Rich White

Richard graduated from Dundee University School of Architecture in 1992 with an honours degree (upper second) and was employed at numerous practices in the Tayside area - Part 3 professional exam was sat at James F. Stephens in Glamis, then spells at Keppies (Perth) ne D.Y.Davies, Nicol Russell and Parr Partnership. His final post in an architects practice was as visualizer at Ian Burke Associates (now Manson Architects) before accepting a full-time post back at Dundee University in 2003.

Richard still keeps close ties with many local practices and practitioners in the Dundee, Angus, fife and Aberdeen districts working as a freelance visualizer in his off-duty time to keep his skills up to date.

Richard remains ARB registered and has been since part 3 qualification - ARB number: 059645K

While working at Keppies in Perth in 1997, Richard was approached to give night-school assistance to the School of Architecture. He found this most enjoyable and taught undergraduates and local DIA practitioners. He kept contact with the school, slowly increasing his involvement and this resulted in the offer of a full-time teaching post in 2003.

Richard has put 100's of young architects on 'the right track' during his time at Dundee University and never refuses them help many years after they graduate. Patience is the key to being a good teacher.

Richards joining Dundee University coincided with their adoption of the Blackboard Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), with his teaching being centred on use of software packages, he found this digital teaching tool was an excellent vehicle for his teaching material. The students find his practicals available at all times in screen grabbed video format, audio of lectures with accompanying slides and their assignments are set and submitted back via the VLE making life easier for them and for the teacher.

AutoCAD 2D and 3D, 3D Studio Max and AutoDesk Revit are the main CAD packages that our years 1 and 2 receive practical tuition in, all of which is backed up by video tutorials on our VLE (virtual learning environment) which helps them learn at their own speed and revise.

With year 2, Richard led a small team that produced a stunning model of the Dundee quayside area which was the site for their studio 'Town House' project. Richard hopes more of these 'mega-model' projects will be created on the back of that first one. They are an excellent vehicle for demonstrating the organisation and rigour needed for large CAD models. The second of these mega-models was completed in semester 2 of 2013-14 session - India Street and it's environ - Stockbridge, Edinburgh.

Richard's primary interest is in architectural visualisation, this is a fast evolving field which poses problems for teaching as higher education inevitably has to play catch up to software and hardware developments. It is a field that employs ever more architects as they inherently have a mind suited to generating 3D worlds and imagery.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is an area of CAD teaching which Richard sees as fundamental to our student's employability and he concentrates on delivery of this subject more each year. Hardware and software are all converging now and this type of sophisticated way of delivering buildings is the way forward.

Richard still believes the pencil and paper still have an important role and sets year 1 students drawing tasks which instil the basic skills of architectural representation.

Photography and video are also great interests of Richard, most of the work he produces will feature on his Youtube social media channel.