Panel

  • Claire Smith

    Claire Smith

    BSc, MSt(cantab), CEng, FIStructE, MICE, Hon DEng

    Buro Happold

    Claire is the office director for the 550 strong Bath (founding) office of Buro Happold. She was made a Fellow of the Institution of Structural Engineers in 2016, a Partner at Buro Happold in 2018 and an honorary Doctor of Engineering in 2022. During her time in consultancy, she has worked on a wide variety of new build and refurbishment projects including educational, cultural and leisure buildings with much of her work focused in the South West market, where she is leading Buro Happold’s work in the Temple Quarter Enterprise zone. A strong theme of her work is the desire to produce structures that are expressive of the material properties of which they are constructed. In addition to her role at Buro Happold, Claire is on the South West Council of the Confederation of British Industry, leads the Climate and Nature group for the Future Ambition Board for BANES and sits on the Industrial Liaison Panel at the University of Bath.

    Climate, Heritage, Strategic Development

  • Tim Sullivan

    Tim Sullivan

    BA MSc CIHT

    Mott MacDonald

    Tim has recently joined renowned British engineering firm Mott MacDonald as head of transport planning in the UK and Europe, leading a team of 160+ transport planners and modellers. Tim has spent 20 years in the transport planning industry working across both public sector roles and private practice, and in that time has been a consistent advocate for place-based transport solutions and reduced car dependency. Tim's areas of particular interest are motonormativity and transport decarbonisation. He has recently returned to the UK after an extended period working overseas and lives proudly car-free in Southville, Bristol with his wife and three children.

    Climate, Highways & Transport, People & Place

  • Keir Sweeney

    Keir Sweeney

    IEng, MCIBSE, Passivhaus Consultant, NABERS Assessor

    Arup

    Keir has been a building services engineer at Arup for the last 12 years, involved in a range of building types from concept to construction - coordinating the design outputs of large, international, multidisciplinary teams. He has experience in improving energy efficiency and reducing the carbon impact of both new and existing buildings. Keir has been an associate lecturer at the University of the West of England, teaching modules to students of architecture and engineering.

    Climate

  • Piers Taylor

    Piers Taylor

    B Design M Arch PhD

    Invisible Studio

    Piers Taylor is an architect and founder of the award winning practice 'Invisible Studio' whose work has been published widely and internationally. Their work includes large scale cultural regeneration projects such as East Quay, Watchet and research led projects for the Architectural Association and Westonbirt Arboretum. Taylor has held teaching posts at the Architectural Association and the University of Cambridge and is Professor of Architecture at UWE.

    Climate, Inclusive Design, People & Place

  • Sarah Toy

    Sarah Toy

    BEng MSc MICE CEng FRSA FSI

    Sarah Toy Consulting

    Sarah has 30 years’ experience working on infrastructure projects around the world. Her expertise is focused on developing strategic approaches to healthy urban development. She has worked in diverse roles including Sustainability Advisor at consultancy Arup and Chief Resilience Officer at Bristol City Council. Since July 2018 she has been a freelance Urban Futures Consultant and Research Director at Bristol Futures Global, where she leads on digital placemaking and 5G research.

    Climate, People & Place, Strategic Development

  • Chris Turner

    Chris Turner

    BA(Hons), MArch, PdDip, ARB, RIBA

    Poynton Bradbury Wynter Cole Architects

    Chris is a Director at Poynton Bradbury Wynter Cole Architects and the current Chair of RIBA Cornwall. Chris has led the delivery of major mixed-use public and private sector regeneration schemes in both the UK and abroad. With a passion for environmentally and socially responsible architecture, Chris has worked with many of the UK's well-known developers and institutions and is adept at taking their projects through complex planning processes and supporting them to create truly transformative places.

    Climate, Housing, Strategic Development

  • Natasha Watson

    Natasha Watson

    EngD CEng MICE

    Buro Happold

    Natasha is the UK Climate Emergency Change Manager and the UK Sustainability Co-Lead for Structures and Ground for Buro Happold. These roles support each other in delivering the systemic change needed to tackle the Climate Emergency at an industry level, organisational level, team level and an individual level. Natasha also weaves in the wider issues around equity and unconscious bias in the built environment in her work through practicing intersectional environmentalism.

    Climate

  • Mike Westley

    Mike Westley

    CMLI, FHEA

    Westley Design

    Mike is a Chartered Landscape Architect, inclusive designer, university teacher and researcher, with 35 years’ career experience. His expertise covers wellbeing & green infrastructure, inclusive public realm, healing/ learning environments and participatory design. He has worked across the UK, Europe, Australia and USA. Previous appointments include Principal at a Groundwork Trust, and Programme Manager at Sensory Trust (Eden Project).

    Climate, Landscape, People & Place

  • Jake Williams

    Jake Williams

    MEng, CEng, MCIBSE, MIMechE

    Buro Happold

    Jake has extensive experience in the field of environmental design, carbon reduction, energy and building simulation. Using his in depth understanding of environmental design, Jake is able to drive the design response towards solutions that reduce energy demand, improve well-being and ensure a healthy and comfortable internal environment. He has played a key role in defining the low energy design and environmental strategies on a wide range of projects, including education, cultural, scientific and office buildings. Following through projects from concept to completion and into occupation has given him a solid grounding in the reasons for the performance gap between design and operation, important knowledge of how buildings are managed and operated in practice, as well as an understanding of how users interact with buildings in reality. He is particularly passionate about bringing this learning into his projects, and is focused on delivering designs that are robust, user-centric and avoid unnecessary complexity. Jake’s specialist expertise includes studying energy transfer through the façade, natural ventilation design, thermal comfort, indoor air quality, low energy HVAC systems and low carbon energy generation strategies. He has defined net zero strategies for a wider range of new and existing buildings.

    Climate