Prof. A.H.C. de Rijke

Professor of Timber Architecture
Department of Architectural Engineering + Technology

As a child he loved making treehouses. As an architecture student he admired structures in timber the most. He started out as a practitioner by redesigning and rebuilding his mother’s house, using discarded plywood. As of November 2023, Alex de Rijke is professor of Timber Architecture. “I’ve always liked making and I see direct connections between making and thinking, practice and theory.”

As founding director of the London based firm dRMM and as a teacher at some of the best schools for architecture De Rijke(1960) has pioneered the development and application of engineered timber in public structures, cross-laminated timber (CLT) in particular. His appointment ensues from the faculty’s ambition to further the worldwide utilisation of timber together with other bio-based and recycled building materials.
An obvious reason to use timber on a wider scale is that, if re-used rather than incinerated, it hoards carbon. Furthermore, bio-based resources are regenerative, not extracted from limited natural resources. Processing and applying regenerative materials also offers considerable environmental advantages compared with the production and application of steel and concrete.

Education

Timber, the oldest building material in the world, has returned. “Knowledge and skills have been passed on in some countries, but in most, wood was forgotten about in the wake of the industrial revolution. De Rijke proposes to explore with masters students and PhD-candidates how to increase the utility of bio-based materials, striving for all-timber structures with less mass. Students and postgraduate researchers will be tackling such issues in a designated BioBuild Lab, focused on hands-on experience and testing of prototypes structures as well as components. “The present generation of students hold the keys to a more resilient future. Wood as a resource for urban development will be in their hands.”

Curriculum Vitae

De Rijke has extensive academic experience, teaching part-time in many schools of architecture from 1988 onwards, and was Dean and Professor of Architecture at the Royal College of Art London from 2011–2015. He has enjoyed visiting roles to Universities in London, Oxford, Cambridge, Kerala, Helsinki and Dusseldorf, and was External Examiner to University of the Arts Spatial Practice MArch, and the Architectural Association on the timber Design & Make MA and MSc programmes. 
He is founding director (1995) of collaborative architecture studio dRMM (de Rijke Marsh Morgan) with a particular passion for sustainable timber construction. In the last decade dRMM has grown with 3 additional directors and studio in Berlin, received first prize in 36 construction industry awards, including winner of the 2017 Stirling Prize for Hastings Pier, the UK’s highest accolade for architecture.