The following obituary was prepared by Fiona Raley who began her career as an architect after undertaking a 3 week work experience with David Stewart. They remained close for the next thirty years and Raley says - “he was my inspiration and my mentor and my best critic. Without his constant intellectual rigour and enquiry of the world, I would never have embarked on a subsequent career in architecture. He is greatly missed every day.”
David Stewart was born in Kenya in 1939, he spoke fondly of his time spent at the Nairobi Museum studying and drawing skeletons under the watchful eye of Professor Louis Leakey. He came to England with his parents and attending prep school in London and later at St Edmunds Canterbury. David studied at the Architectural Association between 1957 and 1967 coming and going over this period as many other students did at the time. He joined the first year in 1957 to 1959 and then left re-joining in 1960 to 1961 before departing again until 1963. He fondly referred to his greatest influence as a tutor being a young Stanford Anderson, who subsequently taught at MIT. Returning to the AA in 1963 he completed his intermediate studies in 1964; he returned to his beloved Kenya to take up a teaching post at Greensteds School in Nakuru. David was a member of the Muthaiga Club in Nairobi at this time.
In 1967, David collaborated with John Stengelhofen on a joint thesis project for a housing scheme and their tutor was Peter Cook. David and John both knew and socialised with a group of students which included Nicholas Grimshaw. Sir Nicholas ‘remembers him as a highly intelligent and witty member of one or two group projects that were part of the AA curriculum during this time. He contributed to the idea at the AA at the time, which was that everybody threw ideas on the table and that we then adopted the best of them’. On leaving the AA David variously worked with Trevor Dannatt, Cedric Price and Alison and Peter Smithson and he returned to Kenya to become the headmaster at Greensteds School in the early 1970’s.
On return to the UK, triggered by the death of his father, he took over his joinery workshop and set up Dart Designs in Canterbury in the mid 1970’s; he developed a thriving practice focussed on design of furniture, prototypes and complete interior contracts until deciding to close in 1988 planning to travel extensively around the world for six months. In 1991 he travelled to the Far East to trace family connections in Indonesia and Australia, on his return journey he travelled to Easter Island, Chile and Brazil. In 1996, he travelled extensively in India, particularly, to trace his family connections to the Barton family in Bangalore. In 2010, David returned to Kenya to visit Greensteds travelling on one of the last voyages of the mail boat to St Helena and via South Africa on the Blue Train.
David Stewart was an exceptional man, whose talent and influence as a designer and architect was felt widely by all who knew him and I am particularly proud to have commenced my first foray into a professional office at Dart Designs in 1988. David was an insightful critic, presented highly inventive and creative ideas in the most immaculate working drawings I have ever seen. He was known as a stylish and immaculately dressed man from his early student day; in his later years he preferred a selection of colourful Jaeger cashmere jumpers and was noteworthy as only being seen in a pair of jeans in his seventies, again they were Jaeger. He was extensively well-read and equally eloquent in both conversation and in prose; resulting in often daily letters of critique or praise.
Fiona Raley BA(Hons) Dip Arch MSc RIBA SCA IHBC
