Derek Walker

Who is Derek Walker?

Derek John Walker is a British architect primarily associated with urban planning and leisure facilities architecture through his firm Derek Walker Associates. From 1970 to 1976, Walker was the first Chief Architect of the new town Milton Keynes, and head of Architecture at Royal College of Art. With Stuart Mosscrop and Christopher Woodward, Walker designed the Central Milton Keynes Shopping Centre, one of the first U.S.-style shopping centres in Britain, opening three years after the Brent Cross Shopping Centre.

From 1970-76 he was the first and only Chief Architect and Planner of the new city of Milton Keynes. He recruited an exceptionally talented team unique in the history of the New Towns movement, and over seven years produced a landscaping strategy for the new city, eleven village plans, the structure for the programme for producing 3000 houses per year with supporting community, leisure, retail and sporting and cultural facilities. Amongst many buildings of real unique quality possibly the most celebrated was the central Area Shopping Building. A unique concept at the time 1,000,000 sq ft with a plan generated around covered landscaped streets. The Close knit team for this complex included Stuart Mosscrop, Christopher Woodward and Syd Green.