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

  • Mike Harris

    Mike Harris

    BSc Geography, MA Town Country Planning

    Homes England

    Mike is a planner with over 15 years’ experience across strategic planning and placemaking including development delivery. He has experience of planning for nationally significant infrastructure, policy development, delivery and EIA coordination. Drawing on this experience, gained within both the public and private sector, Mike focuses on practical delivery whilst being a strong advocate for the creation of design-led, healthy places that work for everyone.

    Housing, 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

  • Fiona Heron

    Fiona Heron

    BSc (Hons), MSc, Dip LA, MA, CMLI, FRSA

    Fiona Heron Design

    Fiona is a landscape architect with over 25 years strategic and detailed experience in both public and private sectors including open spaces, squares, housing, sensitive sites and international garden design competitions. Her focus is on place-making and promoting quality external design. She has won urban design awards for both landscape and art. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, she has written for the Landscape Journal, is a regular university tutor, a member of the CPD Landscape Committee, Cambridge Quality Panel and speaks at multi-professional training sessions and seminars.

    Landscape, People & Place, Strategic Development

  • James Howard

    James Howard

    BSc (Hons), MRICS

    Studio HIVE

    James is Development Director at Studio HIVE, an innovative Bristol-based property developer. He previously worked as Associate Director of Urban Splash and at Gleeds, JLL, and Chesterton. A qualified Building Surveyor, James branched into Development and Project Management of mixed-use heritage and led projects including Lakeshore, Bristol and Royal William Yard, Plymouth. James has been involved with the redevelopment of Deepcut Barracks and Filton and regeneration projects in Bristol & Weston-super-Mare. James has served on the Torbay Design Review Panel for 10 years.

    Heritage, Housing, Strategic Development

  • 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

  • Phil Jones

    Phil Jones

    BSc (Hons) CEng FICE FICHT FIHE

    Phil Jones Associates

    Phil is an engineer with extensive experience in transport planning and street design, particularly in new developments. He aims to achieve synergy between street and urban design to create places and spaces that meet aesthetic, social and functional aims. He is the Chairman of PJA, a 135-strong transport, engineering and placemaking consultancy. In recent years Phil has specialised in active travel and is a Non-Executive Director of Active Travel England, an Agency of the Department for Transport.

    People & Place, Strategic Development

  • Anthony Jones

    Anthony Jones

    BSc Environmental Assessment

    Glanville Group

    Anthony is a transport planner with over 20 years experience in leading transport planning teams in providing highway and transportation planning advice for a wide variety of clients and development schemes in the residential, retail, education, leisure, industrial and office sectors. Anthony joined Glanville as a Technical Director in January 2023. Before that he was a Director at Pegasus Group primarily responsible for launching the new transport team offer in 2018.

    Highways & Transport, People & Place, Strategic Development