Ian Gilzean studied at the Edinburgh University School of Architecture and qualified as an architect in 1984. He has worked for a number of architectural practices in Edinburgh, London and Glasgow, including RMJM in Edinburgh and Elder and Cannon in Glasgow. He has also specialised in community regeneration projects and worked in community based design units in Wester Hailes, Edinburgh and Drumchapel, Glasgow.

Ian joined the Chief Architect's Office of the newly devolved Scottish Government in 1999, and became Chief Architect in 2006. He has responsibility for the development and implementation of the Scottish Government's policy on architecture and associated cultural initiatives. He advises Scottish Ministers on architecture and the built environment and liaises with the architecture profession and other external bodies.  He has overseen the Scottish presence at the Venice Biennale from 2010-2014 and has also spent time working with the Chief Architect’s Office of the Netherlands on an EU exchange programme.

Ian has been involved in architectural education for 25 years working as a studio tutor at Strathclyde University between 1990 and 2002 and has acted as an External Examiner for the Strathclyde and Canterbury Schools of Architecture.  Ian became a Fellow of the RIAS in 2012 and is currently a Visiting Professor at the University of Strathclyde.  Ian is here in Australia for two months as a Visiting Academic at the Melbourne School of Design.