Like the entire practice, our senior leadership team represent a diversity of backgrounds, skills and expertise. We are passionate about what we do and deeply committed to making the built environment better, more purposeful and sustainable. Blending these skills ensures our practice is always relevant, inspiring and capable, able to respond to the needs stakeholders, communities and the planet – from vision through design to technical implementation.
David David has over 25 years of award-winning experience in architecture, urban design, and property development delivering numerous award-winning projects across the UK in sectors including mixed-use development, residential, retail, and education. David understands the pressures and needs of clients and is committed to delivering creative, sustainable design solutions that meet both viability and added value.
David is passionate about using design to drive positive change, with a deep awareness of the social and environmental challenges facing urban environments today. MCAU was established with a focus on reducing carbon impact, minimizing waste, and fostering positive regeneration through a people-first approach. He advocates for design strategies that align with Sustainable Development Goals and prioritize health and wellbeing particularly in the post-COVID-19 era.
David’s approach is hands-on, particularly in the early stages of projects, emphasizing the importance of thoughtful place focused strategy and design that creates a sense of place but with commercial awareness, to ensure successful delivery strategy is also achieved.
Phil has a wide range of experience across all project sectors. He has been responsible for the bids, design development, team management, and delivery of many projects throughout his 20+ years of experience, ranging from; residential developments (large and small scale), museums, schools (primary, nursery schools, secondary schools, and FE Colleges), office refurbishments, commercial new build schemes, small and large scale healthcare projects, hotels, youth centres and listed building projects. This variety in project types is invaluable, and has enabled Phil to transfer his skills and knowledge between all those sectors which has led to more successful and diverse projects as his career has progressed.
Having such a broad and complete knowledge of the design and technical requirements in so many sectors, means that he can perform at the highest and necessary level as Projects Director overseeing the planning and technical delivery of very large scale and complex mixed-use developments. He is extremely motivated by what high quality and well thought out design can achieve, and particularly the potential and positive influences that a completed building can achieve for its end users and for the client. Phil keeps these ideals at the forefront of every project in which he is involved, adding these values and influences throughout all stages of the development process.
Paul has an unwavering commitment to all the projects in which he is involved, always striving to ensure that highly considered architectural design and commercial viability are created and delivered as one. He is highly organised and has the track record and proven ability to co-ordinate large multi-disciplinary teams to design and deliver architecture within budgetary constraints and always to the satisfaction of the clients he works with.Paul's commitment to achieving design quality, combined with his strong client focus and management skills makes him a key member of the team and a genuine safe pair of hands. He has over 20 years post qualification experience as a Project Architect and has extensive practical experience in overseeing the delivery throughout all stages of a project’s lifetime.
He has in-depth experience particularly within the heritage, residential, retail, and mixed-use sectors.He is highly skilled and as Projects Director he can deliver exciting design solutions that require complex consideration throughout, always providing the necessary attention to detail to achieve the desired outcomes. This ability is crucial and proven, and Paul has delivered many projects that achieve MCAU’s values and aspirations to deliver socially and environmentally sustainable design solutions.
Mike has over 12 years of design experience working across a range of project sectors and has become a specialist in residential and refurbishment work. He has worked as project architect on many of MCAU’s award winning residential regeneration schemes.His design skills and the technical ability gained has been honed on much of his previous completed project work which has included large scale residential led mixed-use developments through to high-end one-off homes and listed building conversions. As a result, Mike has developed an excellent understanding of the design process and his pragmatic and calm approach always ensures successful delivery.
He is highly motivated and driven and has developed a keen interest in environmentally sustainable and high-quality carbon reducing design. Mike holds strong beliefs in always striving to promote this and is aware of the commercial benefits that can be achieved in seeking to deliver community aspiration in all of the projects in which he has been involved, recognising that successful placemaking creates added value for all.Mike is bringing forward much of the commitment and focus that MCAU is currently giving to a number of Passive House projects in which we are involved.
Dan specialises in strategic, commercial and placemaking advice to destinations of all types and sizes, both domestically and overseas. His work helped to deliver successful places like Cardiff Bay and MediaCityUK, as well as major attractions like The O2 Arena, the National Football Centre at St George’s Park, and Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. An economist by background, Dan advises clients across a broad range of arts, cultural and leisure destinations, including the National Trust and English Heritage, as well as provides placemaking advice to private developers, such as U+I, Berkeley Homes, Argent and Delancey.
Jim has amassed a wealth of experience – spanning four decades – advising on a broad range of arts and cultural destination developments throughout the UK and across Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He brings financial rigor to early-stage creative processes, ensuring development strategies are anchored in sound commercial principles.
In 2009 he authored the business case and design brief that unpinned the award-winning Giant’s Causeway visitor centre. He co-founded Fourth Street in 2012, now an integrated offer within MCAU, and has since helped to unlock numerous culture-led regeneration projects including Farsons’ Old Brewhouse in Malta and Brighton’s iconic Madeira Terrace. He is currently leading the team tasked with delivering a £6.5m restoration of Swindon’s Victorian baths.
With over 14 years experience, Sarah brings expertise in social and community driven design, working with communities, clients, stakeholders, designers and end-users to develop a shared understanding of space and place. She has developed engagement strategies and tool kits, to actively engage the community to ensure voices are captured in a meaningful way. Sarah is currently involved estate regeneration across Blackburn and Calderdale, applying her creativity and knowledge of inclusive design with a focused, well-organised and systematic approach to problem-solving, to breathe new life into these estates including new homes, open space and community buildings under a wider placeshaping strategy.
On these projects she has been leading stakeholder and community engagement, acting as facilitator. Ensuring that the development is driven by stakeholders and the community to encourage social interaction and co design through participation and engagement. Sarah is also actively involved at Manchester School of Architecture and has been teaching and lecturing since 2009. Sarah is passionate about celebrating diversity and difference, and compliments her work in practice through teaching in PRAXXIS, which strives to question what is feminist architecture now and in the future, exploring the inequalities in society and what that may mean for the built environment.
Steven is a Masterplanning and Urban Design Associate Director at MCAU, bringing 17 years of invaluable experience in supporting both public and private sector clients. Prior to joining MCAU, he spent 12 years at Barton Willmore (now Stantec). He has a proven track record of progressing masterplans from concept through to detail and delivery. Steven has collaborated with many of the UK's national housebuilders, developers, and government bodies at both national and local levels. As an experienced masterplanner and urban designer, he has led multi-disciplinary teams to shape commercially-minded yet imaginative design proposals.
Steven’s expertise encompasses mixed-use environments, major regeneration projects, employment, and residential developments, including large urban extensions. Key career projects include the residential-led regeneration of several edge-of-city sites such as Pendleton in Salford (approximately 650 homes) and Jackson Brickworks in Manchester (approximately 400 homes). He has also supported Homes England on urban extensions in Runcorn and Preston, and provides creative design solutions that help transform social housing estates across the UK. As a Chartered Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute, Steven not only prepares technically robust design solutions but also responds closely to the planning policy framework.
If you share our aspiration and vision and possess the complementary skills, passion, and focus to deliver a renewed architecture and urbanism that is inspiring, thoughtful, and real. If you want to make a real difference in the built environment and change places and people’s lives for the better, then please get in touch. We’re always on the lookout for great talent.
Contact by email only with samples of work and experience.
