Wendy de Silva was born in Sri Lanka but immigrated to England in the 70's and studied at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London.

She started her career as a trainee on a building site with John Laing Construction. Shortly after qualifying, she went back to Sri Lanka and worked with Geoffrey Bawa on the 'Ruhunu University' Project.

Most of her professional life has been spent in London where she has worked on a large variety of buildings including schools, retail, housing and listed buildings. She also used to be a partner at Nightingale Associates, a practice specialising in healthcare projects.

Wendy's most recent project was 'Cargo Fleet' which she worked on with her partner Stephen Chance. Chance de Silva also completed 'Venus', a studio house, in 1998. Wendy is a director of Dransfield Owens de Silva, a Bermondsey based practice which is involved in a number of large and small scale health, housing and mixed use regeneration projects in London.

After the lecture guests are invited to join Wendy and members of the RIBA North East for a drinks reception in the Hub area, 2nd Floor, Wynne Jones (above Nixon hall).