Skip navigation

Philip Luscombe

Assistant Professor

School: Design Arts and Creative Industries

I teach on the BA(Hons) 3D Design degree programme. My design practice and research is focussed on:

- The history, philosophy and practice of woodwork

- The study of making techniques and their effects on the processes and outcomes of design work.

I make things using hand tools and green woodworking techniques.

Philip Luscombe

My research studies:

- The effects of making techniques on the processes and outcomes of design practice. I'm particularly interested in how techniques structure decision making throughout a process. The main theme I explore is the contrast between those techniques that promote accuracy to a predetermined form and those that promote step-by-step adaptation in response to an emergent form. I aim to better understand and promote the latter, in the hope that these can lead to a more beautiful material culture.

- The history, philosophy and practice of woodwork. 

  • Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
  • Re-Imagining Aydon: The Archaeological Imagination and Polytemporal Design at Aydon Castle, Forsyth, A., Luscombe, P. Apr 2024, AMPS Proceedings Series, Architecture Media Politics Society
  • Making Things Up: Workshop Practice as a Place of Design, Luscombe, P. Jun 2018
  • Rulers and Dividers: A Technology of Design, Luscombe, P. Apr 2018, In: Design Issues
  • What's A Mallet For: A Woodworker's Critique of The Workmanship of Risk, Luscombe, P. Mar 2017, Research Through Design Conference 2017
  • Design Studies PhD August 31 2018
  • 3D Design BA June 30 2008

Latest News and Features

university partnership
Greenland (credit Dr Sammie Buzzard)
Dr Juna Sathian
UUK Future Jobs event at Northumbria University
Professor Greta Defeyter OBE and Andrew Forsey OBE pictured outside 10 Downing Street.
Illustration of the ecosystem in Antarctica around 90 million years ago. Research shows that wildfires regularly occurred near the South Pole at that time. Credit:  James McKay (University of Leeds).
More news
More events

Upcoming events

IPE Conference 2026
Varsity Launch 2026-27 Rugby Match
Next Stop Northumbria
Back to top