Cambridgeshire Quality Panel Members
As of September 2011 the Quality Panel members were:
Robin Nicholson (Chair of the Quality Panel) is a senior member of Edward Cullinan Architects, which he joined in 1979. He is a Board Member of the National House Building Council (NHBC) and chairs NHBC Services Ltd. He is Convenor of the Construction Industry think-tank, The Edge Debates.
Previously he was a Vice-President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) (1992-94), Chairman of Construction Industry Council (CIC) (1998-2000) and founder member of the Movement for Innovation Board (1998-2001). He helped develop the Design Quality Indicator (1999-09). He sat on the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) Urban Sounding Board (2001-03), was a Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) Commissioner (2002-10) and Joint Deputy Chair (2008-10) and chaired the Department for Education Zero Carbon Task Force whose recommendations were accepted by the Secretary of State in Jan 2010.
He was awarded a CBE for Services to Architecture in 1999 and an Honorary Fellowship of the Institution of Structural Engineers in 2002.
John Worthington (Vice Chair of the Quality Panel) is the co-Founder of DEGW, Director of The Academy of Urbanism, Patron and past Chair of the Urban Design Group and Chair of the Dublin Urbanism Advisory Panel.
Recent appointments include becoming Chair of Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE)/Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Building Futures, Board member London Thames Gateway Development Corporation and being awarded the Graham Willis Professorship at the University of Sheffield.
Canda Smith is a Landscape Architect by profession and has focused her career on improving the interaction of people and place, and is currently an independent adviser.
She has worked for Central Government since 2002. Most recently as a Senior Civil Servant at the Department for Communities and Local Government, heading up the teams responsible for Land, Design and Industry. She had responsibility for Urban Design policies and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment; as well as policy and delivery roles on the National Brownfield Strategy, Coalfield Programmes, Urban Regeneration Companies, Surplus Public Sector Land programmes and regeneration and property projects delivered by the Homes and Communities Agency. She also led on a range of housing matters, including liaison with the private sector house building industry.
Her early career was largely in the voluntary sector, where she worked for one of the initial Community Development Trusts. Canda then moved to work for a local authority planning department, as a landscape architect.
David Birkbeck is chief executive of Design for Homes, which he helped set up in 2000 as a not-for-profit research vehicle to improve design, planning and construction.
David created the Building for Life assessment tool in September 2002, now the core tool for the public sector to assess the quality of development proposals in planning and grant bids. David later joined a team to develop a similar tool for Ireland which became its statutory preplanning assessment criteria on 31 December 2008. Both measure the quality of urban design and private and shared amenity in new-build applications. His publications include 'Car Parking: What Works Where' for English Partnerships.
Design for Homes also manages the UK government's Housing Design Awards and David is both a judge and the programme's reporter.
David is a board member of the Housing Forum, was a judge on the Design for Manufacture and Carbon Challenge competitions and in April 2009 he was appointed to a panel advising on design and sustainability standards at the Homes and Communities Agency. He is an National House-Building Council (NHBC) councillor and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
David Prichard's particular interests are in master planning, urban design, housing and regeneration commissions as well as a range of civic and education building projects. He led the multi-disciplinary team on the Ballymun Regeneration Project in Dublin which won the Irish Planning Institute's Planning Achievement Award. That project has lead to several other planning studies such as Metro North rail line, Communities for 50,000 residents and the Liberties area plan for 225 hectares of Dublin City.
Most recently he led the regional master plan for 65km coastline of the Dead Sea for the Jordanian Government which won the MIPIM Master Planning Commendation. David built the Durham Cultural Quarter for the City Council, comprising a theatre, visitor centre, library and new square in this World Heritage city. He was responsible for Cable and Wireless College Campus in Coventry, outright winner of the Building of the Year Award. David chairs the national panel for the Civic Trust
George Hazel is Chairman of MRC McLean Hazel Ltd. He has extensive experience in all aspects of transport and communications, both urban and rural. Professor Hazel has specific expertise in strategic planning and policy development, the integration of transport with other related areas, the prioritisation of projects with respect to economic, environmental and social objectives and innovative funding of transport infrastructure around the world.
He has studied all forms of transport policy around the world, both the successful and the unsuccessful, and has gained a detailed insight into the key issues and influences in this field. Professor Hazel has worked in the public, private and academic sectors at a senior level and has acted as advisor to the Academy of Sustainable Communities, the Commission for Integrated Transport, Transport for London, the Queensland State Government, the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Region and the Cities of San Diego, Vienna, Dublin, Belfast and London.
Lynne Sullivan is a practicing Architect and Parter, sustainableBYdesign in 2009, following eighteen years specialising in low-energy building design at Energy Conscious Design and Broadway Malyan. Her practice is currently working on PassivHaus schools and housing design and was a finalist in the recent Welsh PassivHaus competition. Previously she was winner of the UKs first Zero CO2 housing competition and Architect for one of four finalists in the UKs first Carbon Challenge competition at Hanham Hall, Bristol.
Lynne has a unique reputation in her contribution to policy and strategy for a sustainable built environment, including being the only architect on the Government's 2004-5 Sustainable Buildings Taskgroup and the 2009 Zero Carbon Energy Efficiency Standard TaskGroup, and she chaired the Expert Panel for the Scottish Government whose report "A Low Carbon Building Standards Strategy for Scotland" was published in 2007.
Meredith Bowles is the director Mole Architects, a Cambridgeshire practice specialising in low energy sustainable buildings. He combines practice with teaching, and holds an Isaac Newton Teaching Fellowship at the University of Cambridge.
He is past chair of the Cambridge Association of Architects, and has recently chaired awards judging panels for Suffolk Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
Nick James trained as an architect and completed both Undergraduate and Masters degrees at the University of Bath. His career began working in architectural and masterplanning practices in London and the South of England before joining BioRegional Development Group in 2002 and co-founding BioRegional Consulting Ltd in 2004.
Nick joined sustainable community developer BioRegional Quintain Ltd in 2005 and works specifically on integrating sustainability into development projects. BioRegional Quintain Ltd (BQL) is an active developer in the UK and also provides strategic sustainability and development consultancy services to partners primarily in the property and energy sectors.
His role within BQL includes working with stakeholders to define sustainability vision and strategy, identify and establish robust delivery mechanisms, and to ensure implementation. As well as working on specific design and project issues, Nick has a key role in developing and delivering pan-project initiatives such as Energy Service Companies and sustainable estate management solutions. Nick is a registered assessor for BRE EcoHomes and Code for Sustainable Homes, and a director of Futureground Ltd design consultancy.
Oliver Smith is the Founder Director of 5th Studio, a practice of 16 architects in two studios and a portfolio of challenging building, strategic master planning and public realm projects.
Recent work includes the Russell Street Hostel for St Catharine's College and the Creative Exchange in St Neots. Current projects include the re-invention of a Grade I Listed Building into PassivHaus student accommodation, and the design of zero-carbon housing developments in Bow and St Ives. 5th Studio are currently working on the implementation plans for the Lower Lea Park and on urban design projects for the City of St Albans, Crossrail, the A10 corridor and for Park Royal.
Oliver qualified in Cambridge in 1983, working with James Stirling on the Tate in the North and art galleries in Lugano and Milan and with MJP on projects for the London School of Economics and Politial Science (LSE), the Ruskin Archive and Lancaster University. Oliver was a founding Trustee, and chairs the Management Group, of Shape East - the architecture centre for the eastern region.
Simon Carne is an Architect, Planner and Urban Designer. Simon's career has ranged from architect in private practices including the Peter Moro Partnership and Shepheard Epstein and Hunter with experience on University, housing and mixed use projects.
Following 8 years as a client at the City of Westminster Department of Planning, leading on public realm, parks, gardens and street design, Simon was a Director at Urban Initiatives with responsibility for a number of planning, public realm, urban design and master planning projects. Simon is a Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) enabler, a member of the Design Commission for Wales, the South West of England Design Panel and an Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Client Design advisor.
Steve Platt is a social scientist with experience in urban planning, housing and energy use. His main interest is the relationship of people to design.
He has worked on many aspects of the built environment including six years urban and regional planning in Venezuela. His PhD research at the Martin Centre, University of Cambridge, was on the effect of the local environment on child development. He has been a director of Cambridge Architectural Research since 1990 and it's Chairman since 2001. He ran the public consultation exercises for Cambridge Futures, on development and transport Awards. He has judged several international architectural competitions and other award schemes.
He is an advisor to Galway, Cork, and Dublin City Councils and is an academician of the Academy of Urbanism.