Debate Speakers
Paul Finch: Programme director for the World Festival of Architecture
Paul Finch is programme director of the World Architecture Festival, and editor emeritus of Architectural Review and Architects' Journal. In December 2009, he will take up a new post as chair of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE). A former commissioner and deputy chair of CABE, he spent five years as chair of its design review panel, and also chaired its regional committee. He has chaired CABE's 2012 Olympic design review panel since 2006. He is an honorary fellow of the RIBA and of University College London, and holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Westminster.
Tristram Hunt: British historian, broadcaster and newspaper columnist
Tristram Hunt is a historian, author and broadcaster. He is an expert in Victorian urban history and is a lecturer in modern British history at Queen Mary, University of London. Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and the University of Chicago, he was previously a visiting professor at Arizona State University, an associate fellow at the Centre for History and Economics, King’s College, Cambridge and research fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research.
He has authored numerous documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4. In addition, he has worked extensively to generate a broader public interest in heritage through his articles in The Times, The Observer, the Guardian, The New Statesman and specialist journals. Tristram is a trustee of the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Rab Bennetts: Director of architectural practice for Bennetts Associates
Rab Bennetts is a director of Bennetts Associates Architects, the firm which he co-founded in 1987. He was awarded the OBE for services to architecture in 2003.
Recently appointed for the redevelopment of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and the Humanities Faculties at Oxford University, Bennetts Associates has also worked for Land Securities in the City of London, Crossrail, City Inn hotel group in UK and Amsterdam, and City Road Basin alongside the Regent’s Canal in Islington, London.
Simon Munro: Co-founder of The Landscape Interface Studio, Kingston University
Simon Munro is Landscape practitioner with extensive teaching, research and project experience. Former Principal Lecturer, Course Director BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture and co-director of The Landscape Interface Studio at Kingston University, he has led 'live' studio projects for The Wey & Arun Canal Trust, EU Interreg funded 'NorthSEAfaring: Maritme Heritage + Spatial Planning' project and West Focus Knowledge Exchange to explore Research & Enterprise opportunities in waterway environments. He has a special interest in interdisciplinary design and research, having worked with his partner Dai Rees on a widely profiled series of cultural projects that offered collaboration with the British Council, Victoria & Albert Museum and University of the Arts.
He has wide-ranging Landscape practice experience, including work with Livingston Eyre, EDAW and Kinnear Landscape Architects and is currently collaborating with a Community Interest Company to explore new trans-sectoral practice scenarios.
Julian Barwick: Director of Development Securities plc.
Julian Barwick has been a Director of Development Securities plc, a property development and investment company, since May 1998. He also sits on the Board of London & Continental Railways Limited as a non-executive director. Formerly, Julian has been property advisor to the Bedford Estates (1997 – 2003), Chairman of the Paddington Regeneration Partnership (2000 – 2002) and Board Member of the British Council of Offices (1996 – 2006). Julian is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.