As a researcher, he coined the term "environics" to cover the study of the environmental implications of modern architecture development and taught courses on the subject until his retirement.
During World War II he served in the British Army and the Royal Air Force as a member of Coastal Command 279 Squadron stationed at RAF Thornaby.
[3] As a representative of Great Britain, Horsbrugh entered a work entitled "Sailing Club" into the "architectural design" category of the art competitions at the 1948 Summer Olympics, but did not win a medal.
[3] During this same year, High Paddington was published by Sergei Kadleigh, with Horsbrugh's assistance, describing a vertically built town suitable for eight thousand individuals.
Although the law was rescinded at the end of his tenure, he had already signed a contract with the University of Texas at Austin, where in 1965 he had planned and hosted a conference on the environmental impact of modern architecture.