Neal Shasore has been named as the new Head of School and Chief Executive Officer at London School of Architecture

Buildings.

Neal Shasore will take over in June 2021 from the school’s founder and CEO Will Hunter, who set up the independent architecture school in 2015 that offers students work placements alongside study. Hunter is to move into an entrepreneurial role at the school, which from 2021 will extend it’s previously Part II-only programme to offer a RIBA/ARB Part 1 programme.

“The LSA’s innovative model is more needed than ever as architectural education meets the challenge of the government’s emerging higher education policy,” says Shasore. “More profoundly, providing accessible, inclusive and creative educational opportunities for aspiring and practising built environment professionals has taken on even greater urgency as the RIBA and ARB develop plans to embed ethical practice and drive-up competency after the tragedy of the fire at Grenfell Tower and following our departure from the EU.”

“Building on the team’s successes in creating a thriving, collegial and dynamic school in under a decade, I’m looking forward to expanding the LSA’s educational programme and deepening our relationship with our partners and practice network,” he continues. “In all this, we’ll redouble our commitment to diversity, inclusivity and design in the service of environmental and social justice.”

Shasore comes to the post having been a course tutor for the MArch professional practice studio at the Royal College of Art and a visiting lecturer at University of Cambridge’s school of architecture. He has also held positions at the University of Westminster and RIBA.

“Neal will build on the work of its founder Will Hunter, and has a compelling vision for an architectural education and practice which enthusiastically tackles the challenge of a future which is sustainable, diverse and equitable,” says Crispin Kelly, chair of the London School of Architecture’s (LSA) board of trustees.

“The appointment of Neal Shasore reflects the LSA’s ongoing progressive agenda for architectural education. His vision for the future of the school, its pedagogical ambitions and wider engagement were considered outstanding.”

Shasore graduated from the University of Oxford with a DPhil in Architectural History, an MA in History of Art and MSt in the History of Art and Visual Culture, and was awarded a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship at the University of Liverpool’s architecture school.

He is currently a trustee of the The Architectural Heritage Fund, The Twentieth Century Society, The Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, and was a member of the Research and Innovation Advisory Group of RIBA.