Born in Auckland on 8 March 1941, Mitchell was the son of John McFarlane Mitchell and Leonelle Lucy Mitchell (née Tizard), and the nephew of psychologist
Jack Tizard. Mitchell was brought up in
Morrinsville, and completed his architecture studies at the
University of Auckland, graduating with a
Bachelor of Architecture in 1964. He became a registered architect in 1967. In the early 1970s, Mitchell was involved with Aardvark Films. With
Roger Donaldson and
Ian Mune, he co-wrote the 1974 television film,
Derek. Through the 1970s and 1980s, Mitchell was in practice with
Jack Manning and Peter Hill, and he also taught at the University of Auckland between 1972 and 1987. To accompany the series, Mitchell and Gillian Chaplin wrote the book
The Elegant Shed: New Zealand architecture since 1945, which was published by
Oxford University Press in 1984. Mitchell was an avid traveller, adventurer and sailor. In his 30s, he worked on documentaries with
Roger Donaldson, travelling to Everest with Sir
Edmund Hillary, and then sailing around Cape Horn. In 1990, Mitchell began collaborating with
Julie Stout, and they split their time between sailing or travelling around the world while working on projects in Hong Kong and in New Zealand. Mitchell died aged 77 in North Shore Hospital in Auckland on 26 April 2018, having suffered from prostate cancer. ==Works==