William Fawcett is an architect with experience in practice, consultancy, research and teaching.

He was trained at the University of Cambridge Department of Architecture and continued with PhD research at the Martin Centre, the Department’s research wing. The topic was A Mathematical Approach to Adaptability in Buildings.

After four years in conventional architectural practice and four years teaching at Hong Kong University Department of Architecture, he was one of the co-founders of Cambridge Architectural Research in 1987.

At CAR he has worked with colleagues on a wide range of projects, from UN consultancy missions to North Korea, to conservation plans for historic buildings in Britain. A major interest is collecting and using information about user requirements in buildings – this leads to design guidance publications, or to briefing studies for specific projects. A research study of sustainable refurbishment led to a book on a new approach to whole-life costing for construction, New Generation Whole-life Costing (2006).

William Fawcett was appointed to the Chadwick Fellowship in Architecture at Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 2005, to develop the Activity-Space Research Initiative at the Martin Centre.