Damion Burrows, Founder of DMBA, goes beyond his affable public persona revealing a seriously passionate architect committed to his team and diversifying the face of the industry.
Damion Burrows is the renowned architect who is recognisable from his TV appearances on shows such as Channel 4’s Grand Designs: House of the Year and BBC2’s Your Home Made Perfect. However, long before his media success, he headed up one of London’s major architecture practices before founding Damion Marcus Burrows Architects (DMBA) in 2020.
Damion’s decades of valuable experience and his vigor for creating beautiful buildings and homes, gives him a deep understanding and thoughtful approach to the projects that he works on.
Leading the DMBA team, he works across a variety of sectors including affordable housing, private high-end residential, commercial offices and complex refurbishments and extensions to listed buildings.
Here, Damion discusses his memorable design moments, his aspirational career, and how he is actively committed to increasing diversity within architecture.
What is your earliest memory of design and architecture?
I remember very early in my career watching a TV programme about the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I wasn’t necessarily captivated by the architecture, but more the engineering. How these two incredible structures actually stood up and didn’t just topple over. I must have been fresh out of studying interiors, so for me at that time, it was mind blowing.
When I was younger, I would always watch programs about buildings and interior design with my mom, she loved decorating. We would constantly be redecorating together, doing paint effects on the walls in each of the rooms of our council house. God knows what the neighbours thought. Every time they came round the house would be a different set of colours and paint-effect finishes. Being the youngest of four children it was also a way to spend time with her.
The houses we lived in growing up were dark, small, and cramped. When I bought my first house, the first thing I did was take out the walls and open the space up to let as much light in as possible.
Where did you study?
I started out studying Interior Architecture / Design in Manchester. It was a great place to study – there was such an energy about the city, even more so now.
At my end-of-year show, one of the lecturers from the School of Architecture came down to see the show. He walked over to me and simply said “Great work, you should be studying architecture.”
I didn’t start studying until quite late really, around the age of 24, so the thought of starting from scratch on an architecture course was a no go! But with a little help I applied for the Part I exemption and jumped into the architecture course as a Part II.
What kind of architect did you aspire to be?
At the start I wanted to design big-statement, striking buildings, complex and full of impossible details. I remember one of my directors saying to me: “Why design a single note, when you can have a whole orchestra!” At the time I thought it was compliment, I later realised it wasn’t.
As architects we are always seeking to edit our designs, constantly removing unnecessary elements, that’s how a design becomes robust and refined.
My aspirations are now to simply create beautiful buildings which people want to engage with and that tell a story. Buildings which are easy to read, visually accessible and promote a sense of craft.
Who are your design/architecture inspirations?
I’m a bit old-school when it comes to inspirations. I love the work of Eileen Grey, Reymond Hood and William Van Alen – all pioneers of Art Deco. Their simple clean lines, lavish decoration and simple stepped form-making are beautiful.
I don’t really look to emulate them, but I find their work very inspiring. There is a timeless elegance about it.
What does DMBA represent as an architecture firm?
I hope that our architecture demonstrates craft and care, a respect for the context and an understanding of the history of the site or existing building. A quiet building can have far more impact than impossible angles and gravity defying cantilevers.
A great example is Argyll, one of London’s most exclusive flexible office providers, where we are overseeing a 275,000 sq ft reinvention of the office experience. Our approach here is about creating a strong design aesthetic, that runs through all the buildings. While each is beautiful from the outside, inside they were lacking a story that ties the heritage setting to contemporary ways of working, and that is what we were trying to achieve here. We have introduced a range of working and meeting settings, from lounge to board room, that are filled with rich textures and classic forms that sit comfortably amongst the grandeur and craft of these extraordinary historic buildings whilst providing modern amenities, comfort and intimacy.
Our team take the time to explore the surrounding context and draw inspiration from the smallest of cues. There is also a degree of drama and flare, which we hope provides little moments of joy for the onlooker.
How do you continue to carve your own path in the industry as a studio and an individual?
Just by staying true to who we are and what we would like to achieve, ego is not part of our process. We fight for the elements of building which we feel are important, and compromise on others.
Everyone in the studio has a voice but we share a common vision. We work efficiently and are cognisant of the investment our clients make in every project.
Our projects also impact the communities in which they are placed. We need to be mindful of that and constantly ask the question “What does the building give back?”.
What are the similarities and differences between designing large residential developments and private residential projects?
Both types of projects have transferable elements. The efficiency of large residential projects mean that we are constantly looking to maximise every square foot of private residential schemes. Eking out space, storage and surprising methods of bringing in natural daylight.
Our smaller private schemes are very much born out of our understanding of the client’s brief. We test and challenge this brief, often resulting in design directions which were not originally considered.
Each take a considerable amount of time, consideration and testing of our ideas.
Your TV & Media appearances have positively impacted the industry and given fresh inspiration to the general public. Is there a project from your TV appearances that stands out?
OMG, it has to be an episode of ‘Your Home Made Perfect’. The project was a house in Devon where I had proposed to flip the house upside down and connect the new living area to the outdoor pool, via two flying gantry bridges. The homeowners opted for the alternative design, a beautifully crafted scheme by Lizzie. But that decision split the nation! I have never received so many messages on social media. That is the great thing about the programme, it stirs debate and gets the public interested in design.
What does the face of architecture look like to you in 10 years’ time?
I hope, more diverse. One of the biggest challenges to the profession is to increase the number of black architects. Our profession should reflect the communities and cities in which we design buildings. At the moment, it’s woefully off-balance. If we achieve this, then we can begin to rebuild our relationship with the public and therefore our wider worth to communities who themselves reflect in us.
AI will have a massive, as-yet-unknown impact. I don’t know right now if I’m excited or terrified by this; like many other professionals, architects need to be at the leading edge of this technology and its inevitable implementation.
I do, however, take comfort from the fact that it will be a very long time before AI can emotionally react to a site and create a personal evocative design which brings joy and excitement to our clients. The future therefore looks bright and full of challenges to overcome.
If you hadn’t become an architect what would you be doing?
A carpenter/joiner, for sure! The process of architecture is a long one, I would love to be able to stand back after 3-6 months and have a beautiful piece of furniture to show for it.
There’s something about the smell of wood shavings that I’ve always loved.
W: dmba.co.uk | IG: @damionburrows
