Dhruv is a chartered architect (RIBA), chartered town planner (MRTPI) and recognised university educator (FHEA), and Senior Lecturer in Architecture and Urbanism at Manchester School of Architecture.

He is Visiting Lecturer in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Newcastle University, where he completed professionally-accredited degrees in architecture and planning, and later a PhD examining the social practices adopted by architects to negotiate housing quality during development management (NINE ESRC funded doctoral studentship). As a Visiting Lecturer within the School, Dhruv regularly contributes to undergraduate and postgraduate teaching across architecture, planning and urban design programmes, reflecting his expertise in practice development in industry, and a developing research agenda associated with the socialisation of architects and planner in practice, the promotion of housing design quality within developing organisations, and design-led, participatory approaches for effective collaboration between practitioners and communities. He currently serves an Examiner and UK Adaption Assessor for the Architects Registration Board (2018-), an Assessor for the RTPI Assessment of Professional Competence (L-APC and DA-APC) (2019-) and RTPI Degree Apprenticeship End Point Assessment (2022-), a Professional Examiner for the PGDip Architectural Practice and Management (Part 3) at Newcastle University, and a Dissertation Supervisor for the Masters of Urban Design at the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff (2022-).

Dhruv was Head of Research and Practice Innovation, at Metropolitan Workshop, an award-winning practice of architects, urban planners and urban designers delivering complex public and private sector projects from their bases in London and Dublin (2019-2021). This appointment followed an extended research residency coinciding with funded doctoral research through NINE DTP (2015-2019). Before commencing full-time research, he was Design Manager and then Head of Design, Home Group (2011-2015), a large developing housing association, where he was responsible for establishing the design department and championing better residential design quality across a national housing and regeneration programme through the commissioning of leading architects and designers, effective design management, design review and community engagement.

Dhruv is the past Chair of the influential RIBA Housing Group (2019-2021), member of RIBA Practice and Profession Committee (2019-2021), and an alumnus of Future of London’s London Leadership Programme (2011-2012). He was design advisor to the recent Newcastle City Futures: People, Place, Change exhibition and event series, for which he received the RTPI North East Chair’s 2015 Planning Excellence Award for Placemaking through Innovation, alongside Professor Mark Tewdwr-Jones (Director of Newcastle City Futures).

Dhruv tweets as: @DhruvSookhoo

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. (ESRC Doctoral Studentship funded through NINE DTP, awarded by the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Newcastle University).
  • Postgraduate Certificate in Advanced Studies in Academic Practice (Higher Education Academy, Descriptor 2 recognised), University of Newcastle upon Tyne,
  • Newcastle Teaching Award (Higher Education Academy, Descriptor 1),
  • Postgraduate Certificate in Research Training (ESRC recognised), University of Newcastle upon Tyne (part-time),
  • Postgraduate Diploma in Architectural Practice and Management (Part 3 ARB/ RIBA), University of Newcastle upon Tyne,
  • Masters of Science in Town Planning with Distinction, University of Newcastle upon Tyne (RTPI-accredited; part-time),
  • Bachelor of Architecture with Honours (Part 2 ARB/ RIBA), University of Newcastle upon Tyne,
  • Certificate in Architectural Practice with Distinction, University of Newcastle upon Tyne,
  • Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies with Honours (Part 1 ARB/RIBA), University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Previous Employment

  • Dissertation Supervisor, Masters of Urban Design, Welsh School of Architecture and School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University (2022-),
  • Visiting Lecturer, School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Newcastle University (2014-),
  • Head of Research and Practice Innovation, Metropoltian Workshop, London and Dublin (2019-2021),
  • Design Manager, and then Head of Design, Home Group (2011-2015).  

Membership of professional associations

  • Registered Architect, Architects Registration Board,
  • Chartered Architect, Royal Institute of British Architects,
  • Chartered Town Planner, Royal Town Planning Institute,
  • Fellow, Higher Education Academy.

Research

Exhibitions

Sookhoo, D., 2024. 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

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.

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.'.