UDG at COP 26 | speakers

Launch of the Climate Framework

To meet the climate challenge we need a united and coordinated effort. The Climate Framework recognises the need to break down silos and establish common ground, define a common language, and identify the holistic knowledge and skills every built environment professional must be equipped with in order to deliver truly sustainable built environments today and in the future. Join us for the launch with:

	Mina Hasman The Cross-Industry Action Group Mina Hasman leads SOM’s sustainability and wellbeing daily operations and long-term vision for achieving excellence in practice. She has experience in a wide variety of projects in Europe, UK, Middle East, and Asia, bringing a greater understanding of the implications for sustainable and equitable design in different climatic, social, and regulatory contexts. As a recognised expert in her field, Mina has been elected to, and is actively involved in the UKGBC’s Board of Trustees, RIBA’s Ethics & Sustainable Development Leadership Group, UNEP/GlobalABC’s COP26 Task Force, the Architects’ Council of Europe Sustainability Group, and the CIBSE Intelligent Buildings Group, as Vice Chair. Developed in her leadership, the Climate Framework Initiative unites industry and academia for collective climate action. Mina regularly contributes to the wider climate change, sustainability, and wellbeing debate in her role as tutor at various academic institutions and as a regularly invited speaker at many international events and symposiums.
	Sue Morgan Chief Executive, Landscape Institute Previously, Sue oversaw the expansion and growth of a diverse portfolio of projects and programmes at the Design Council, first as Director of Architecture and the Built Environment, then Executive Director, and finally as Interim CEO, leading and shaping, strategic and operational delivery for Design Council. Her 25-year-plus career in the built environment, urban renewal and placemaking includes the delivery of the National Design Guide, High Streets Task Force, Home of 2030, and work with major infrastructure clients such as Network Rail and Highways England. She has held senior positions with London local authorities, Groundwork London, Building Services Research Information Association (BSRIA), and a number of London Urban Study Centres. She is also a director of the Parks Alliance.
	Robin Nicholson CBE Fellow, Cullinan Studio Robin Nicholson is a Fellow, Cullinan Studio, which he joined in 1979. He is Convenor of the multi-disciplinary built and natural environment think-tank, The Edge, chairs the Cambridgeshire Quality Panel, is a member of the NHBC Foundation Expert Panel and is an Honorary Professor at the University of Nottingham. Previously he was a Vice-President of the RIBA (1992-94), Chairman of the Construction Industry Council (1998-2000), a founder member of the Movement for Innovation Board (1998-2001), a CABE Commissioner (2002-10) and a Non-Executive Director of the NHBC (2007-14).
	Sui-Te Wu Lean BIM Strategies \| RIBA Client Adviser Steering Group Vice An expert in design with a real breadth of strategic client experience, a leader in local authority in-house design, transport, education, BIM and governance, Sui-Te Wu has led organisations, design & technology transformation, and influenced significant clients and stakeholders in the role of intelligent client advisor, often in challenging circumstances. Sui-Te has significant success in leading multi-disciplines organisations on complex projects. She championed design review through integrating strategic brief and collaborative working on major projects to world class design. She is a Director of Lean BIM Strategies, a mentor to architects of diversity, the vice chair of RIBA Client Adviser Steering Group, and Vice Chair of Multi-Academies Trust. She is a core member of Climate Framework initiative, the cross-industry Action Group, which unites industry and academia for collective climate action

Creating Climate Safe Streets

Brian Deegan
Urban Movement

Brian is one of the UK’s leading street design engineers and was co-author of the London Cycling Design Standards. With a background in engineering, he has also led high-profile policy and planning projects. He helped develop Transport for London’s Healthy Street Check, a key tool in designing for ‘Healthy Streets’, and helped ensure the design quality of all projects associated with the London Mayor’s £1billion Cycling and Healthy Streets programme. As a design engineer for Camden Council, Brian introduced the UK to ‘light segregation’ for cycling, and subsequently assisted TfL in the testing of innovative approaches to cycling-friendly signalised junction design, such as ‘hold the left’, two-stage right turns and early release.

As a street design all-rounder, Brian has experience tackling the many and varied demands placed on complex urban streets and spaces: from design engineering, traffic modelling and network strategies through to conducting research to the highest industry standards.

He has published several technical papers on cycle planning and recently lead on the infrastructure chapter of the draft EU cycling strategy. He made ‘National Transport Consultant of the Year’ in 2006, for his work on the London Cycle Network, and in 2014 his work on Camden’s Royal College Street was ‘Cycling Scheme of the Year’ at the London Transport Awards and ‘Best Space for Cycling Project’ at the London Cycling Campaign Awards. In 2017 he won the Trevithick Award for Best Paper in the ICE Journal of Engineering Sustainability.

Climate Repair

For our main Urban Design Summit keynote session we have assembled international experts who will set out how we need to design settlements for increasing sea levels; increasing heats; and worsening air quality; as well as how we can set in motion genuine Climate Repair.

	Dr Shaun Fitzgerald OBE Centre for Climate Repair at the University of Cambridge Dr Shaun Fitzgerald undertook his degree studies at Cambridge University before joining the faculty at Stanford University where he led the Geothermal Research Programme. In 1997 he moved back to the UK to spend 5 years with Bain & Company strategy consulting, before returning to Cambridge University to undertake research into natural ventilation of buildings. This research and associated consulting work led to Shaun founding Breathing Buildings in 2006. As CEO he oversaw the growth of the company, led the multiple financing rounds with venture capital firms, and assisted government in the review of regulations for school buildings in order to ensure provision of well-ventilated and low energy teaching environments. Following the successful integration of the company into Volution Holdings, he left in 2018 in order to take up the position as Director of The Royal Institution. Shaun then took up the position as Director of the Centre for Climate Repair at Cambridge University in 2020. Shaun is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Member of the SAGE Environmental Modelling Group and one of the authors of the CIBSE Emerging from Lockdown series. He was awarded an OBE in 2021 for services to tackle Covid-19.
	Dr Kristina Hill Director, Institute of Urban and Regional Development, University of California, Berkeley Dr. Kristina Hill studies both the drivers and strategies for urban adaptation to coastal flooding and climate change. Her focus is on protecting low-income and minority communities that are vulnerable to health impacts from legacy contamination in groundwater, long before the groundwater reaches the surface as flooding. Kristina has contributed to adaptation plans for a diverse group of US cities, several US agencies, and the Rockefeller Foundation. She edited the 100th anniversary issue of the journal of the Ecological Society of America in 2015 on the topic of climate change and infrastructure, has published in a wide range of journals and anthologies, and been featured in a documentary about urban flooding (the Sinking Cities PBS documentary and the Hidden Brain podcast on NPR). Most recently, her work is being used by the UNEP Finance Initiative to guide investments in cities.
	Prof Zongbo Shi Professor of Atmospheric Biogeochemistry, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham Zongbo did his PhD at China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing). He was awarded a JSPS fellowship in 2005 and a NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) Independent Fellowship and then Birmingham University Fellowship in 2011. He is a member of the NERC Advisory Network. He is currently leading a research group focusing on sources, processes and impacts of air pollution. He has worked extensively on biogeochemical cycling of atmospheric nutrients such as iron and their impacts on ocean primary production. More recently his research has focused on air pollution sources and processes in both polluted (e.g., Beijing, Delhi, Chiang Mai, Birmingham) and remote regions (e.g., polar regions) through field, laboratory and data science approaches. He coordinated a major UK-China joint research programme - Atmospheric Pollution and Human Health in a Chinese Megacity (APHH-China, 2016-2021). He is currently leading a NERC capital grant to build two mobile air quality supersites to complement the existing fixed supersite at Birmingham. He also leads a NERC highlight topic project to study the impact of shipping emissions on atmospheric aerosols and the climate in the Arctic and North Atlantic Ocean.
	Dr Maya Negev School of Public Health, University of Haifa, Israel Dr Negev's research focuses on the science-policy interface of environmental health, with a particular interest in chemical regulation, climate change and ecosystem services. Her work addresses questions such as: how do scientific knowledge and uncertainty influence policy-making, and how does public policy impact environmental health. These questions are examined through mixed methods and interdisciplinary research. She received her PhD from Ben-Gurion University and her doctoral thesis focused on a multicultural approach to environmental policy. She was a Fulbright visiting scholar at the School of Public Health, UC Berkeley, and conducted research on adaptation to climate change in the public health sector at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, during a Daniel Turnberg fellowship. Maya is a member of the Board of Directors of the Arava Institute of Environmental Studies.

Climate Conversations - Community Sustainability Hubs

At the most important global event of recent times concerning the design of our towns, cities and settlements we close our Urban Design Summit coming back down to earth to discuss ideas at a community level. How can we all make a difference in our community, improving our relationship with the environment whilst bolstering community spirit and social connectedness? How can peer to peer support and collaboration at community level facilitate more cultural and practical green changes?

	Parisa Wright Founder of Greener and Cleaner With a background in commercial, media and human rights law, a passion for connecting people and two small children to inspire her, Parisa Wright, founded the charity, Greener & Cleaner which she runs on a voluntary bais to facilitate community engagement and local action to address the climate crisis, biodiversity loss and air pollution. Greener & Cleaner has been helping thousands of households in South East London to share tips and experiences of sustainable living and collaborate to make their communities greener, healthier and more sustainable now and in the future - at home, school, work, places of worship, local green spaces and more. They are working to launch a mainstream UK Community Sustainability Hubs project in empty shop units of major shopping centres, with a Pilot starting in South East London. The Pilot will help generate a practical blueprint after 12-18 months, with the ambition that this will be used to launch 15-20 hubs in other major shopping centres across the UK by 2025.
	Camilla Siggaard Andersen Senior Researcher, HASSELL Camilla leads research on urban resilience at Hassell, bringing together strategic intelligence and creative design to unlock social, economic, and ecological outcomes for people and place. Previously at Gehl in Copenhagen and New York, she managed placemaking projects and led the development of the Open Public Life Data Protocol. Camilla collaborates with cities and communities across the world, advising and writing on how to create more innovative, sustainable, and human-centred cities and places. Camilla has been nominated as an NYU Emerging Leader in Transportation and a Future Stars of Tech and currently chairs New London Architecture’s Built Environment Technology Panel. In October 2021, she published Close to Home, a research report looking at the 15-minute city concept in detail, with Hassell and Irish Institutional Property.
	Marie Williams Founder and CEO, Dream Networks Marie Williams is a senior product development engineer, social entrepreneur, designer and academic. An Institute of Engineering Female engineer of the year finalist, her playful career has seen her collaboratively create sustainability driven solutions within a range of industries, ranging from aerospace, to nuclear building design, to corporate social responsibility and most importantly play. In 2016 she launched Dream Networks and began a journey to enable inclusive play4all children through the process of co-design. To date Dream Networks has collaborated with businesses, schools and communities in the UK and East Africa to bring sustainably built and diverse play to over 20,000 children. She is a PhD student at the Bartlett Institute of Global Prosperity, a 2021 exchange scholar at Yale School of Architecture and senior lecturer associate at Bristol University Centre of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. She is an advocate for children and youths' right to change the spaces they inhabit through design that prioritises the needs of the community and the environment.
	David Milner Deputy Director, Create Streets David Milner MEng is the Deputy Director at Create Streets and is currently leading and working on a wide range of urban design, estate regeneration, community engagement and local government consultation projects. These include a street design guide, multiple large scale masterplans in the south west, urban infill in West Kensington, community-led city centre regeneration in Sunderland and online community engagement using digital mapping platform Create Communities. David has a Master of Engineering from Oxford University and a level 5 Diploma from the Institute of Leadership and Management. He is a design review panellist and a lecturer on design codes at Oxford University. Previously David worked for six years as an officer and helicopter pilot in the Royal Air Force after a spell as an analyst at a multinational retailer. He left the Air Force to tackle the climate and air pollution crisis through urban design that enables us to live and get about in a sustainable way.