David was an architect and urban designer who taught at the Unitec School of Architecture for almost 30 years and contributed a range of articles to ArchitectureNow over the years.

A private family funeral was held for David on the 18th of September which will be followed by a celebration of his life at 10:00am on the 28th of October at Davis Funeral Home, West Auckland, 150 Central Park Drive, Henderson. His family welcomes any of his friends and colleagues to attend.

Originally from Ōtepoti Dunedin, David graduated from Manchester University and taught in the School of Architecture there until moving into practice with the Building Design Partnership for two years. He was accepted onto the post-graduate Urban Design Programme at Manchester in 1976 and completed a thesis on dockland regeneration based on Bristol’s ‘floating’ harbour, built in the 18th century. 

With a small team, he won a competition for a town centre redevelopment project in southern England and set up a practice in the city of Bath. The practice developed a reputation in urban planning and architecture including a second competition-winning project in 1983 for a mixed commercial + ‘hi-tech’ industries business scheme in the regeneration of the London Docklands. Urban workplace architecture became one focus of the practice alongside housing and conservation projects, many of them in historic British cities. The practice, by then renamed Tektus was taken over by one of Britain’s largest consultancies in 2008.

In 1994 David returned to New Zealand to join the staff of the new School of Architecture at Unitec. In the architecture programme, he has developed new teaching approaches to environmentally sustainable construction systems, developed an innovative approach to design economics, and taught urban planning and design in the undergraduate programme.

In the postgraduate programme, he supervised over 50 successfully completed final-year research projects. David also introduced and ran two specialised urban housing design electives, one in the Bachelors programme, and one in the Masters programme, that address and critique the intersection of architecture and the socio-economic policies that impact higher-density housing typologies.

His doctoral studies focused on the theory and practice of sustainable urban housing in the context of the social habits and environmental conditions of Auckland and spanned several disciplinary areas — architecture, economics, planning and philosophy. This research led to Best Practice research and reports on higher density housing design commissioned by Housing New Zealand (Kāinga Ora), and to invitations to advise Auckland Council’s Property company (now Eke Panuku), on strategies for intensification planning. David’s PhD thesis is available here.

David contributed his expertise as a regular member of Auckland Council’s Urban Design Panel for over 10 years, and his professional work focussed primarily on the various impacts of increased density resulting from social and city planning policy. From 2007 to 2017 David drew on his experience in professional practice and his research to run annual CPD courses for several consultancies in the city.

Said his son, Jack Turner: “Dad’s life was a testament to the power of architecture to shape our surroundings and improve ours and people’s lives. He understood that architecture wasn’t just about buildings; it was about creating spaces that fostered connection, innovation, and sustainability.”

A eulogy written by his son Jack Turner can be viewed here.