David Chambers

Design & Placemaking Lead, Architect & Urbanist,
Rother District Council.

David Chambers is an architect and urbanist specialising in design leadership, placemaking, and the role of design in planning, regeneration, and public policy. He currently serves as Design & Placemaking Team Leader at Rother District Council, where he leads on embedding design quality across the Local Plan, design codes, regeneration programmes, and strategic placemaking.

His work focuses on ensuring that design informs strategic decision-making, not just individual projects, and on strengthening public sector design capacity to support well-designed places and long-term public value. In this role, he works across planning, regeneration, and infrastructure, collaborating with council services, external partners, and regional stakeholders to embed design quality in both policy and delivery. His work includes area-based masterplanning in Bexhill, projects linked to key civic assets such as the De La Warr Pavilion, and integrating design across plan-making, regeneration, and spatial strategy.

He has over 20 years’ experience across architecture, research, and public sector practice, and is a Public Practice alumnus. From 2010–2023, he co-founded and directed Aberrant Architecture, delivering civic and cultural projects exhibited internationally, including at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale. This background in participatory and civic design continues to inform his approach to design-led placemaking within the public sector.

He is co-author of Wherever You Find People (Park Books, 2016), examining public space, infrastructure, and education in Brazil.

Teaching, Writing & Research

Alongside his public sector role, David teaches architecture at the University of Brighton, where his studio explores architecture as social infrastructure, community-focused design, and low-carbon placemaking. He previously taught for a decade at Central Saint Martins.

His writing focuses on design in the public sector, planning, and placemaking, with particular interest in how design operates within governance and long-term civic strategy. He has published in Building Design and contributes regular professional reflections on planning, placemaking, and social infrastructure.

He contributes to design review and advisory work across regional planning and design contexts, including the South Downs National Park Design Review Panel. He is part of the officer steering group for the High Weald National Landscape and acts as liaison officer for Combe Valley Countryside Park. He is also co-founder of The Gopher Hole, a London-based project space for architecture, art, and public debate.