Tom Dyckhoff

{{Infobox person

| name = Tom Dyckhoff

| image =

| caption =

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth based on age as of date|40|2011|8|1}}{{cite news|first=Neil |last=Midgley|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8671067/Tom-Dyckhoff-Britains-buildings-and-homes-are-bad-for-our-health.html|title=Tom Dyckhoff: Britain's buildings and homes are bad for our health|date=1 August 2011|work=The Telegraph|accessdate=14 April 2014}}

| birth_place = St Albans, England

| occupation = Critic, journalist, author, presenter

| spouse = Claire

| children =

| years_active = 1998–present

| website ={{url|tomdyckhoff.co.uk/}}

}}

Tom Dyckhoff is a British writer, broadcaster and historian on architecture, design and cities. He has worked in television, radio, exhibitions, print and online media.

He is best known for being a BBC TV presenter of The Great Interior Design Challenge, The Culture Show, I Love Carbuncles, The Secret Life of Buildings (on Channel 4) and Saving Britain's Past.

Early life

He went to Aylesbury Grammar School (between 1983 and 1987) and then to the private Royal Grammar School Worcester (1987–1989).{{cite web|url=http://www.rgsw.org.uk/rgs-worcester/alumni/school-alumni/|title=School Alumni|publisher=rgsw.org.ukaccessdate=14 April 2014|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006123335/http://www.rgsw.org.uk/rgs-worcester/alumni/school-alumni/|archivedate=6 October 2014|df=dmy-all}}

Dyckhoff then received a BA in Geography from Oxford University,{{cite news|first=Tom| last=Dyckhoff|url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2001/may/18/universityguide.tomdyckhoff|date=18 May 2001 |title=Tom Dyckhoff finds that geography has shaken off the anoraks|work=The Guardian|accessdate=14 April 2014}}

Career

He began his career in September 1995, at Perspectives on Architecture, (the Prince of Wales's architectural magazine),Richard Hill{{Google books|-ooprFiVHV8C|Designs and Their Consequences: Architecture and Aesthetics|page=368}} before becoming assistant editor at Design magazine, and then exhibitions curator at the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1998. Between 1999 and 2003 was deputy editor of "Space", The Guardian newspaper's design and homes section, and worked on its Weekend magazine.Joe Kerr, Andrew Gibson{{Google books|5VdsY1LF_gMC|London From Punk to Blair: Revised Second Edition|page=261}}

He is teaching fellow in the history and theory of architecture and cities at the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London. He is also History and Theory Tutor in MArch Architecture at Central Saint Martins. He has also taught at other institutions including Design Academy Eindhoven; University of Westminster, London; Cass School of Architecture, London Metropolitan University; and at the Architectural Association, London.{{cite web |title=Tom Dyckhoff |url=https://www.arts.ac.uk/colleges/central-saint-martins/people/tom-dyckhoff |website=Central Saint Martins |access-date=15 September 2022 |language=en |date=25 October 2018}}

Dyckhoff wrote a weekly column for The Guardian newspaper's Weekend magazine from 2001 until 2020,{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006t6c5/presenters/tomdyckhoff|title=Tom Dyckhoff|year=2014|publisher=bbc.co.uk|accessdate=14 April 2014}} and from 2003 to 2011, he was the architecture and design critic for The Times newspaper in London.{{cite news|url=http://www.gloucestershireecho.co.uk/TV-architecture-critic-Tom-Dyckhoff-Cheltenham/story-20823790-detail/story.html|date=18 March 2014|title=TV architecture critic Tom Dyckhoff to give Cheltenham Civic Society annual lecture|work=Gloucestershire Echo|accessdate=14 April 2014|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140416192752/http://www.gloucestershireecho.co.uk/TV-architecture-critic-Tom-Dyckhoff-Cheltenham/story-20823790-detail/story.html|archivedate=16 April 2014|df=dmy-all}}{{cite news|first=Tom|last=Dyckhoff|url=https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/property-home/article/stirling-prize-2008-winner-accordia-housing-development-cambridge-ln0vndfqf7m|title=Stirling Prize 2008 winner: Accordia housing development, Cambridge|date=14 October 2008|work=The Times|access-date=15 April 2014}}

He has written for international publications such as Blueprint,{{cite web|first=Josie |last=Appleton|url=http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/1207|title=Architect of the Year 2004|date=4 March 2005|publisher=spiked-online.com|accessdate=15 April 2014}} Architects' Journal,{{cite web|url=http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/tom-dyckhoff/270.contributor|title=Tom Dyckhoff|year=2014|publisher=architectsjournal.co.uk|accessdate=15 April 2014}} GQ, Arena, Wallpaper, Domus, New Statesman, Monocle and Icon.{{cite web|url=http://www.architectureweek.com/cgi-bin/calendar.cgi?id=11511|title=In Conversation: with Will Alsop & Tom Dyckhoff|date=13 April 2005|publisher=architectureweek.com|accessdate=14 April 2014}} He has taught at University College London, where he was honorary senior research associate, acts as a visiting critic and lecturer at other universities, and regularly holds lectures and hosts events.

Dyckhoff is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects,{{cite web|url=http://www.architecture.com/NewsAndPress/News/RIBANews/News/2009/RIBAannounces12HonoraryFellowships.aspx|date=6 October 2009|title=RIBA announces 12 Honorary Fellowships|publisher=architecture.com|accessdate=15 April 2014|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140416181957/http://www.architecture.com/NewsAndPress/News/RIBANews/News/2009/RIBAannounces12HonoraryFellowships.aspx|archivedate=16 April 2014|df=dmy-all}} has been a trustee of the Architecture Foundation,{{cite web|url=http://www.architecturefoundation.org.uk/news/2012/oct/dyckhoff-rees-thakur-join-board|title=Tom Dyckhoff, Peter Rees, and Vijay Thakur join The AF's Board of Trustees|date=25 October 2012|publisher=architecturefoundation.org.uk|accessdate=14 April 2014}} and was on the national shortlisting jury for the Stirling Prize for architecture from 2008 to 2012. In 2013 he was a judge on The Stirling Prize.{{cite web|url=http://www.dezeen.com/2013/09/27/utterly-magical-building-wins-stirling-prize-but-no-cash/|title=Utterly magical building wins Top UK architecture prize – but no cash|date=27 September 2013|publisher=dezeen.com|accessdate=14 April 2014}}

He has also sat on the architecture committees of the Arts Council, the British Council and the Twentieth Century Society (which campaigns for 20th century heritage),{{cite web|url=http://www.c20society.org.uk/journals/journal-4-post-war-houses/|title=Journal 4: Post-war Houses|year=2000|publisher=c20society.org.uk|accessdate=15 April 2014}} and on the British Council jury selecting the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.{{cite web|url=http://venicebiennale.britishcouncil.org/timeline/2006|title=Echo/City – An Urban Register|year=2006|publisher=venicebiennale.britishcouncil.org|accessdate=14 April 2014}}

In 2013, he began making radio programmes for BBC Radio 4, such as a documentary on Buckminster Fuller (an American design polymath), and a regular series on design, The Design Dimension.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01lswct/An_Operating_Manual_for_Spaceship_Earth/|title=An Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth|date= 1 March 2013|publisher=bbc.co.uk|accessdate=14 April 2014}}

He was an editorial consultant behind rethinking the 21st edition of Sir Banister Fletcher's A History of Architecture. In 2017, Penguin Random House published his first book, The Age of Spectacle: adventures in architecture and the 21st-century city, a history of architecture and cities since the 1970s.

Television career

Dyckhoff's first documentary was a one off, in 2004, about brutalist architecture for Channel 4, I Love Carbuncles.{{cite web|first=Rachel |last=Cooke |date=15 August 2011 |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/television/2011/08/building-dyckhoff-office|title=The Secret Life of Buildings (Channel 4)|work=The New Statesman|accessdate=14 April 2014}} From 2006 to 2016, he was a Culture Show presenter, where he wrote and presented a range of short and full-length documentaries on diverse subjects, with interviewees, such as Frank Gehry, Ikea, Chinese design and architecture, Oscar Niemeyer, Thomas Heatherwick, Dieter Rams and Lego.{{cite news|url=http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/TV-preview-Culture-Lego-ndash-Building-Block/story-20594133-detail/story.html|date=10 February 2014|title=TV preview: The Culture Show: Lego – The Building Block of Architecture|work=Stoke Sentinel|accessdate=14 April 2014}}{{cite web|url=http://www.radiotimes.com/episode/csrjvf/the-culture-show--the-culture-show-lego---the-building-blocks-of-architecture|title=The Culture Show: Lego – The Building Blocks of Architecture|year=2014|work=Radio Times |accessdate=14 April 2014}}

In 2009, he presented Saving Britain's Past, an exploration of Britain's relationship with heritage, on BBC2.{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00mg4ws/episodes/guide|title=Saving Britain's Past|date=12 August 2009|publisher=bbc.co.uk|accessdate=14 April 2014}}

In 2011, he was a presenter of Channel 4's three-part series Secret Life of Buildings, which used the latest research in psychology and neuroscience and real-life experiments to examine the impact of spaces and architecture on our brains and bodies.{{cite web|first=Mic |last=Wright|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/mic-wright/my-television-week-dragon_b_918166.html|date=4 August 2011|title=My Television Week: Dragons' Den, The Secret Life Of Buildings |work=Huffington Post|accessdate=15 April 2014}}

In 2013, he began presenting The Great Interior Design Challenge on BBC 2.{{cite web |title=BBC Two - The Great Interior Design Challenge, Series 1, Edwardian - Muswell Hill |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03sg6fq |website=BBC |accessdate=13 April 2020}} He then presented Series 2 (Oct/ Nov 2014), Series 3 (Feb 2016) and Series 4 (Jan 2017) as well.{{cite web |title=BBC Two - The Great Interior Design Challenge |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04nj4d5 |website=BBC |accessdate=13 April 2020}}

In 2022, he is a judge on the 2nd series of Channel 4's Handmade: Britain's Best Woodworker, a carpentry talent competitions show presented by Mel Giedroyc. He joins woodworking expert Sophie Sellu.{{cite web |last1=Cox |first1=Robin L. |title=What is Handmade: Britain's Best Woodworker and when is it back on Channel 4? |url=https://www.concowoodworking.com/what-is-handmade-britains-best-woodworker-and-when-is-it-back-on-channel-4/ |website=www.concowoodworking.com |access-date=22 September 2022}}