Prof Bob Sheil UCL Lead in Global Initiative for Digital Transformation in the AEC Sector

Professor Bob Sheil is UCL’s academic partner to Arch_Manu, the Centre for Next-Gen Architectural Manufacturing led by the University of New South Wales. Funded by the Australian Research Council, Arch-Manu is an interdisciplinary, industry-focused research and training initiative to accelerate digital transformation processes within the Architecture, Engineering and Construction sector. It follows in the steps of Innochain (2014–18) an EU Horizon 2020 project in which Sheil was UCL’s lead and co-editor for the associated publication, Design Transactions. 

A registered architect since 1997, Bob has long championed the fields of design and making in architecture through his role as co-founder of the ‘FABRICATE’ conference and associated publication that were launched at UCL in 2011. Following subsequent iterations in Zurich, Stuttgart, and Copenhagen, the now five-volume series has generated more than 330,000 open access downloads from UCL Press across more than 184 countries. A total of 12 hours of video recordings sharing every keynote and presentation of the 2024 conference are now available on the @fabricateconference YouTube channel. 

Since becoming a workshop supervisor at The Bartlett School of Architecture in 1995, Bob has held a range of strategic roles that included Director of School 2014-2022, and senior advisor to UCL throughout the pandemic on practice-based education. During his term as Director of School, the school experienced an unprecedented period of change, with student growth of 75%, staff growth of 85%, and a threefold increase in resources. He oversaw major development projects including the refurbishment of 22 Gordon Street, the creation of new interdisciplinary facilities at Here East and UCLE on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park Stratford, in collaboration with the Faculty of Engineering Sciences, as well as the acquisition of space for the school’s new MA/MLA landscape programmes at Wicklow Street. 

In parallel, he led the planning and delivery of 10 new academic programmes at the school, diversifying its academic base and generating pioneering new routes to registration including MEng Engineering and Architectural Design (launched 2017) and MSci Architecture (launched in 2020). In his period of office as Director of School, The Bartlett was awarded Athena Swan Bronze Status in 2015 and Silver in 2021, in which time the number of women holding professorships in The Bartlett School of Architecture rose from two at 14% of total to 15 at 39% of total, and the percentage of women in design tutor roles among the BSc Architecture staff increased from 22% to 50%. 

Professor Jacqui Glass, Dean of UCL Faculty of Built Environment said:

"Bob has been an active and committed member of the UCL community for almost 30 years. I would like to recognise his ongoing contribution to architectural education and research at The Bartlett School of Architecture. Bob’s innovative spirit has underpinned many initiatives at UCL, including Here East, in which his ideas around collaborative design and production were key to establishing new ways of working which have since been scaled up with the addition of UCL East.

I am grateful for the personal resolve that Bob has shown during challenging times. For instance, how he inspired colleagues to develop new and collaborative forms of practice during the pandemic, overcoming a crisis in higher education that cannot be understated. I look forward to Bob’s continued leadership, ambition and expertise in bridging our multiple design-based disciplines."

Read more

• View Prof Bob Sheil's UCL Profile
• Learn more about Arch_Manu
• Learn more about Fabricate
• Learn more about Here East