Michael Tawa is an architect and Professor of Architectural Design at Newcastle University. His teaching, research and writing investigate the allusive and elusive potential of words to inform and theorise design thinking and practice through metaphorical and etymological analyses, and through a tectonic approach to language and the production of sense.

Current projects include a Design Lexicon; Theorising the Project: a Thematic Approach to Architectural Design; Parallel Practices: Spatial Tectonics in Architecture and Cinema and Pavilion: a collaboration for a public art work with Wolfgang Weileder and Patrick Olivier.