Speakers & Facilitators
Chair
Sharanjit Leyl
Sharanjit Leyl is an experienced broadcaster with 25 years presenting on international news channels, including BBC World News and Bloomberg TV. She has anchored Newsday and Asia Business Report from the BBC's Singapore studio but has also anchored BBC programmes from London, filed reports for radio on the BBC World Service and written for BBC news online.
She has interviewed many of the world’s top political and business leaders. keeping audiences engaged and entertained with conversations taking place on stage or online. She‘s moderated discussions at some of the world’s most high profile events at the United Nations, the ADB and other global summits, and also for the corporate world.
A resident of Bath, in 2024 Sharanjit became Chancellor of Bath Spa University and she is active in many initiatives within the city.
Contributor
Bob Allies
Architect in Residence for Bath & Partner, Allies and Morrison
Bob Allies founded Allies and Morrison with Graham Morrison in 1984. In the years since, he has established a design approach that finds enjoyment in simplicity, technical rigour and longevity. An architect, urbanist and teacher, he is a widely published author and editor, and frequently lectures on architecture and the city.
Bob is currently Professor of Architecture at the University of Bath and has recently been appointed to the role of Architect in Residence to the city of Bath and North-East Somerset. He is also Chair of the Faculty of Architecture and a member of the Council of the British School at Rome. Past teaching positions include the George Simpson Visiting Professor at the University of Edinburgh and the Kea Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Maryland. Bob is Chair of Design Review at Design South East, a member of the Council of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, and a trustee of the Historic Towns Trust.
Speaker
Oli Henman
Global Coordinator, Action for Sustainable Development
Oli is the Global Coordinator of Action for Sustainable Development and he also serves as one of the Organising Partners of the NGO Major Group linked to the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. He has considerable experience in strengthening civil society participation and governance around the world. He supports the engagement of community organisations and national coalitions in the implementation and follow-up of the SDGs, using People’s Scorecards for national accountability. In his previous role at CIVICUS he led key advocacy on the SDG negotiations and campaigns. Prior to CIVICUS, he was Head of Partnerships & International at NCVO; he was also a co-drafter of the Council of Europe’s ‘Code of Good Practice on Civil Participation’. He is half-Brazilian and started his career working on participatory budgeting in the cities and rainforests of Brazil.
Oli is also a Councillor for Bath & North East Somerset Council
Speaker
Christopher Costelloe
Development Advice Team Leader, Historic England
Chris Costelloe is a Development Advice Team Leader for Historic England in the South West. He starting his career in building conservation by completing an NVQ in stonemasonry at City of Bath College as part of his apprenticeship as a banker mason. Subsequently he worked for the Victorian Society as a conservation adviser, subsequently spending eight years as its Director. He has been with Historic England for five years, starting as an Inspector of Historic Buildings in London and more recently moving to the South West.
Speaker
Alex Ely
Founder, Mae Architects
Alex Ely founded Mæ in 2001. He has led the practice in establishing an international reputation for innovation and excellence. Alex balances working for architecture and civil society advising government and its agencies on the built environment. He has been responsible for award winning schemes from masterplans to cultural buildings, housing to health care as well as for the Mayor of London’s Housing Design Guide and numerous best practice publications for CABE.
Alex sits on the RIBA's Housing & Planning Expert Advisory Group and is a former Mayor's Design Advocate, CABE Built Environment Expert, a member of the GLA’s and LLDC’s Review Panels. He is a frequent public speaker at national and international urban and design forums.
Speaker
Amy Waite
Associate Director, Mikhail Riches
Since joining Mikhail Riches in 2016 Amy has led project teams on a range of scales, including the redevelopment of the Grade II listed Park Hill Phase 2 in Sheffield, and the Croydon Small sites programme. Amy enjoys the challenge of running these complex projects and design teams.
Prior to joining Mikhail Riches, Amy studied at the University of Bath for RIBA Part I, II and III, qualifying in 2014. Amy has previously worked in both Bath and London in a number of different sectors from education and community to private residential projects including the RIBA award-winning ‘Whole House’ for Hayhurst and Co.
Amy enjoys working on projects where the clients are actively engaged in the design process, working with them to improve the outcome for future users and occupiers.
Speaker
Andrew Grant
Founder, Grant Associates
Andrew formed Grant Associates in 1997 to explore the emerging frontiers of landscape architecture within sustainable development. He has a fascination with creative ecology and the promotion of quality and innovation in landscape design. Each of his projects responds to the place, its inherent ecology and its people.
He is known for a creative approach to ecological / sustainable landscape design and the integration of landscape with engineering and architecture to create distinctive contemporary places with a strong ecological character.
He has been involved in all scales of development from sub-regional planning of National Parks, strategic planning of new towns and green infrastructure strategies through to the design of particular landscape spaces or components. Andrew has worked on a number of high profile award winning projects and has collaborated with some of the top architects and engineers in the world.
Speaker
Dr Alia Fadel
Senior Lecturer in Landscape Architecture, Leeds Beckett University
Dr. Alia Fadel is an educator, architect and landscape architect, biophilic design consultant, and ethnographic observation specialist in urban settings and collegiate campuses. Her teaching and practical experience extends to include notable international academic institutions in Egypt, USA, and UK.
Dr. Fadel accomplished both her Master Degree of Landscape Architecture and Doctorate Degree of Philosophy in Architecture at Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, USA. Her scholarly work focuses on the interrelationship between design, health, and contact with nature in urban settings and collegiate campuses to mitigate stress, prompt productivity, and support human physical, psychological, and emotional wellbeing.
Throughout her academic and professional career, Dr. Fadel received several prestigious awards, including Fulbright, Illinois Institute of Technology Graduate Award, University of Chicago PhD co-op Award, 2018 PhD Best Dissertation Award, 2019 ARCC Dissertation Award Honorable Mention from the Architectural Research Centers Consortium, USA. Her teaching, research, and practical experience extend to include notable international universities and academic institutions in Egypt, USA, and UK.
Speaker
Geoff Rich
Partner, Director of Heritage and Creative Reuse, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios
Geoff is an award-winning conservation architect taking a leading role in cultural heritage, creative re-use and regeneration projects, in the UK and internationally.
He is a Partner and Director of Heritage & Creative Reuse at Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, a UK-based architectural practice with an international reputation for design quality, social purpose, and pioneering environmental expertise.
Geoff has a passion for finding and unlocking the latent value in cultural heritage projects of all scales, and for sharing their full potential with clients, students and public audiences.
He is a Visiting Professor at the University of the West of England, and a regular visiting lecturer at Harvard University, UCL, Bath, and Oxford Brookes.
Geoff has a passion for sharing great ideas, and is Curation Lead for TEDxBath.
Speaker
Dr Aoife Houlihan-Wiberg
Associate Professor, Centre for Regenerative Design & Engineering for a Net Positive World (RENEW)
Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, University of Bath
Aoife Houlihan-Wiberg recently joined The Department of Architecture and Engineering at The University of Bath in early 2023 having previously held the position of Professor of Architecture, Chair of Research in Architecture at the Belfast School of Architecture and the Built Environment at Ulster University, Belfast, UK since 2019.
She returned to the UK after working for 10 years at The Research Centre for Zero Emission Buildings and The Research Centre for Zero Emission Neighbourhoods in Smart Cities at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway. She is a Chartered member of The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), graduated as an architect from Cardiff University and completed her M.Phil. and PhD Degree in Architecture from the University of Cambridge. She is UK National Expert in the International Energy Agency (IEA EBC) Annex 89 - Ways to Implement Net-zero Whole Life Carbon Buildings (2023-28).
Speaker
Professor Elena Marco
Pro Vice-chancellor and Head of College of Arts, Technology and Environment, University of the West of England
Elena is internationally recognised as a strategic and transformational leader in teaching and learning, known for her continued commitment to student success, as well as for her positive influence on colleagues. She is committed to equity for all and takes particular interest in the advancement of women and Black, Asian global majority groups in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. She also leads the sustainability portfolio for the University where she chairs the Sustainability Executive Committee ensuring that sustainability considerations are embedded across the University's teaching, research, campus operations and civic engagement work.
Elena's architecture and built environment career spans industry and academia, beginning at Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios when she was completing her final architecture thesis project where she raised to Project Architect before pursuing an academic career in academia at UWE Bristol.
Speaker
Jonathan Smales
Founder & CEO, Human Nature
Jonathan is founder and CEO of sustainable development foundation Human Nature.
A former director and international trustee of Greenpeace, Smales sees development as a powerful pathway to a sustainable future.
Through Human Nature, Smales works with architects, engineers and designers to improve the way buildings, spaces and infrastructures are conceived utilising bio-based materials and emphasising renewable energy.
His flagship project The Phoenix has recently received planning approval to transform a former industrial site in Lewes into the most sustainable neighbourhood in the UK, according to Human Nature.
Facilitator
Lucy Barron
Heritage Director, BiBO Studios
Having spent 17 years at Donald Insall Associates, Lucy is an accredited conservation architect and heritage advisor who has worked with private, public, charity and commercial clients in the repair, reuse, and reinterpretation of redundant or underused historic buildings to ensure their continued survival and use. Lucy’s expertise as both an architect and historic buildings advisor, as well as her experience in engagement, makes her uniquely placed to research, understand, and translate the value of heritage spaces and places into strategic visions, masterplans and built forms.
In addition to her work at BiBO Lucy currently sits as a heritage expert and advisor for the Bath Preservation Trust, Design West Design Review Panel, is an occasional lecturer at Bath Spa University, Bath University, UWE, and Oxford Brookes and co-founded Architecture Is, an urban design group encouraging conversations around the built environment in Bath.
Facilitator
Rob Delius
Associate Director, Head of Sustainability, Stride Treglown
Rob is an award-winning architect and Head of Sustainability at Stride Treglown. In 2021 Stride Treglown became the 1st AJ100 practice to become a B Corp, thereby committing to be legally accountability to balance profit and purpose.
His work has specialised mainly in residential and mixed-use developments. He is passionate about sustainability and placemaking and has led a number of initiatives in Bath and Bristol which have promoted action on climate, biodiversity and health. His 2022 climate installation won AJ Collaboration of the Year and this year he instigated and led an international action around biodiversity loss. He has been sustainability advisor to the RIBA Southwest awards and has been the winner of multiple RIBA design competitions.
