James Dixon joins Darling Associates

James Dixon has been appointed Director at award winning architecture practice Darling Associates. With over 20 years’ experience working in management roles in the architecture sector, James is joining Darling Associates to focus on a dynamic portfolio of mixed use residential and commercial projects both in UK and abroad.  

James joins Darling Associates from BENOY Architects where, as their Design Director, he looked after a dedicated 25 strong London team to deliver UK and International mixed-use projects, including a 450,000 sq ft mixed use urban quarter in Riyadh, KSA and a 900,000sqft development in the centre of Tashkent, Uzbekistan including a 140 key Ritz Carlton hotel and 178 branded apartments around a new public park.  At BENOY he was responsible for several high-profile mixed use urban masterplan projects in the UK, including an 1800-unit mixed use residential scheme at Canary Wharf and an 850-unit mixed use residential scheme in Chiswick including 100,000sqft of workshop, studio and light industrial space – Brentford Works.  

Prior to joining Benoy, James worked on prestigious projects including Lillie Square, 808 homes for the Earls Court re-development, Stanislavsky Factory in Moscow, an RIBA 2014 award-winning mixed-use development, Holland Park Villas, a 72-apartment high end residential scheme + spa overlooking Holland Park, Millbank Complex, including a 300-key hotel, the regeneration of Heal’s Department Store offices, Grade 2* listed, and Dukes Court, Jermyn Street. a retail + office development for the Crown Estate.

James passionately believes that architecture can change people’s lives with high-quality building and spaces to create strong urban form that will adapt and repair our outer and inner cities. His designs have pioneered new types of form, programming, and mixed-use functionality.

James has lectured at Aberdeen University, Glasgow School of Art and Lincoln University and is a guest lecturer for the MA Architecture course at the University of Kent. He is in his second year on the NLA High Street Expert panel and is a judge on the Surface Design Awards 2024/25.   He is a regular speaker at UK conferences including Olympia Build, UK Real Estate forum and UKReiif.

Chris Darling, Founder and Chair, Darling Associates, says “James brings a wealth of design experience and expertise across a key range of market sectors to our London-based studio. He will be working on our high-profile portfolio of projects, expanding our client base and workload sectors both in the UK and overseas and will provide an invaluable contribution to our work as a practice.  He is an ideal and important addition to our diverse and talented team, and we very much welcome his decision to join us.  Exciting times!”

James Dixon, Director, Darling Associates “I am delighted to be joining DAA to contribute to their high quality architectural and urban design work. I am particularly interested in adaptive reuse and bringing our high streets back to life to create sustainable, healthy and high-quality buildings + spaces for our future generations”