David Taylor 

Hi Dorian, how are you? 

Hello. I'm well, thank you. 

Good. I wanted to talk about your rise up the firm, because you've become chief executive recently, since the retirement of Robin Dhar. I wondered if you could give me your feelings about how that feels, having risen from architectural assistant, all those years ago. 

I mean, I would say this, but it genuinely feels like a privilege. It feels like a fantastic opportunity as well, to take a fantastic practice that was founded in 1958 and has existed for 68 years, with such an incredible reputation, and a back catalogue of incredible projects since Sir Donald founded us, and to apply, in a way, what we do to our projects, to an organisation. By that I mean by looking at what makes something special, and then working to enhance that, to add and to set the organisation up for an even more successful and sustainable future. So, I think the fact that I have been here since I graduated from a Master of Architecture course means that I have an in depth understanding of the practice and the last 15, 16 years. And obviously all the projects and people that have come before me, just through the conversations, and history, and reading and learning about projects. All of which puts me in a good position to understand how the organisation works, and the best bits for me to try and enhance and to really apply our attention to over the next few years, to give the practice a new lease of life. Yes, it's a really exciting opportunity, and I know that I can't do it on my own. It's a complete group effort. So, part of what I'm trying to do is to give my amazingly talented colleagues the support in order for them to do their best work and focus on what they are passionate about and what they are naturally skilled at doing. And yes, I feel a complete honour to be in this position and to make sure that the practice has the best opportunities to keep going. 

You mentioned ‘a new lease of life’ there. Could you unpack that a little and explain what direction you're hoping to nudge the practice along to? 

Sure. I think over the last few years, we have benefited from our really good reputation and doing a great job, which itself brings future work. But I think that there has been an opportunity to take more control of what projects we are approached to do, or what projects we position ourselves to be the best team for. So, part of that has been our recent brand evolution. It's not a rebrand per se. It is taking a really controlled and planned look at ourselves, speaking to clients, to prospects, to peers, and to understand actually how the industry saw us and our potential collaborators and clients saw us, and then focus our brand evolution around what we've heard rather than what we think, which has given us a new lease of life. 

And by that, I mean we've now decided and acted upon who we want to be and what we want to look like to the industry, and that has given us over the last few months, since the rebrand-cum-brand evolution, a better platform. People are coming up to me at events in London and saying, “oh, yeah, I've seen what DIA are doing. This is great. This is new”. Even though we've been doing incredible work consistently for the last few years. But now we understand how to market ourselves a bit better, and that's just phase one. The next phase is to actually get individuals within the organisation who are already brilliantly talented and understand exactly what they're doing and what to talk about, but it gives them now the opportunity to create more of an identity for themselves as individuals under the umbrella of DIA. 

So, you're now pushing yourself more as DIA than Donald Insall Associates, are you? Is that the part of the brand evolution? 

Correct, yes. 

Sir Donald [Insall] is still alive, isn't he? Isn't he 100 years old? 

He is. He was 100 in February. 

Amazing! 

I had a meeting with him last week. He is still so passionate about the company, about the practice, about the detail, not just the overall picture. He is still very interested in what we're doing and cares very much; he understands the leadership situation, but he is still totally plugged in, and we are the better for it. Yes, he's a very, very incredible man. Impressive! 

Could you just put your finger on what distinguishes you as a practice from other conservation architects out there? I'm thinking of people like, well, firms like Purcell, where I think you started many years ago. How do you differentiate yourself? 

I would say that we are deep subject matter experts. We have a very high proportion, if not the highest, of practices our size, of accredited conservation architects and accredited heritage consultants, which means that our baseline is of a deep subject matter expert and intellectual position, and that, combined with our long history and access to incredible minds that are still associated with the practice – we've got 16 consultants who are on call and involved in projects, who are retired directors and people who've got to a position of retirement from working with us for decades. We've got people who've worked here for 40, 50, years, as well as fresh talent that, because of our reputation are seeking us out. So when we work with other architects, which we often do, particularly in London, where we provide the conservation architecture role, we find that colleagues from our collaborators have said, “actually, I was really interested in what you were bringing to the project, and I feel like that is a really positive move for my career. Can I come work with you?” So yes, I think I would say everyone here is highly passionate and knowledgeable about conservation, heritage, historic buildings, historic places, and the stories that come with historic buildings, places. And that clients can see that and benefit from that. 

Are you finding, nevertheless, that there's a heritage skills gap out there? 

When it comes to practitioners, and servicing the projects that we're working on, there is absolutely a heritage skills gap, and we are totally conscious of that, and we understand that if we don't champion and bring that into our projects, trying to fill that gap, then there will be overall diminishing over time skills to do the projects that we're all working hard to deliver. So yes, when it comes to the contractors on the projects, we are very conscious that it's part of our duty to ensure that the opportunities are there, the training is written into the contracts, and we volunteer and provide our experience and knowledge and skills and enthusiasm to try and bring as many new people into the industry as possible. 

And is one way of championing the sector to connote it more with the sustainability movement, which seems to be logical? 

Absolutely. I think, that is bringing fresh attention to conservation work. Something that we have been doing since we were founded by Sir Donald is enabling change in historic environments. So, buildings need to change and stay relevant in order for them to be kept in use and money to be invested in their upkeep. And that is sustainability. That is keeping something going by thinking of innovative new uses. Now, it's more turning towards the technical kind of innovation, and bringing buildings up to technical standards that enable them to continue to be used. And for us, this is a fantastic opportunity, because, as it's something we've been doing; it's is in our DNA - we're in a brilliant position to provide that technical knowledge and experience to upgrade historic buildings without losing what is significant and special about them, and that is with the new label of retrofit is actually appealing to, yes, a wider audience. It's something that we totally embrace and are in the best position to provide services for and advise on. 

So just a last couple of questions. Firstly, a project you're working on, Wentworth Woodhouse, could you describe that in basic terms? 

That has been a fantastic journey. We started working with the client, the Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust, when they took the building on from private ownership in 2017, and over the course of the last eight years, nine years, we have had the privilege of consistently providing architectural services to them on huge projects – multi-million Heritage Lottery and Historic England-funded projects through to really knotty conservation problems on a small scale. But having that continuity with the client is, for me, what makes this job so fulfilling and enjoyable, that building relationship with the client team and the building itself. So yes, we've done huge re-roofing projects. We recently completed the Camellia House transformation, which was a roofless ruin, Grade II* listed Georgian building with some of the Western world's oldest camellias growing through the roof, which is now in use as a community space, community tea room, providing income for the continued restoration of the house, the huge country house itself; a fantastic project which was recognised with the AJ100 Community Impact Award in 2025 and which introduced sustainability. There are ground source heat pumps, there's natural ventilation, there's underfloor heating, there's groundwater harvesting, etc. But in a Grade II* listed, award-winning project, it absolutely showcases our conservation skills, but also the fact that you can bring a building up to modern standards and introduce renewables and sustainability without losing the special character of the building. That has been a real pleasure for me, and very good timing, being the last significant project I did before becoming chief exec. Yeah. So: really, really pleased about our involvement with Wentworth Woodhouse, 

Well, congratulations on your new role and good luck with the future. I if I had to name a character in my book that was a conservation architect, I think I'd come up with a name like yours! Dorian Proudfoot. It's a fantastic name! Were your parents Oscar Wilde fans, by any chance, with the Dorian [Gray] aspect? 

I actually don't think it did come from Oscar Wilde as the inspiration. I think it helps. It's a name that people notice, I suppose, so probably contributed, yes! 

Fantastic. Thanks for your time! 

Thank you. Bye.