tactics: Stop, Collaborate and Listen, Royal Institute of British Architects, 9/11/2021 - 11/11/2021, in https://riba.app.box.com/s/7suoihjxpz1jaueqyak855ubyc2wi5l0.

Sookhoo, D., 2017. 'Professional Perspectives on Residential Design Quality: Situating the Researcher in Practice', RIBA President's Awards for Research 2017 (Symposium Launching Awards), Royal Institute of British Architects, London, 2/5/2017 - 2/5/2017.

Sookhoo, D., Tewdwr-Jones, M., 2015. 'The Urban Room as a Driver of Planning Imagination and Civic Participation', Research on Display: The Architecture Exhibition as a Model for 25 Knowledge Production, Technical University Delft and Het Nieuwe Insituut, Rotterdam, 30/11/2015 - 1/12/2015.

Sookhoo, D., 2014. 'Design review in a client organisation: a reflective practitioner perspective', Industries of Architecture: Relations, Process, Production: 11th International Architectural Humanities Research Association, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, 13/11/2014 - 15/11/2014.

Presentations

Sookhoo, D., McKenna, J., 2021. 'People, Powered, Places: A context for community participation in planning and development', Dublin, Republic of Ireland.

Posters

Sookhoo, D., 2025. 'Suburbia Making Architects: Autoethnographic Component of A Kind of Suburbia', Images of Research, British Academy.

Theses and Dissertations

Sookhoo, D., 2022. 'Architects Authoring Housing Quality through Development Management: The Legacy of Professional Divergence between Architects and Planners'.

Sookhoo, D., 2009. 'The Ethnicized Boundary: Accommodating the Socio-Spatial Claims of Irish Travellers.'.