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Staff Profile

Geoff Whitten

Visiting Tutor/lecturer 21_22

Background
Geoff is a Chartered Landscape Architect, (CMLI - 1987), Urban Designer and Geordie, with over 40 years of practical and professional experience, both in public and private sectors within the UK and internationally.

Born in 1956, educated at Peterlee Grammar Technical School, then seven years with Sunderland Borough Council Planning Department, giving him his basic life and drawing  tool-kit. Refined into a craft at Edinburgh College of Art, then honed by  working for some of the UK’s  great private design practices – Lovejoy, Clouston, Turnbull Jeffrey Partnership (Scotland) (which latterly he owned and ran), munro whitten (and the Battersea Park International Competition win), EDAW/AECOM -  and latterly Turley, both as a Design Director in Scotland and as a Consultant He know runs a his own small consultancy company - 3rdplacedesign Studios, based in the Scottish Borders. 

Internationally, Geoff has worked in Asia, India and more recently for American companies in Egypt (MENA and GCC regions) as Director of  Argos Design in Cairo, and in Doha, Qatar with Parsons International - on the flagship Lusail City Project - delivering project management and design development packages for three high profile public realm schemes.

He is a passionate advocate of design excellence, with an extensive and varied portfolio of projects, including open international design competitions wins and awards. Specialising in urban masterplanning and regeneration projects, he has a broad understanding of the design and construction of public realm, landscape design and urbanism,  green-space strategies, residential/community development master planning, and research studies.  Geoff’s great skill is in conceptual design and the art of free hand drawing as a means of design communication and to help influence creative and sensitive thinking, leading to memorable solutions to challenging sites – Shaping Better Places if you like!

Geoff has also been a CABE enabler in the UK (2009-2010) and has taught regularly over the last 10 years, both landscape and urban design, as visiting tutor/lecturer at Newcastle University and Edinburgh College of Art (both his alma mater).

He is married to Barbara and has 3 great (grown up) children – Lucy, Sam and Matt – arguably his best work to date!.