Tom Holbrook came to architecture tangentially, co-founding 5th Studio in 1997 as a spatial design agency, working across the fields of architecture, urban design, infrastructure and landscape.

Tom completed a PhD at RMIT in 2014. His thesis – Expanding Disciplinarity in Architectural Practice: Designing From the Room to the City – was published by Routledge in 2016, and proposes a generalist approach to architectural practice.

In combination with practice, Tom is Professor of Architecture and Industry Fellow at RMIT University, based in Melbourne & Barcelona, and he directs the Urban Studies programme at the London School of Architecture. Tom taught for ten years at the University of Cambridge Department of Architecture and has been an external examiner at London Metropolitan University and the MARCH school, Moscow.

Tom also contributes to teaching at the London School of Economics Cities Programme and at Central St Martins; he regularly contributes critical writing and opinion to a variety of media. Tom is a member of the Design Panel for High Speed Two, – the UK’s high speed rail project – and for the London Olympic Legacy Development Corporation.