Tom Dyckhoff is a historian, lecturer, writer and broadcaster specialising in cities, architecture, geographies and visual culture. Tom presented the major BBC2 series, The Great Interior Design Challenge for four series, and was a design judge on the Channel 4 series Handmade: Britain’s Best Woodworker, which ran for three series. He teaches the history and theory of cities and architecture at the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment, University College London, and at Central St Martins, University of the Arts, London. Tom also presented the BBC Radio 4 series, The Design Dimension which looked at the world we inhabit through the lens of design. He was previously the architecture and design critic for BBC television’s arts programme, The Culture Show,...
Tom Dyckhoff is a historian, lecturer, writer and broadcaster specialising in cities, architecture, geographies and visual culture.
Tom presented the major BBC2 series, The Great Interior Design Challenge for four series, and was a design judge on the Channel 4 series Handmade: Britain’s Best Woodworker, which ran for three series.
He teaches the history and theory of cities and architecture at the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment, University College London, and at Central St Martins, University of the Arts, London.
Tom also presented the BBC Radio 4 series, The Design Dimension which looked at the world we inhabit through the lens of design. He was previously the architecture and design critic for BBC television’s arts programme, The Culture Show, in which he interviewed architects from Oscar Niemeyer to Frank Gehry, and fronted special episodes on subjects including the Stirling Prize for architecture, Chinese culture, Lego, the new Birmingham library, and British architecture during the recession.
Tom has written and presented many series and documentaries on British television and radio, including Channel 4’s series The Secret Life of Buildings, in which he looked at the effects of architecture and spaces on our brains and bodies; for BBC2’s series Saving Britain’s Past, Tom examined the country’s obsession with heritage; in I Love Carbuncles, for Channel 4, he revealed his passion for concrete Brutalism. In 2025, Tom appeared on Christmas University Challenge, representing UCL.
Tom has presented many BBC Radio 4 documentaries, too, such as Anti-Architect: Cedric Price, Room with a View (on the history of windows), Animal Architecture (on the architecture of zoos) and a one-off special on polymath Buckminster Fuller.
He is the author of The Age of Spectacle: the rise and fall of iconic architecture (2017), and The Architecture of London 2012: Vision, Design, Legacy (2012) — the official guide to the architecture of 2012’s Olympic Games. Tom also co-wrote The Great Interior Design Challenge Sourcebook (2014).
For a decade in the 00s, Tom was architecture and design critic for The Times. Tom wrote a weekly column for The Guardian’s Weekend magazine for 20 years, and he continues to write for a wide range of publications including Esquire, GQ, Wallpaper, New Statesman, Domus, Icon and Blueprint.
Tom was educated at Oxford University and at University College London, and began his career at Perspectives on Architecture for the then Prince of Wales; he then became head of exhibitions at the Royal Institute of British Architects gallery, associate editor of Design magazine for the UK Design Council and then deputy editor of Space, The Guardian’s design and homes section.
Tom is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and a trustee of the London Festival of Architecture. He has been a trustee of the Architecture Foundation, and a judge on many design and architecture prizes, including the Stirling Prize (2013). Tom is an experienced contributor to debates, conferences, festivals and policy forums, often as a keynote speaker; he is also an accomplished host. In 2009 and ‘10, Tom hosted The Stirling Prize; more recently he hosted the 2024 Institution of Structural Engineers Awards and the 2026 Planning Awards, among others.
He lives in London, with his family.
