2020 features and seminars

Tightening the green belt

There is no clearer example of the relationship between urbanism and nature than along the green belt. It was created to protect against the sprawl of London and preserve areas for agriculture, leisure pursuits and the natural world. However, some believe that it has become a stranglehold on the development of the city. How should we approach this thorny subject and what innovative proposals can unlock the land without destroying the surrounding countryside?

Peter Murray, New London Architecture
Peter Murray is Curator-in-Chief of New London Architecture, a Mayor of London’s Design Advocate and Chairman of The London Society. In the 1920s and 30s The London Society played a key role in promoting the concept of the Green Belt and has called for a review to ensure it is still fit for purpose.

Tim Riley, Director, RCKa
Tim is a founding director of RCKa, a London-based architectural practice that specialises in innovative residential, community and commercial projects. RCKa was winner of the inaugural RIBA London Emerging Practice of the Year in 2015 and has won three Housing Design Awards, most recently in 2019 for the Hortsley development in Seaford, for specialist developer PegasusLife.

Tim heads up RCKa’s strategic design and masterplanning work, leads on the practice’s research into delivering social value, and sits on both Harrow and Hounslow Council’s design review panels. He is chair of Hertfordshire’s design review panel and a member of the GLA’s Special Assistance Team.

Roland Karthaus, Director, Matter Architecture
Roland Karthaus co-founded Matter Architecture with Jonathan McDowell in 2016. The practice works across scales and types of building and has gained a strong reputation for design and research-led projects. He was previously principal of Karthaus Design, a practice with expertise in strategic regeneration and participatory design.
Roland is an Architect, a member of the RIBA, the Town and Country Planning Association and a Fellow of the RSA.  Professional appointments include: Design Council Built Environment Expert, RIBA Client Adviser, member of the RIBA Planning Advisory Group and of four design review panels.  Roland is part-time senior lecturer and researcher at the University of East London and in 2018 he won an RIBA President’s award for Research.
He lives in Walthamstow where he helps run local design group Architects E17 and he enjoys long distance cycling in his spare time.

Gabi Code, Associate Director, WilkinsonEyre
Gabi is an associate director at WilkinsonEyre. During her time at the award-winning practice, she has developed extensive on-site experience and has overseen a number of projects from design stage through to completion both in the UK and internationally.
Notable projects include Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay, where Gabi was based on site for four years; the Wellcome Collection, which saw the transformation of The Wellcome Trust’s former 1930s headquarters in central London and Crown Aspinalls, a casino and new external terrace structure housed in a Grade II-listed Georgian terraced building within the Mayfair Conservation Area.
Gabi registered as a qualified project manager with Association of Project Management in 2015, demonstrating she can not only design and deliver great buildings but she understands how a project can benefit from good communication and efficient project management and processes.

Hilary Satchwell, Director, Tibbalds
Hilary Satchwell is an architect, urban designer and masterplanner who brings strategic leadership to a broad range of housing and mixed-use projects that prioritise placemaking, people and good growth. She is a founder director of Tibbalds Planning and Urban Design, a consultancy set up to continue the legacy of Francis Tibbalds’ ‘making people-friendly places’.

Hilary’s expertise is focused on setting up and managing projects to deliver good places and award-winning projects. She is a personable, inclusive and persuasive strategic leader with over 20 years experience delivering a range of projects across England in both urban, sub-urban and rural contexts.  Her project work includes new settlements and major urban expansions at the larger scale, urban regeneration projects, education masterplans, and small scale residential interventions, as well as research, good practice guidance, and design advice.

Hilary is one of Sadiq Khan's Mayor’s Design Advisors, is a trustee of Design:South East, and sits on the London Borough of Southwark and London Borough of Lewisham Design Review Panels.