Joint Managing Director with Julia Barfield of Marks Barfield Architects.

Together with Julia Barfield, David leads the practice and overviews all projects. David has extensive experience in public and statutory consultation, handling multiple stakeholder representations, and obtaining collective decisions and approvals.

David is an architect with a commitment to innovation and excellence combined with a passionate belief that well-designed buildings and structures brings vitality and enjoyment into people’s lives. His approach is underpinned by a focus on quality – of people and processes – at every stage of a project from concept to delivery.  He enjoys turning complex and challenging briefs into solutions that reflect a sophisticated simplicity. His love of natural form and zeal for innovation is a strong influence on his design approach.

David and Julia founded the London Eye Company and remained directors and shareholders until they sold their stake in 2006.  As Managing Director of the company, David led the team that secured the partners and funding that made the London Eye a reality. The London Eye has become the most popular attraction in the UK and is recognised as a new symbol of London and the UK.

David was made MBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours List 2000; received the Prince Philip Designers Prize Special Commendation for Outstanding Achievement in Design for Business and Society 2000; the Faculty of Building Trophy for Outstanding Work in the Field of Construction 2001; and Pride of Britain Award for Innovation 2001.

Between 2002 and 2007 David was Chairman of the Waterloo Project Board, a transformative £19 million regeneration programme, which helped to bring about tangible improvements to everyday life for local residents, employees, and community organisations in London SE1.

Founding director of Marks Barfield Architects (MBA) 1989 together with husband and partner David Marks (1952 – 2017). Also the originators and creative Entrepreneurs behind the design, funding, development and realisation of the London Eye and British Airways i360 in Brighton.

Julia studied at the Architectural Association (AA), spent year out in South America working in barriada’s of Lima, Peru. Worked for Richard Rogers & Partners and Foster Associates for 9 yrs; was project architect for the Sackler Galleries in the Royal Academy, Piccadilly, responsible for developing the early design strategy. She is currently the Chair of National RIBA Awards Panel; on the LLDC Quality Review Panel and is an advisor for for Design for the Built Environment Masters course at Cambridge University. Previously was on CABE Design Review Panel – 5 yrs; Vice President of the AA and an external examiner for Architecture at Queens University Belfast. She has lectured in schools, universities and conferences in UK and overseas including Beijing, Mexico, Rome, Berlin and University of Virginia.

Jointly with David Marks, has received an MBE, the Prince Philip Designers Prize, special commendation and winner of ‘Queens Award for Enterprise, Innovation ’2003. MBA has been short-listed for the Stirling Prize; won The Building ‘Architectural Practice of the Year’ Award & BD Sports and Leisure ‘Architects of the Year’.
MBA has diverse experience in many sectors, from culture and education to bridges and transport; sports and leisure. MBA has won more than 80 awards for Design, Innovation and Sustainability. Michael Tippett Secondary School, won the award for Best design of a new school 2008. The Lightbox, cultural centre in Woking, won the National Arts Prize 2008; and Clapham Old Town won the NLA Award for Public Space in 2015. Greenwich Gateway Pavilions won an RIBA National award 2016 and in 2017, British Airways i360 won 18 awards.

Ian has been a qualified architect since 1995. He joined Marks Barfield Architects as Practice Director in early 2007, and was promoted to a company Director in February 2008.

In the last 6 years, Ian has overseen the operation and delivery of a diverse range of UK and International architectural projects across many sectors. Ian leads an award winning and talented team that delivers bespoke solutions in a cost effective way.

Before joining Marks Barfield, Ian worked as Sector Director for Workplace and Sector Director of Science at Sheppard Robson.  He also lead project teams such as the Santander HQ in Triton Square, London, the Arup HQ Phase 2 in Fitzrovia, London, the Imperial College London Frameworks Projects, and Burlington Danes, a Healthcare Research Imaging Centre for Imperial College London, GSK and the MRC.

With a depth of experience within the workplace and science sectors, Ian also has considerable experience of working on complex, large projects within education, retail, transport, sports & leisure, arts & culture, and housing sectors, and also visitor attractions.

Gemma studied architecture at Manchester University and the Royal College of Art and now has 15 years of building experience. She joined Marks Barfield Architects in 2001. Gemma became a Director at Marks Barfield Architects in 2014. Gemma is our Health and Safety Manager and our Sustainability Champion, she oversees, reviews and monitors the office’s Environmental Management System and Environmental objectives.

Gemma is very hands on and has wide experience in working with clients, key stakeholders and other designers to gather information from the multitude of entities and is able to interpret, challenge and present these in unison with the overall development strategy. She has a particular interest in creating community buildings where different users need to be brought together to create multifunctional buildings that become part of the success of community. This collaborative approach has evolved from Gemma delivering the awarding winning Lightbox and ThinkTank for Marks Barfield. She is experienced in public consultation and presenting to key stakeholders, user groups, liaising with planners, English Heritage and other interested bodies. She is skilled in understanding and highlighting the projects’ risks and mitigating these at an early stage.

Gemma is working with the Social Mobility Foundation providing social mobility mentoring to local A level students. Gemma acts as a mentor to trainee architects (RIBA Part 2) within the office. Gemma has the Construction Skills Health and Safety accreditation for site competency.

Ian joined Marks Barfield Architects in 2006 and in 2014 became a Director. Ian has over 20 years of hands-on, construction & project-running experience, garnered from working in various sectors including: Education, Sports & Leisure, Office & Commercial and Transport. He has successfully delivered complex projects, both in the UK and overseas. In addition to his project roles, Ian also oversees the technical delivery of the practice’s output, holding technical reviews for each project at key points in the project development, to ensure that each project is both statutorily compliant and deliverable.

Magali Thomson, Director and Team Leader, studied architecture at the Architectural Association and Oxford Brookes University. She has worked for Ian Simpson Architects, Squire and Partners and Studio E Architects, where she was Architect on a number of listed and new build residential, office and mixed use developments. At Studio E, her interest in education began as she worked as Project Architect on two primary schools in Bexley.

This interest has evolved into her specialisation, and she now runs the Education Team at Marks Barfield. She was project architect for The Michael Tippett School, which is the first BSF school to open in London, both on time and on budget. The school won two awards at the 2008 Excellence in BSF Awards for ‘Best Design for New School’, and the ‘Grand Prix Award’. It has also received a commendation at the Civic Trust Awards in 2009, and is a CABE exemplar.

Since then Magali has been involved in a secondary school which forms part of Birmingham’s BSF, an Islamic School in Brent, a feasibility study for a new Academy in Sussex, with boarding facilities and including refurbishment of a Grade II* Listed Building and several bids for primary, secondary, SEN and Independent schools. She has ongoing relationships with many contractor clients on the Academy Framework with ongoing bid submissions.

Magali is experienced in absorbing information from the multitude of entities which are often involved in education and capital projects, and is able to interpret, challenge and present these.

Yevgeniy Beylkin joined Marks Barfield Architects in 2008. Since joining the practice, Yevgeniy has led a number of major projects that included: British High Commission in New Delhi, Devonshire Park in Eastbourne, and recently completed Publicis London HQ. Prior to joining MBA, Yevgeniy worked as a Project Leader for the offices of Zaha Hadid Architects. He has over 10 years of experience in architecture and 3 years in construction management. Yevgeniy has taught post-graduate courses at the Dessau Institute of Architecture in Germany and continues to mentor local A level students as part of the Social Mobility Foundation scheme.

Yevgeniy is experienced in presenting to client-stakeholder groups and liaising with statutory bodies. He places high emphasis on design quality and is always looking for ways to bring added value to projects. Alongside his role as an Associate, Yevgeniy’s responsibilities include management of practice’s IT support, compliance with ISO 9001 certification, and implementation and observation of risk management systems.

Yevgeniy was awarded the Certificate in Professional Practice and Management in Architecture, ARB/RIBA Part 3 from the Bartlett University College London. He holds a Bachelor Degree in Architecture from Syracuse University in United States, a Master Degree in Architecture form Architectural Association in London, and a Construction Skills Health and Safety accreditation for site competency.

Brenda studied Architecture at The University of Auckland in New Zealand. She also studied at the Seoul National University in Korea as an exchange student with scholarship. Afterwards, Brenda worked at Shanahan Architects. as a project leader delivering a number of residential projects, ranging from residential masterplan to luxury private residences.

In 2007 Brenda moved to the United Kingdom and worked at Foster and Partners. She worked on a wide range of international projects such as high density residential projects in Almaty, Kazakhstan, winning competitions including mixed use Huadu masterplan in Beijing, China. She designed the executive rooftop restaurant / leisure centre and luxury apartments on The Skymark, a mixed use tower in Istanbul, Turkey.

Since joining Marks Barfield, Brenda has been involved in education sector including Islamia Primary School, Stormont House School, and Saltley School delivering projects from concept stage to completion. She has also led Greenwich Gateway Pavilion as a project architect from competition to completion. She was promoted as an Associate and has been running major competitions and projects such as Nine Elms to Pimlico Bridge and Cambridge Mosque.

Brenda’s design approach is focused on the spatial experience of the architecture within its physical and environmental context. Her passion to spatial design is driven by the history, the culture, and the people while bringing a poetic attention and a strategic planning to the client’s brief.

Before joining Marks Barfield, Georgina worked for Hopkins Architects and helped to deliver a wide range of projects in commercial, residential and education sectors. These included a high end residential block in Jersey, a new music school for Bryanston, and a new Library for the University of East London in Stratford.

Georgina studied at the University of Manchester and University of Westminster and qualified as an architect in 2012. Since starting at Marks Barfield at the start of 2014 she has been primarily involved in a marketing suite on the Southbank and the British Airways i360.

Matthew studied architecture at the University of Nottingham. During his studies he worked on a studio unit project to design and construct a nursery school in a township in South Africa. Throughout the project Matthew developed interests in passive sustainable design and community engagement. He travelled to South Africa with the unit to construct the school in 7 weeks. Following this project he also developed an interest in school design, with emphasis on flexible spaces for new pedagogical theories of student-led learning.

After graduating in 2010, he worked at Austin-Smith:Lord, as part of a large team designing a cultural centre in the middle east. In 2011 he then moved to Studio E Architects to work on several UK secondary school projects. Matthew joined Marks Barfield Architects in 2014.

Jolien studied architecture at the Technical University of Eindhoven in The Netherlands, and graduated cum laude in 2013. Her thesis was a research-focused project on mono-functional developments in the Amsterdam Canal zone, executed in close collaboration with UNESCO. The results were exhibited at the Dutch Design Week 2013 and published internationally.

Before moving to London in 2015, Jolien worked in New York, Amsterdam and The Hague. She has worked on a range of different projects, from a Grade I listed High Commission in Westminster, to an indoor ski hall in China and high-end residential developments in the US and The Netherlands.

Jolien joined Marks Barfield in 2016 and is currently working on Cambridge Mosque.

Wojciech studied architecture at Wroclaw University of Technology in Poland, RGU in Aberdeen and University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, where he graduated in 2011. Throughout his education and practice, he developed his computer design skills and hands-on understanding of different fabrication and construction techniques. He also pursues interests in filmmaking and music.

Since joining MBA in September 2014, Wojciech has been involved mostly in competitions and concept stages of many different projects. He assists directors by capturing the emerging geometries using parametric modelling and visualising the design via 3d rendering and communicating the ideas using a variety of animation techniques.

Yushi studied at the University of Bath and graduated in 2015. Through her studies, she has developed an interest in socially driven architecture and was chosen to design and build an experimental housing prototype in Hungary focusing on adaptation to contemporary issues such as immigration and settlement.

She first joined MBA on work placement during her undergraduate studies in 2014 and returned to the practice after graduating. Since then, she has worked on numerous projects in various sectors and is currently working on commercial and residential buildings in Westminster and Camden.

Prior to joining MBA, Yushi worked in Beijing where she was involved with theatre and gallery design, as well as assisting with international competitions.

Sam joined Marks Barfield Architects in 2016 after graduating from the Liverpool School of Architecture with a first class degree.

Throughout his Part 2 education, Sam took a keen interest in how major political and social shifts can drastically affect a city vernacular. He was awarded the Honan Travelling Scholarship, which funded his research trip to Tirana in Albania, where he explored how the city has transformed since its release from communism and extreme isolation. Sam later presented his findings to the Liverpool School of Architecture, local Architectural Society and to Jane Duncan, the RIBA President.

Sam continued this interest during his Erasmus term at the Dessau Institute of Architecture where his design project looked at how the rapid gentrification of Berlin will affect the city by the end of the century and how Berlin’s artists and anarchists could force their way back into the city by recreating the ‘old Berlin’ on the disused Autobahns.

Sam is currently working on Cambridge Mosque.