Ian was the author of the book “Buildings for the Performing Arts: A Design and Development Guide”, he also contributed to Theatre Planning for the Architects Journal and wrote the chapter on Auditoria for the Metric Handbook.

A fine architect and teacher for over 20 years at Edinburgh University. In his early career he was project architect for the interior of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and the Gulbenkian Theatre, Hull (which has recently been listed)  and also worked on Nottingham Playhouse while with Peter Moro and Partners.

After he came north to Edinburgh he was project architect for the Brunton Hall, Musselburgh and with his wife, Marjorie Appleton, established the The Appleton Partnership which won the competition for the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds, (now Leeds Playhouse) and went onto work on other projects such as the Macrobert Arts Centre, University of Stirling.