Cura Design are one of the first architectural practices to offer biophilic design services in the UK.
Roberts professional foundation is grounded in over twenty five years of professional experience including contributing to world class projects in New York, London, Paris, and Oslo for internationally recognized practitioners in architecture and art including two Pritzker Prize winning practices : Sverre Fehn (Norway), Renzo Piano (Paris), and Artist Vito Acconci (New York City).
The design practice was renamed from Research + Design to Cura Design in 2020. Cura can be translated in Portuguese and Spanish as "the process of making or becoming sound or healthy again". Cura Design endeavours to reconnect, and to value the natural world through a design process that heals the natural world and heals and enhances the built environment and our well-being.
In 2009 the office won a "High Commendation" for the national Alan King Award and Plymouths Abercrombie Award in 2011 for Best Minor Development (New Street Residential Extension). In 2017 the office won Best Community Project and People of Plymouth Award (Stiltskin Children’s Theatre) as well as Best Community Project (Union Corner). In addition, the practice was Winner (in conjunction with Hand Drawn homes) of the RIBA sponsored Plymouth West End Ideas Competition.Teaching experience includes Plymouth University 2011 to 2012 as a Module Leader. Robert has served on the Southwest Design Review Panel since 2017 and is a Trustee for the Architects Benevolent Society.
Cura have presented at: Construction Week 2025 at Londons Excel Centre,The Biophilic Design Conference in 2024, Plymouth Universitys “Grey to Green” 2021. Featured on Future Plymouth 2030 “Nature based Solutions and integrating Nature into our buildings”. Cura have also been featured at Homebuilding and Renovating Show London 2021 to 2024,Greenbuild Expo, the Expert Advice Centre Grand Designs Live, and BBC Radio Devon. Cura has written extensively for the Journal of Biophilic Design and was featured on the JBD Podcast February 22, 2022. Cura Designs working area spans from London to the southwest UK with projects abroad as far as Taiwan. Complementing his design practice, for the last 12 years, Robert has cultivated practices with folk singing (The Great Sea Choir - upcoming EP release 12/25) and devotional singing and meditation as well as interests in spiritual practices based in Brazil. Robert maintains a small Instagram account of poems - thoughts_of_construction.