Austin Williams is the course leader in the Post-Graduate Diploma in the Professional Practice in Architecture [Part 3] at Kingston School of Art in London and is a Visiting Scholar at XJTLU University, Suzhou, China (where he lived from 2011-2017).
For 20 years, he’s been the director of the Future Cities Project.
His undergraduate studies were at the Bartlett, and postgraduate in Birmingham Poly. He worked as an architect in the north-east of England for 12 years before becoming the Technical Editor of The Architects’ Journal, and China correspondent for The Architectural Review.
Williams is the author of “China’s Urban Revolution” and “New Chinese Architecture: Twenty Women Building the Future”. Other books include: “Enemies of Progress: The Dangers of Sustainability”, “The Future of Community: Reports of a Death Greatly Exaggerated”, and “The Lure of the City: From Slums to Suburbs”, and a range of chapters.
He wrote and directed over 200 short films for NBSTV; produced the documentary Che Fang/ Edge Town (shortlisted for the AHRC Research in Film Awards) and was the author and illustrator of the book series, “Shortcuts: essential guides for building designers”. He now hosts and produces the Professional Practice Podcasts: interviews with professionals on technical matters relating to architecture.
He founded the mantownhuman manifesto (featured in Penguin Classics’ “100 Artists Manifestos”) and has spoken at a range of conferences from New York to Ningbo; from Hawaii to Hong Kong. He is a regular media commentator on development, environmental critique and China’s urbanisation.
He has written for magazines as diverse as Nature, Wired, Top Gear, South China Morning Post, Metropolis, Times Literary Supplement, and The Economist.
In February 2025, he devised and organised the ‘Critical Subjects: Architecture & Design School’ at Heatherwick Studios, Amin Taha’s Groupwork and AHMM’s offices. It was the third in a series of independent Critical Subjects events attracting students from across the world for an intense educational experience.