Michael Austin Slingsby initially worked as a Land and Property Appraiser in London, from 1961-69, qualifying as a Member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. He then studied at the Architectural Association’s Department of Planning and Urban Design, headed by Leslie Ginsburg. Writing in 2025, Michael recalls how he was tutored by Nick Jeffery, who alongside his teaching was working with a community in Peabody Tenements, Southwark which mainly had Irish and Pakistani members who were construction workers: “I was able to use my professional knowledge as a Chartered Surveyor to obtain rent reductions for the tenants and I was involved in the compulsory purchase of the tenements by Southwark Council.” Slingsby also assisted the AA administration – “ I worked with Eduard Le Maistre [AA Company Secretary]… and negotiated the end of the lease of the Planning Departments premises in Bloomsbury Square. In addition, I negotiated the lease of the AA’s premises in Percy Street. By subletting the accommodation not required by the AA, the School was able to occupy the premises in Percy Street virtually rent free.” During this time he also became close with Otto Koenigsberger, the Head of the AA’s Department of Development and Tropical Studies, and Slingsby subsequently enrolled on the 1970-71 postgraduate programme within that department. He was a member of Pat Wakely’s seminar group and duly graduated with a postgraduate diploma in the summer of 1971. In Michael’s words, “At a personal level,… [Otto Koenigsberger and I] were very close and he guided me like a second father. When I completed my studies at the AA he arranged for me to work in Singapore and Penang for a friend, Lim Chong Keat [Architects Team 3]. After I had been in Malaysia for nine months he invited me back to London to teach at what was then the start of the Development Planning Unit at University College London.” After several years teaching, Slingsby was funded by the British Council to travel to Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he developed and taught a two-year MSc course in Town and Country Planning at the University of Sri Lanka, utilising a practice of ‘guided learning’, rather than ‘teaching’ - based upon his experience gained under Koenigsberger at the AA. In 1978 he was appointed by the British Overseas Development Administration (ODA) as a Technical Co-operation Officer and Adviser of Studies, tasked with creating a Post Graduate Diploma Course in Low Cost Housing and Community Development, at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India. This was followed, from 1982, with another five-year role for the ODA, developing training programmes for staff from the Madras Metropolitan Development Authority - alongside new programmes for the undergraduate and postgraduate course run by Anna University’s School of Architecture and Planning, in Madras. Further ODA positions followed in the early 1990s, based in New Delhi, including rresponsibility for project implementation and financial management of slum improvement projects in Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Indore and Calcutta – to a total project cost of about US$150 million. He subsequently moved to Cambodia for four years (1996-2000), as Chief Technical Adviser for the ‘Support the Squatter Communities and Municipality for Participatory Urban Development’ programme, funded by the UN Development Programme, the UN Centre for Human Settlements and the ODA. In this role, he was responsible for budget of US$ 2.4 million and managed “local and expatriate consultants to undertake studies in urban poverty analysis, impact assessment, access to education and health facilities, and financial services for the urban poor.” Major UN roles followed in the 2000’s, in Vietnam and Bangladesh, concerned with urban planning and poverty alleviation. In 2009 he was appointed the UN-Habitat Country Representative for Afghanistan, in charge of a portfolio of US$165 million and 1,050 staff in Kabul and across 20 provinces. He has continued to work internationally, for institutions including the UN and the World Bank, as well as on a freelance consultancy basis, working in countries including Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore. Michael is currently residing in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. He was awarded the UK’s ‘Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire’ (MBE) in 1986, ‘for services to housing development in India.’

Sources:
Architectural Association Student Register 1945-1972, AA Archives
Architectural Association Diploma Roll Book, 1970-71, AA Archives
Michael Austin Slingsby MBE. Email correspondence to Edward Bottoms, 19th Aug., 13th Dec., 2024.
Michael Austin Slingsby MBE. Curriculum Vitae. Unpublished manuscript, email correspondence from Michael Slingsby to Edward Bottoms, 19th Aug., 13th Dec., 2024.
‘Michael Austin Slingsby MBE’ The London Gazette. "Supplement to The London Gazette, 14th June 1986." No. 50551 (June 14, 1986): B17.

The London Gazette. "Supplement to The London Gazette, 14th June 1986." No. 50551 (June 14, 1986): B17.