If I knew then: David Innes-Wilkin

David Innes-Wilkin is the chartered architect and qualified planner at his firm, Innes-Wilkin Architects. The firm is a consultancy for architecture, interiors, planning permissions, listed building consents and more.

After studying architecture in Liverpool, David founded his practice and opened an office in Bristol that he now runs with his son, James.

Innes Wilkin won an award in 2020, which recognised exceptional church projects for their reordering of St Andrew’s Church in Avonmouth as part of a community social hub.

How did you start out in your career?

Taking a deep breath, I told my father that I would do a five-year architecture course at Liverpool, against his wishes. He was near retirement on a modest teacher’s salary and I was really grateful that he stumped up a share of my annual costs.

At the same time as that degree, I studied to get a Master’s degree in town planning which was awarded a year later. For my Master’s degree, there was no grant or loan so I worked in an architect’s office part-time.

Starting out a proper practice had to be postponed till I got RIBA.  This takes two years of practical work in other offices before taking the final exams for professional practice and contract law. A month later I formed a multi-discipline partnership in Liverpool which was exciting because I became a director involved in publishing, graphics and corporate identity design. Graduating with two degrees, the Masters and the first-class honours, and winning prizes never did my career any good – nobody noticed.

In 1987 I started a branch office in Bristol, which has become my base.

What advice would you give yourself when starting out?

Tenacity and perseverance get better results than qualifications. I would be happy now to start out by being an apprentice, or as we used to say, being articled in a practice.

If you knew then what you know now, would you still be sitting there?

Oh yes, but I might have got to the sunny uplands of security some years earlier.

What do you know now that you didn’t know then?

I was innocent about how class and privilege gives so many architects a head start. Just saying.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received so far?

Have more than one bank account.

What is your business highlight?

When the practice has won design awards in Liverpool and in Bristol.

What is your business low point?

When we specialized in housing there was one autumn when the government had a moratorium on funding and all our work was axed indefinitely. Every one of the twelve staff had to seek new jobs and were mostly dispersed – leaving just me on my own again with no fees coming in.

What keeps you awake?

I like designing things in my head as I doze off.

What’s changed from when you started out?

Education for architects is insanely separated from practical matters. We call some graduates the concept fairies. Some of them don’t know the cost of their projects, which I discovered when listening to an award-winning architect give a lecture in Bristol. Cost per square meter? “No idea mate.”

What’s still on your to-do list?

I like making things happen. On my list is a small handful of community projects in Bristol. For example, I have lobbied for banning single-use drinks bottles by writing articles and messaging people from my MP. I have ideas for Bristol Harbour because it should not be costing the city over £400,000 a year. Having seen a lot of harbours while sailing over 4,000 miles it would be nice to use that experience to contribute ideas.

I want to publish more. My first article was about self build housing in Cuba. Then I wrote about community housing design for the Architects Journal and gave talks at international gatherings. I think about more writing when the theme is of interest enough to influence people. Recently I am writing more about the life cycle of products which we should not throw away, such as marine equipment.

What’s next for you in business and personally?

I still work on the conservation projects such as the churches. My son Jamie runs the practice and I drop in to make an input here and there on schemes.  These are sometimes for listed buildings and at other times for difficult sites where we can get a result to add value. Recently some have been for sites where planning applications by other designers have been turned down.

I like there being a creative team at the building I developed in Southville. My next projects are to try and cross-fertilize the architect’s profession with other fields. As we used to say as students, we should be having “wide arc vision”.  For example, we always give the Innes Wilkin Art in Architecture prize to a painting in the UWE graduate show. It would be nice to help the architecture centre to share art or books –  after all that is where I started my practice by blending things from different backgrounds.

Main photo: David Innes-Wilkin

Read more: If I knew then: Bianca Jones

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