Nick trained at Edinburgh College of Art and the Architectural Association where he was a recipient of the Future Practice Prize and an honours nominee. He was a scholar at the British School at Rome (Boas Scholar, 2003) and completed his professional training at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. Nick founded Tyler Hayhurst in 2004 and later reformed his practice as Hayhurst and Co. in 2009 where he has led a series of pioneering education, community and residential projects.
Nick has taught and lectured widely and is a Senior Lecturer at University of Brighton where he specialises in design theory and practice. He is currently the subject lead for Future Practice: exploring evolving forms of architectural and design practice. He became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2018. Nick has sat on RIBA Council, was one of the author’s of the RIBA’s publication ‘Tomorrow’s Architect’, and is a member of the RIBA Visiting Board where he has chaired the validation of schools of architecture in the UK and overseas. Nick has been an External Examiner at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen and is currently an External Examiner at the Macintosh School of Architecture in Glasgow and Sheffield Hallam University.
Nick has lectured widely on the work of the practice at schools of architecture and professional institutions around the UK and regularly contributes to journal articles and the professional press. He was appointed to the Southwark Design Review Panel in 2012 which he went on to chair between 2018-2023, has chaired the Brighton & Hove Design Review Panel since 2016 and chaired the Croydon Design Review Panel since 2023. He has been appointed as an Expert Witness on design related matters in public enquiries and has been a judge for the AJ Retrofit and Civic Trust Awards. He chaired an RIBA London Awards jury in 2021 and the RIAS Awards in 2024.