Robin is a project architect with experience working in a wide range of sectors. His current focus is on student accommodation.
He has a real passion for drama and spent several years working as a set and costume designer for theatre. Robin brings this through into his architectural design work, and is not afraid to suggest strong, simple gestures that really tell a story.
What’s your favourite project you’ve worked on to date?
Caffi, for Coleg Gwent’s Usk Campus. This was a really small but complex refurbishment job to turn the main library into a new café and several teaching rooms. The original building was constructed in the early C20, and at one point there had been a lecture theatre with raked seating in it. Our job was to make sense of the existing building by removing walls and old elements of structure to make a free-flowing and welcoming environment. I got to work closely with Stride Treglown’s interiors team to develop a scheme that was attractive and in line with the college’s branding, while still being robust enough to withstand the beating it would inevitably get on an agricultural campus.
What is the current big trend in your sector?
The student accommodation sector is huge, and the challenge for any new development is standing out from the crowd and attracting new residents. There is only so much you can do with a student bedroom, so the emphasis is on the amenity space you provide to go with the bedrooms. This can be anything from communal kitchens and study areas, to full-on cinemas with reclining seats and surround sound. The options are endless, and every scheme has a different approach depending on who they want to attract.
If you weren’t in this career, what would you be?
I love telling stories, so probably something in the dramatic arts or the film industry. I love nothing more that dreaming up new worlds and envisaging the people who might inhabit them.
What is your proudest moment?
I did the costume design for a production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle at The Tobacco Factory in Bristol. Rather setting it on a farm, as Brecht’s original script suggests, we updated it to be an arts commune in an old chalk factory. My costumes were for a mixture of hippies, punks, and other non-conformist crusties who all lived and worked together.
I had great fun assembling and modifying all the outfits to look really worn and lived in by the cast. Seeing the audience fall in love with this rag-tag band of outcasts was a joy to watch, and nothing quite beats the thrill of an opening night when everything goes to plan.
Favourite podcast?
99% Invisible. It’s a design podcast that covers everything from the history of the vocoder to the rules of basketball. You may think a podcast episode about a group of people trying to count all the squirrels in Central Park sounds dull, but trust me on this, it’s fascinating.
Industry bodies
- ARB
