Mission Statement
To quote Lubetkin, “Nothing is too good for ordinary people.” Design should improve the spaces and services people rely on and help ensure no one faces needless barriers or disadvantage.
Biography
Christopher Hildrey is a UK-based architect whose work focuses on the social, economic, and ecological impact of the built environment. He founded Hildrey Studio in 2018 to both shape the physical world and question the policy architecture that underpins it. He is also the founder of ProxyAddress, a social enterprise that provides duplicated addresses to allow those facing homelessness to access essential services. His work spans buildings, spatial strategy, policy, and service design, and has received international recognition including TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions of the Year, the D&AD Impact Award for Humanitarian Aid, the Innovation in Politics Award for Human Rights, and the RIBA President’s Medal for Research. He has spoken about design’s role in social change at venues ranging from the Guggenheim Museum in New York to the Houses of Parliament in London . His work has been featured in The New York Times, BBC, Wired, and The Guardian, and is held in the permanent collections of the V&A and The Design Museum. He also contributes to research, policy, and education as a Design Council Expert, an Industry Champion at Creative PEC, and a visiting critic and examiner at leading architecture schools.
Questionnaire
Where do you want to foster change and why?
I want to change the overlooked systems that shape daily life, from policy to infrastructure, because these hidden frameworks decide who gets stability and who falls through the gaps.
What or who influenced you during your professional career?
People experiencing homelessness taught me that systems are designed – and can be redesigned. Also every regulator who initially says ‘that’s impossible’ then helped make it work anyway.
We all have those significant moments or situations (success or failure); which one was yours, and what did you learn from it?
While developing ProxyAddress I spent months speaking to people experiencing homelessness and whose lives had been derailed not by one event, but by the system around them. Realising that losing an address could strip away identity, access and agency was the turning point. I learnt that design’s impact is greatest when it tackles foundational causes rather than visible symptoms.