David Heathcote

Biography

David Heathcote is a Senior Lecturer in Graphic Design and Illustration at the Liverpool School of Art and Design, Liverpool John Moores University. His current research is focused on the international history of motorways, the architecture of South Yorkshire, the relationship between wartime industrial/ military architecture and design, the development of Brutalist architecture and the study of art in situ as part of the education of Designers. He is working towards the completion of the book Autostrada Interstate. He is also researching in preparation of The Heritage Shell Guide to South Yorkshire supported by Carnegie. The guide continues the work of Betjeman and Piper’s Shell County Guides. He is completing a paper on mid-20th Century Factory Architecture which has developed into a project entitled Unsung Modernists, about industrialists in East Anglia and their work on glues, aviation and prefabrication 1935-1956. He is also converting a course he has run in London Museums and Galleries for 10 years into a book; Learning Design from London’s Galleries and Museums. His PhD (2007) was published as the book Barbican: Penthouse Over the City and an exhibition Barbican: This was Tomorrow at the Barbican Art Galleries (2002). He curated Tourism, Modernism and Surrealism (2008) at the Museum of Domestic Architecture and Design, London and A Shell Eye on England (2011) developed from the exhibition. He has presented two BBC 4 series on Design and Architecture (2009) and made films for the Irish and British pavilions at the Venice Biennale ( 2008 and 2012) He has also published books on the 1970s House and Interior design in the 1960s and 1970s. He has worked for numerous institutions including Middlesex University, the RCA and the Design Museum, Tate Britain. He has contributed to a number of Design, Architecture and Lifestyle Journals as well as The Guardian and The Telegraph. He currently lectures at the V&A on Architecture and Urban History.

Research Interest

Arts and Social Studies