Layton Reid

Layton Reid is an architect, designer and academic and is currently the Visiting Professor of Research and External profile at the University of West London, a visiting professor and researcher at ESNE Madrid and a visiting fellow at the Pratt Institute New York developing new creative businesses. He is now engaged in developing a distinct industry and societal change adaptive suite of degree courses in the area of IDEA, architecture, interior and urban landscape for the University of West London. 

Since joining LSFMD he has developed the content for the BA Interior Design course and developed and validated the new MA in Interior Environment Design, a highly commended new take on the built and virtual environment. This aligns with the support received from the RIBA President and leading practices for UWL to create new forms of educational content and delivery in the subject area.

Layton was previously the founding Associate Dean for Architecture, Interior Design, Environment Architectures and Urban Landscape, Student Experience and Engagement, International Liaison and Special Projects. At Ravensbourne University London, Layton created the most diverse and inclusive department of architecture in the UK, creating the new acronym IDEAs for environment studies. As a past chairman and president of IE, the national academic subject group for interior design, chair of RIBA visiting boards and an international external examiner, he is involved in shaping the subject area and its new definitions. 

As a practising architect, Layton is the Founder Director of Desitecture, his research based practice, considering and producing solutions for the design of and retro fit of new city typologies based on applied research on polycultural environments and the development and application of emergent technologies and materials, reconsidering the city construct as a responsive participant in society, through awards and internationally exhibited, presentations, debates and published projects such as  Vertical City, Aero City Towers and Linearpolis, Polycity, Sanatheon and Osteon Cumulus, which was shortlisted for Best British Export Architecture Award.

The emergent time fuelled changing and sustainable global society, with new communication modes, has given Layton the work currency and a broad platform at a range of international conferences, including the Hong Kong Vertical Cities and Singapore High Density Development conferences. Exhibitions include the World Architecture Festival (WAF), Asia Design Platform and the 2019 Venice Biennale European Culture Foundation, where high-density living innovations are at the forefront of the global debate on space and sustainability, and now the issues regarding the COVID-19 pandemic where his Seacole project was shortlisted for Best Health project at WAF.

Numerous international publications feature his work and theories on sustainable future environments. His latest writing is in the form of a chapter on the book ‘Inside as Outsider I', Dialogues and Dreams, University of Westminster Press (2021), dealing with the issues of pedagogy and lack of inclusive value sets in contemporary in architecture education. 

He is also founder of IKENGA, a not-for-profit organisation working closely with international Soho House group the Creative Industry Club, where he sits on the IDE board, working to transform creative education and to support members of the diaspora and those from non-traditional backgrounds with access to the highest levels of the creative and artistic industries. Students from a range of UK universities attend social learning presentations with industry leaders, gaining mentoring and industry facing opportunities such as the Corbusier Foundation supported touring exhibition and the United Nations and Commonwealth accredited Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) initiative. Layton was also featured in the 200 Black Faces of Britain exhibition in 2021.

His latest research, Project Diatom City, has won an WAFX Award for Smarter Cities. It evidences the importance for the future of the relationship between the academic world and industry.