Ptolemy Dean

Ptolemy Dean, a British architect and television presenter. He specialises in historic preservation, as well as designing new buildings that are in keeping with their historic or natural settings. He is best known for his appearances on two BBC television series, Restoration and The Perfect Village.

Personal

Dean is the son of Joseph Dean, a judge, and the grandson of the actor and impresario Basil Dean; his uncle is the noted musicologist Winton Dean. Ptolemy Dean grew up in Wye in Kent, one of the English Home Counties. One of his sisters is the artist Tacita Dean. He attended Kent College Canterbury.

It was said Ptomely was 40yrs age on 15 March 2008 in The Telegraph Newspaper meaning if correct as of Jan 2013 he is roughly 44/45 years of age.Born around 1968/1969?

He studied architecture first at the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London, then continued with a post-graduate diploma in architecture from Edinburgh University. At Edinburgh, Dean studied under the late late-modernist Professor Isi Metzstein, building conservation engineer and writer Ted Ruddock and design critic Mike Duriez.

Dean is a reported to be a favourite of Queen Elizabeth II, and a regular guest of the Royal Family.

Career

Architecture

After finishing his academic studies, Dean received funding from the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) to document mud adobe structures in New Mexico and Arizona. He then worked for Peter Inskip and Peter Jenkins Architects on a variety of Grade I listed buildings, including Stowe House, Chastleton House and Waddesdon Manor.

Ptolemy completed the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings Scholarship.

He has worked for a number of Britain's more traditionally influenced architects, including Sir William Whitfield, neo-classicist John Simpson, Sir Frederick Gibberd and Richard Griffiths. At Richard Griffiths's, he provided heritage assistance in obtaining planning consent for RHWL architects' post-modern influenced extension to St Pancras Chambers.

He now runs his own small practice, Ptolemy Dean Architects, near Borough Market in London. From March 2012 he has also worked as Surveyor of the Fabric for Westminster Abbey.

Books

Dean has written and illustrated two books on the 19th century British architect Sir John Soane, and co-written a study of London's Borough Market.

Television

Dean has appeared with Marianne Suhr as the resident "ruin detective" on the BBC Two television programme Restoration. In his seven-episode series The Perfect Village, on BBC Four, Dean visited 12 English villages and discussed the qualities that would create the "perfect village."

Art and illustration

As seen in his television appearances, Dean produces watercolour cityscapes and architectural renderings or illustrations. These are done in a wobbly line pen and ink technique with evocative colour washes, and are vaguely close to the style, technique, and subject matter of the architectural artist Stephen Wiltshire MBE and influenced by the English tradition typified by Samuel Palmer.

Bibliography

• Dean, Ptolemy. Sir John Soane and the Country Estate (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999; ISBN 1-84014-293-6).
• Dean, Ptolemy, et al.. The Borough Market Book: From Roots to Renaissance (London: Civic Books, 2004; ISBN 1-904104-90-8).
• Dean, Ptolemy. Sir John Soane and London (Aldershot: Lund Humphries, 2006; ISBN 0-7546-3926-6).
• Dean, Ptolemy. Britain's Buildings: Places & Spaces (London: Dorling Kindersley, 2008; ISBN 978-1-4053-2963-7).

External links

• Ptolemy Dean Architects website
• Ptolemy Dean at the Internet Movie Database