David Shalev was born in Jerusalem after his parents fled Germany. His mother was a social worker; his father, a pharmacist, who went on to found Teva Pharmaceuticals. Shalev thought of becoming a painter, but studied architecture on his father's advice, while also studying engineering and planning before graduating from the Haifa Technion in 1960.

Shalev had an architecture practice but he made his reputation as a tutor, with stints at the Architectural Association between 1963 and 1980 inspiring two generations to grasp the problems of designing in three dimensions. Shalev then taught at Bath University from 1995 until 2001. Later in life he took up his first passion of painting, holding exhibitions and being collected around the world.