Panel

  • Shruthi Guruswamy

    Shruthi Guruswamy

    BArch MSc MRTPI

    Arcadis

    Shruthi is an Urban Designer, Planner and Architect who is passionate about creating evidence-based design solutions that achieve the right balance between people and environment. She has led and delivered multi-disciplinary urban regeneration and development masterplans in the UK, Sweden, India and Middle East. She has published and delivered talks on sustainable development. Her core areas of focus are sustainable urbanism, climate resilience, TODs, co-design, design codes, healthy places, 20-minute communities and digital planning.

    Climate, Density, Health, Inclusive Design, People & Place, Strategic Development

  • Matt Harrison

    Matt Harrison

    BA Hons DipArch MA RIBA

    One50studio

    Matt is passionate about the value and social necessity of architecture and place design. This is aligned with a commitment to progress neighbourhood scale transformation to achieve sustainable outcomes through integrated energy, transport, water, ecology and social infrastructure. Matt has been a Design West Design Review panel member for more than 10 years and is a teaching fellow at Bath University. He works as a consultant with White Design, where he was a Director and employee of 16 years leading on urban design, neighbourhood planning and architectural projects as well as research into Zero Carbon communities, Retrofit, Design for Future Climate and Post Occupancy Evaluation.

    Climate, Housing, Strategic Development

  • Robert Harrold

    Robert Harrold

    MEng (Hons) CEng MICE MBA

    Statik Consult

    Robert began his career as a structural engineer designing projects as diverse as Woolwich Arsenal, St Petersburg Airport and Maggie’s Leeds before his interest in sustainable homes took him to HAB Housing, where he was design manager for the Neave Brown shortlisted Lovedon Fields. Having recently completed The Carriage Works, Bristol, he is now an independent consultant specialising in the regeneration of complex sites and is passionate about simple, yet creative technical solutions that underpin the creation of fantastic places to live and sustainable communities.

    Climate, Housing, People & Place

  • Birgit Hontzsch

    Birgit Hontzsch

    Dipl-Ing

    Cornwall Council

    Birgit is a Chartered Member of the Landscape Institute (CMLI) with over 20 years’ experience. She is acting Chair of the Landscape Institute South West Branch and a committee member of the Constructing Excellence Cornwall Hub. After many years in the private sector, she now works in the public sector, supporting delivery of Garden Villages. Her specialisms include Green and Blue Infrastructure, Biodiversity and Climate Change Resilience. She is a member of the Soils Taskforce.

    Climate, Ecology, Landscape

  • Lisa Jackson

    Lisa Jackson

    MA Urban Design, BSc Town Planning, MRTPI

    Jackson Planning Ltd

    Lisa’s role is to navigate the evermore complex planning system to gain planning permission for clients. Her key driver is to raise her client’s design and sustainability ambitions and demonstrate that it leads to a smoother planning process; appropriate contextual design is key to that ambition. Her own lived experience of designing, procuring, building, and occupying a PassivHaus has taught her why we must all design better at the planning stage. Lisa represents the Royal Town Planning Institute on the judging panel of the annual National Housing Design Awards.

    Climate, Housing, Strategic Development

  • Nick James

    Nick James

    BSc MArch

    Futureground

    Nick is a sustainability professional with 20+ years’ experience working in investment, development, design and construction organisations. He’s an expert in the development and regeneration of housing, mixed and merged-use schemes. Nick applies design thinking to the “software” of how buildings, places and supporting services are designed, delivered, governed, managed and curated. He has a passion for the repurposing existing buildings and is a qualified retrofit coordinator. He’s founding director of sustainable place strategists, Futureground.

    Climate, Housing, People & Place, Strategic Development

  • Dimitrije Jankovic

    Dimitrije Jankovic

    BSc, MA LA (Hons), AIAPP, CMLI

    BDP

    As a Chartered Landscape Architect, Dimitrije’s strong interests lays in the concept design and creative side of the project that evokes the character of the site, whilst putting a great attention to the detail and the technical side of design work. He is eager to ensure projects work with a human scale, encouraging users to dwell in the external spaces – combining taste and functionality to create distinctive landscapes.

    Climate, Landscape, Water

  • Kate	Jeffreys

    Kate Jeffreys

    CEnv MCIEEM

    Geckoella

    Kate is a Director of Geckoella and an ecologist with over 20 years' experience within both private and public sector. Her fieldwork skills, specialising in bats and botany, provide the grounding for her knowledge of development control and planning across terrestrial, freshwater and marine habitats. The ecology sector is very dynamic at present, and Kate is looking forward to the technical and practical challenges of making policies such as Biodiversity Net Gain and Nature Recovery deliver for wildlife and communities, both at the individual site and at the landscape scale.

    Climate, Ecology, Landscape

  • Innes Johnston

    Innes Johnston

    BA, MEng, CEng, MCIBSE, MIOA

    Max Fordham LLP

    Graduating in engineering from Cambridge, Innes joined Max Fordham’s London office to design systems at the Royal Festival Hall Auditorium and develop the acoustics team. He founded their Bristol office in 2013, overseeing local and listed cultural projects as well as new residential and educational developments. He combines detailed knowledge of delivering sustainable new and refurbished buildings with an overview of the energy and sustainability planning context of construction projects and an understanding of the way physics and comfort relate to building fabric and architecture.

    Climate, Health, Heritage