Speakers

• Mary Duggan

  Mary Duggan

  Mary on her new ideas for procuring architecture, proposing a new form of creative agency, one that side-lines traditional desk-top procurement for time and place responsive actions.
  
  Mary is currently a member the London Borough of Camden’s Design Review Panel and has served on many other design panels and juries including: London Borough of Lewisham, RIBA Education Committee, RIBA International, National and Regional Awards Panels, London Festival of Architecture, The Stephen Lawrence Prize, The Manser Medal, and the RIBA Bronze Medal.
  
  Prior to establishing Mary Duggan Architects, Mary was a founding a founding director of Duggan Morris Architects co-running the practice from 2004-2017. During her time at Duggan Morris Architects, the practice attained numerous industry awards for design excellence including ten RIBA National and Regional Awards, three Civic Trust Awards, three Nominations for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award, The Stephen Lawrence Prize, The Manser Medal and achieved consideration for the RIBA Stirling Prize for three buildings. Mary was nominated for Woman Architect of the Year in 2013.

• Alex Arestis

  Alex Arestis

  ‘Trees on every street – a residents’ toolkit for planting the urban arboretum’
  
  Alex Arestis on the importance of street trees for our future, focussing on the way they are actually delivered, the steps, touching on the annoying hurdles and maybe costs – then calling for a resident-led approach across the city that presumes every street should have trees on it and gives tools to local people to propose sensible locations and draw down allocated funds from councils.
  
  Alex is a designer of public spaces and educator. He has over fifteen years of experience directing streetscape and gardens projects, researching the city, architectural design and masterplan integration work. His proposals are drawn from careful study of each site, the many layers of history and use that make up a place and its inherent opportunities. Alex works collaboratively with councils, developers, curators, community groups, engineers and other designers. During his career he has led designs for streets such as Bond Street and Hanover Square, adding trees, improving pedestrian and cycling experience, upgrading material quality, connectivity, public art and greenery. Alex established Context Office with Victoria Wagner in 2020. www.contextoffice.co.uk @context__office

• Maymana Arefin

  Maymana Arefin

  

  Maymana will speak about how fungi and their mycelium networks could be the key to more liberatory futures.
  
  Maymana Arefin (she/they) is a nature guide, facilitator, writer and community gardener based in south London. Through leading nature immersions, plant and fungi walks, her work focuses on deep rest and healing, tending to land and soil, and restoring our communion with non-human kin.
  
  In 2020, Maymana founded @fungi.futures, a space to map radical alternative futures guided by their joy and passion for fungi. Maymana's award-winning MSc research on how the mycelial networks of fungi may be used as a metaphor for mutual aid seeks to re-imagine an unjust world through a politics of hope. She is strongly committed to justice – in all of its forms – and believes that in order to realise this, we must prioritise care.

• Oli Mould

  Oli Mould

  

  What would happen if we turned all golf courses into community gardens? And why is this such a radical idea? Thinking through these questions cuts to the heart of the 'urban commons', and what kind of land ownership model we want throughout the city. Community gardens have experienced an explosion in popularity because of shrinking garden space and a desire to connect with fellow human beings on public, shared land (that is free and non-judgemental). Indeed, community gardens are a simple solution to many of the large-scale problems of the city, and it is time they're thought about seriously. 
  
  Oli Mould is a geographer and urbanist at Royal Holloway University of London. He has authored several books on urbanism, creativity and the commons including Against Creativity and the forthcoming Post-Capitalist Cities. He writes for multiple outlets online including Prospect Magazine, Open Democracy and CityLab. His current research focuses on mutual aid and environmental activism, and teaches courses on urban geographies and post-capitalism. 

• Dr Morag Rose

  Dr Morag Rose

  

  Can walking together really help us save the world? In her talk Morag will take us on wander exploring themes which cut across her work. These include the importance of public space, equality and access; the power of creative mischief; the right to roam cities; the impact of regeneration and walking as a cultural, artistic, political and social act. Maybe our footsteps can help us make space for different bodies and create better places for everyone.
  
  Morag Rose is a walking artist, activist and academic based in Manchester. In 2006 she founded psychogeographical collective The LRM (Loiterers Resistance Movement) whose manifesto states "our city is wonderful and made for more than shopping. The streets belong to everyone."  Morag is a human geography lecturer at the University of Liverpool and was part of the Walking Publics / Walking Art: walking, wellbeing and community during Covid-19 team. Morag facilitates free monthly communal wanders across Manchester alongside a portfolio of creative tours. With the #OurIrwell campaign she helped save a public towpath along the River Irwell from being diverted through a hotel lobby 

• George Hudson

  George Hudson

  George Hudson will talk about the importance of connected thinking required between gardeners, designers and decision makers if we want a truly greener future.
  
  George is an entrepreneurial gardener, writer and educator, with an ambition to bring horticulture into the 21st century. He is the Green London Curator at the Garden Museum and is quickly becoming the leading authority on the capital’s green spaces. He writes a weekly column in the Evening Standard, advising on everything from houseplants and balcony gardens to compost heaps and the city’s best horticultural hangouts. He is the Garden Editor of RakesProgress magazine and a regular contributor to the Royal Horticultural Society’s The Garden magazine. He is a trustee of the Professional Gardeners’ Trust, a charity that awards grants to empower gardeners through courses and training.

• Nicholas Boys Smith

  Nicholas Boys Smith

  Was Jane Jacobs right? Nicholas Boys Smith, founding Director of Create Streets will back test “The Death and Life of Great American Cities”, which was published 62 years ago, with modern research on happy and prosperous neighbourhoods.
  
  Nicholas Boys Smith is the founding Director of Create Streets and an influential writer on the design and history of our towns and cities. He was co-chair alongside the late Sir Roger Scruton of the influential Building Better Building Beautiful Commission (described as “seminal” by the then Secretary of State for Housing) and is chair of the Advisory Committee of the Government’s new Office for Place. Between 2016 and 2022 Nicholas was a Commissioner of Historic England. His books include No Free Parking, Heart in the Right Street, Beyond Location and Of Streets and Squares.

• Tayshan Hayden-Smith

  Tayshan Hayden-Smith

  

  Starting out as a guerrilla gardener in response to the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, Tayshan founded the nonprofit Grow2Know in 2020. Grow2Know has evolved to reimagine green space through innovative design, reconnecting the community with nature so both can thrive - exploring, understanding and linking design, community and education.
  
  Tayshan Hayden-Smith is a social activist, guerrilla gardener, and RHS Ambassador. He founded Grow2know in 2019 with the aim of making horticulture accessible to all.

• Edward Adonteng

  Edward Adonteng

  

  What is wrong with using an old school building as a housing project? Or a church as a museum? Opting towards a greener, sustainable London, Edward will emphasise the importance of reworking London’s existing buildings amid an age of high-rises, coworking spaces, and pop-ups that fail to serve the interests of the community around them.
  
  Edward Adonteng is a writer, poet, artist-curator, and horticulturist whose focus is to develop platforms for people to thrive and fully exercise their ingenuity.

• Judith Lösing

  Judith Lösing

  

  Judith will unearth the complex networks of urban landscaping and tree planting, exploring misconceptions that greening is always a benign activity. Judith will argue the need to reconsider the ethos of tree planting at any rate and in any place, instead turning our attention to refurbishment and care for existing trees, and carefully considering our sourcing of materials.
  
  Judith Lösing is an architect, joiner and gardener. She is a director at East and the first research fellow at the Architecture Foundation on the social and cultural role of trees in London. On Fridays, she volunteers for the Orchard Project and the Hackney School of Food. Judith’s work at East has won awards at RIBA London, Building Design, New London Architecture, and as Public Realm Architects of the Year.

• Hugh Gatenby

  Hugh Gatenby

  

  Hugh will discuss a new approach for photocatalytic construction hoardings which clean the air and enliven the street.
  
  Hugh Gatenby studied architecture at the University of Edinburgh and the LSA. He now works as a sole practitioner, and his current projects include a co-learning hub in Bristol and a flat renovation in Marylebone. Hugh previously worked at Homes England, John McAslan + Partners and Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture.

• Navdeep Deol

  Navdeep Deol

  

  Navdeep will share his thoughts on creating National Park cities and neighbourhoods and why the urban environment is a perfect place to promote and celebrate nature.
  
  Navdeep heads up the board of the National Park City Foundation and London National Park City and is a founding member of Heston Action Group (HAG) in West London. He’s been active with local community groups in Hounslow and West London for over four years, initially through litter picking but now supporting street and tree champions to improve and care for the green environment around them and through a local community garden. He is currently working on the growing and supporting the "London National Park City Ranger movement" and working with other cities on their aspirations to join the National Park City movement.