Dr William Tozer | RIBA ANZIA 📍
@williamtozer.bsky.social
1.2K followers 450 following 970 posts
Critic, educator, researcher, architect | Posting daily about architecture | Bartlett UCL PhD | also studied RMIT, University of Auckland | Founder of William Tozer Associates @williamtozerassoc.bsky.social
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williamtozer.bsky.social
A very short bio, for this new platform:

I’m an architect with my own practice—studio is in London, but some projects are elsewhere.

I’ve taught in the UK and US, and written for architectural journals like ARQ, industry magazines like Detail and Monument, and a number of lifestyle publications.
williamtozer.bsky.social
‘A government spokesperson said: “The chancellor and the housing secretary are working together to reform the outdated planning system that’s been holding this country back – so we can build the 1.5m homes hardworking people need . . .”’

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Ministers to announce significant changes to UK’s planning system
Exclusive: Differences over changes to environmental and legal provisions to prompt economic growth hint at chaos at heart of government
www.theguardian.com
williamtozer.bsky.social
Never was so little said by so many, for so long.

#architecturepresentations
williamtozer.bsky.social
‘He filed his first architectural patent in the late 1920s, several years before similar experiments by his better-known countryman Jean Prouvé’

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/r...
In a Spanish Vineyard, an Unsung Engineer Finally Gets a Toast
www.nytimes.com
williamtozer.bsky.social
‘For decades, the prototypical dream house was one you would hardly need to leave . . . Today, many Americans would say that their dream house is simply one they can afford.‘

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/08/r...
williamtozer.bsky.social
Really?! That’s a pretty wild interpretation of that rule.
williamtozer.bsky.social
Loos was my doctoral subject, and that research informs a lot of what our practice does, but it was particularly satisfying to explore this further, even if we didn’t get shortlisted.
williamtozerassoc.bsky.social
Our Powers of Ten competition entry is featured in the RIBA Journal.

The actual space we’ve designed will be familiar to anyone who’s experienced the mirrored illusion of space created by Loos’s Kärntner Bar, particularly after a few drinks.

www.ribaj.com/products/wes...
williamtozer.bsky.social
‘On average, Type Five projects cost about $550 per square foot, including site work. That figure is competitive in the Bay Area, where new builds easily price out at $800 per square foot without site preparation.’

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/r...
The Architect Liked the Model House So Much, He Moved In
www.nytimes.com
williamtozer.bsky.social
‘What the Floor Plans for Famous Sitcom Homes Might’ve Looked Like IRL’

www.dwell.com/article/floo...
williamtozer.bsky.social
‘built in three weeks or less by a 4.75-ton industrial printer that poured both its exterior and interior walls with lavacrete, a proprietary material made from pulverized red lava rock, cement and water that is squeezed out in layers’

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/r...
‘Can You Print a House?’: God, Robots and the U.S. Housing Crisis
www.nytimes.com
williamtozer.bsky.social
I was very encouraged that this approach will increasingly allow this to happen.
williamtozer.bsky.social
Ian Moore’s lecture thoughtfully chose a selection of projects to illustrate a particular theme in his work, identified a number of repeated elements of his design strategy, and followed their development and permutations. Refreshingly self-reflective.

www.nzia.co.nz/explore/news...
williamtozer.bsky.social
I was fortunate to meet Sir Nicholas Grimshaw once. A charming person, who seemed to take a genuine interest in everyone he spoke with. What a career and life he had.
williamtozer.bsky.social
There are so many ways the NZ real estate industry likes to hide sale prices. From ubiquitous auctions, through delayed and obfuscated publishing of sale prices, to off-market sales. Not sure this ‘cheap stuff’ will look so cheap soon though.
williamtozer.bsky.social
It’s in the interests of the banks to make houses cost as much as possible. They get roughly whatever that number is in interest over the course of loan. Deciding what they’ll lend is basically choosing what their own profit will be on the transaction.
williamtozer.bsky.social
Dead cat bounce from the people who’ve been waiting to buy for years, and assume ‘normal’ gains will resume shortly? I suspect this ‘spring sales season’ will be a wake-up call—glut of desperate sellers who’ve been hanging, entering the market as the crashed economy continues to bite.
williamtozer.bsky.social
Ponzis rely on new investment coming in at the bottom being paid out to earlier investors as supposed returns. Surely so many recent investors have lost all their money (mortgage deposits) through falling prices—or worse (negative equity)—that new investors won’t fall for the pyramid scheme.
williamtozer.bsky.social
Is that median house price as a percentage of median income on y axis?
Rents track income pretty closely, so the back of the envelope calculation I like to do is to apply wage inflation to house prices in 2000, to see what they ‘should’ be in 2025, without the private debt-fueled asset bubble.
williamtozer.bsky.social
OCR, you mean, right? Even at that level surely mortgage rates won’t be much lower than they are now. Makes no sense to pay much more in mortgage interest than rent, and have to find the repayments on top—particularly when capital gains look more than shaky, and a CGT might be coming.
williamtozer.bsky.social
I still there’s a lot of scope for continued price declines until the massive gap closes between the service value of NZ’s houses (rents) and its asset value.
But I’ve never seen a real estate industry with so little transparency on prices, which contributes to buyers behaving irrationally.
williamtozer.bsky.social
London house extensions often seem to look like shops bolted onto the back of houses.

They used to mostly look like Office shoe stores in unlikely locations, but many now look more like an independent cafe from Shoreditch just relocated to someone’s back garden.