Rethinking land use
The West Midlands National Park Lab (WMNP) was selected to run a UN-Habitat Urban Thinkers Campus (UTC) in Birmingham UK, in collaboration with UN-Habitat and the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA).
This two-day multidisciplinary event made the case for an International Landscape Convention (ILC), to provoke, challenge and inspire different behaviours and attitudes towards the land, enabling us to better deal with global challenges in urban regions. The critical significance of the infrastructure of landscape in tackling the interrelated and accelerating problems of the climate emergency, pollution, urbanisation, health and well-being, food and water security and loss of biodiversity is slowly becoming more apparent but continues to be a blind spot in regional and national economic strategies.
It has never been more important to shift this attitude. Disquiet about current development practices raised by UN Agencies at the 2022 World Urban Forum was confirmation that business as usual is clearly not an option and that more radical change is needed. We need to be braver, more ambitious and more determined to deal with the global challenges we face.
To provoke the discussions, the UTC used the WMNP policy drivers as a lens through which to rethink land-use. These policy drivers serve as cross-sector challenges, forcing us to reassess existing land use policy.
The WMNP policy drivers are given below. We encourage you to think about how your professional work, practice and approaches and personal experience of the world would be transformed if these policy drivers we the basis for how we planned and designed our land.
WMNP
POLICY DRIVERS
Every child should be able to:
see the stars at night.*
hear bird song, every day.
see trees from their window.
see where the sun rises and sets in the sky.
watch insect pollinating flowers near their home.
walk, cycle, or run safely alongside, or swim in, our nearest stream, river or canal.
watch tadpoles in the spring and pick apples in the autumn.
move safely and affordably around the region by walking, cycling or public transport. have picnics in our local parks. breathe clean air and easily access good quality, locally grown food.
Everyone should know that they live in the West Midlands National Park and be proud of it.
Please note that these policy drivers are subject to copyright.
*also referenced by the Children and Nature Network in 2017 and a similar reference in Defra’s Landscapes Review from 2019.
DAY ONE
Rt Hon Dame Caroline Spelman
For 22 years Caroline represented the parliamentary constituency of Meriden in the heart of England. During her career in politics, she served as a minister both in opposition and government in the ministries of health, local government, international development and environment. In the latter she helped secure UN agreement on biodiversity and sustainable development. Since leaving Parliament, Caroline has used her knowledge and skills to protect the environment serving on the board of Natural England which is overseeing the creation of new national parks and nature cities. As a political representative of the West Midlands she has been a strong supporter of efforts to create a West Midlands National Park.
Professor Nick Gebhardt
Nicholas Gebhardt is Professor of Jazz and Popular Music Studies and Associate Dean for Research, Innovation and Enterprise in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Media, Birmingham City University. His research primarily focuses on the cultural value and significance of transatlantic musical practices. He has published widely on jazz and popular music, including Going for Jazz: Musical Practices and American Ideology (Chicago UP) and Vaudeville Melodies: popular musicians and mass entertainment in American Culture, 1870–1929 (Chicago UP). He is also the co-editor of the popular music journal Riffs, the Routledge Companion to Jazz Studies, and the Routledge book series Transnational Studies in Jazz.
DAY TWO
Dame Fiona Reynolds
Dame Fiona Reynolds DBE was Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge from 2012 until 2021. She came to the college from the National Trust, where she was Director-General from 2001–2012. During her time there, she made the Trust warmer and more welcoming, bringing the houses to life and raising the profile of the Trust’s work in the countryside.
Before the Trust, she was Director of the Women’s Unit in the Cabinet Office (1998–2000), Director of the Council for the Protection of Rural England (now Campaign to Protect Rural England) from 1987–98 and Secretary to the Council for National Parks (now Campaign to Protect National Parks) from 1980–87. She has an MA and MPhil from Cambridge University in Geography and Land Economy.
Fiona now holds a number of non-Executive roles. She is Chair of the National Audit Office, the Council of the Royal Agricultural University, the International National Trusts Organisation, the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England, the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission, Cambridge University’s Botanic Garden and its Bennett Institute for Public Policy. She is a trustee of the Grosvenor Estate and a non-Executive Director of Wessex Water.
Her book, The Fight for Beauty, was published in 2016. Fiona was appointed CBE for services to the environment and conservation in 1998 and DBE in 2008.
Rethinking land use
Think and rethink: enabling and delivering transformational approaches to land use
09:30
Chair welcome
Rt Hon Dame Caroline Spelman, Non-executive Director, Natural England
09:45
Welcome addresses
Jala Makhzoumi, Vice President, International Federation of Landscape Architects
Roger Mortlock, CEO, The Countryside Charity
Gulnara Roll, Head of Cities Unit, United Nations
Environment Programme
10:10
Introduction to the West Midlands National Park
Professor Kathryn Moore, Birmingham City University and Director of West Midlands National Park
10:20
Damian Tang, Director-General, Circular Cities Network
Dr Savita Raje, Associate Professor, Maulana Azad
National Institute of Technology, Bhopal
Hugh Ellis, Director of Policy, Town and Country Planning Association
Mette Skjold, Senior Partner and CEO, SLA
Jennifer Lenhart, Global Lead, WWF Cities
12:30 Lunch
THURSDAY 3 OCTOBER
International Research Showcase:
13:30
PhD research relating to the UNSDGs and the city we need, followed by panel discussion
Chaired by Nick Gebhardt, Professor of Jazz and Popular Music Studies and Director of Research in the Birmingham School of Media, Birmingham City University.
Research presenters
• Yarden Woolf, UWE Bristol, England
• Holly Doron, Birmingham City University, England
• Thomas Cabai, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
• Dr Mashal Hamed Alammar, University of Liverpool, England
• Ghazaal Zare, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran
• Tuanne Monteiro de Carvalho, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Marina Cervera, UPC BarcelonaTech, Spain
• Emma Collett, Birmingham City University, England
• Ayaka Yamashita, Harvard Graduate School of Design, USA
• Eliki Diamantouli, University of Padua, Italy
• Marco Fiorino, Harvard Graduate School of Design, USA
Panel
• Alessandro Martinelli, Chair, Education & Academic Affairs Committee, IFLA
• Alex Albans, Research Fellow in Landscape Architecture, BCU
• Prof Kathryn Moore, Professor of Landscape Architecture, BCU
• Dr Jemma Browne, Head of Architecture, BCU
• Sandra Costa, Academic lead for Landscape Architecture & Course Director MA Landscape Architecture, BCU
16:00 Break
Rethinking land use
West Midlands National Park Awards 16:30
Welcome from UN-Habitat
Andrew Rudd, Urban Environment Officer, UN-Habitat
Hosts: Michael Schwarze-Rodrian, Visiting Lecturer, Birmingham City University
Professor Kathryn Moore, Birmingham City University and Director of West Midlands National Park
17:30
West Midlands National Park Awards Lecture
Professor Gareth Doherty, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture and Affiliate of the Department of African and African American Studies, Harvard University
18:00 Close
THURSDAY 3
Joint winners
Confluence Peri-Urban Park Prague, Czech Republic
Submitted by Zdeněk Ent, Prague Institute of Planning and Development.
Atlas for a City Region
Irish Northwest, UK/Ireland border
Submitted by Dr Gareth Doherty, Critical Landscapes Design Lab, Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
Highly commended Youth: do we cultivate the future?
Arco, Italy
Submitted by Angelica Pianegonda, RUMA Agency.
Shortlisted finalists
Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Botanic Garden
Howrah, India
Submitted by Anjana Das, IRIS World Consultancy on behalf of the University of Edinburgh and Asia-Scotland Trust.
River Cole Community Commons, Birmingham, UK
Submitted by Emily Prestwood, Birmingham Energy Institute, University of Birmingham.
Rural Patterns, Katerini, Greece
Submitted by Eleni Tsirintani, Tsirintani Landscape Architects.
Val di Sole Blueprint, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy
Submitted by Sara Favargiotti, University of Trento, Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering.
Rethinking land use
Making it real: support for an international landscape convention in policy and practice
08:30
Tea, coffee and breakfast
09:15
Welcome addresses
Professor Hanifa Shah, Pro Vice-Chancellor STEAM, Birmingham City University
Dr Jemma Browne, Head of Architecture, Birmingham City University
Glenn Howells, Partner, Howells
09:30
Chair remarks and welcome Dame Fiona Reynolds
09:40
Setting the scene
Professor Kathryn Moore, Birmingham City University and Director of West Midlands National Park
09:50
Keynote speaker
Francesco Bandarin, former Assistant DirectorGeneral of UNESCO for Culture
10:15
Sandeep Shingadia, Director of Strategic Partnerships and Integration, Transport for West Midlands
Daisy Narayanan, Public Realm Director, The Crown Estate
Professor Clare Fitzsimmons, Professor of Marine Ecosystems and Governance, Newcastle University
Rachel Fisher, Deputy Director Land Use Policy, Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs
Michael Schwarze-Rodrian, Visiting Professor, Birmingham City University
Andrew Grant, Founder and Director, Grant Associates
Joanna Averley, Chief Planner, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
AGENDA • DAY TWO
FRIDAY 4 OCTOBER • HOWELLS
Andrew Rudd, Urban Environment Officer, UN-Habitat
Taps Mtemachani, Director of Transformation, Partnership and Population Health Academy/ICP
Executive Lead, NHS Black Country Integrated Care Board
11:45 Break
12:15
Panel discussion
Chair: Dame Fiona Reynolds
Sandeep Shingadia, Director of Strategic Partnerships and Integration, Transport for West Midlands
Daisy Narayanan, Public Realm Director, The Crown Estate
Professor Clare Fitzsimmons, Professor of Marine Ecosystems and Governance, Newcastle University
Rachel Fisher, Deputy Director Land Use Policy, Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs
Michael Schwarze-Rodrian, Visiting Professor, Birmingham City University
Andrew Grant, Founder and Director, Grant Associates
Joanna Averley, Chief Planner, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Andrew Rudd, Urban Environment Officer, UN-Habitat
Taps Mtemachani, Director of Transformation, Partnership and Population Health Academy/ICP
Executive Lead, NHS Black Country Integrated Care Board
13:15
Final comments
Francesco Bandarin, former Assistant DirectorGeneral of UNESCO for Culture
Professor Kathryn Moore, Birmingham City University and Director of West Midlands National Park
13:30 Close and lunch
Rethinking land use
Dr Mashal Alammar
Dr Alammar is a Senior Lead Landscape Architect and Assistant Professor at Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University. During his master’s studies at the University of Arizona, he was elected as an officer and led the Outreach Design Studio for the ASLA-Arizona branch. He recently obtained his PhD from the University of Liverpool, focusing on green infrastructure in arid regions. Alammar is an Academic Advisor at the House of Landscape Architecture and a Scientific Advisor at the Saudi Society for Landscape Architecture. With over 13 years of experience in academia and practice, Mashal seeks to bridge the knowledge gap of landscape architecture within arid regions.
Dr Alex Albans
Dr Alex Albans is a Research Fellow at the West Midlands National Park Lab, investigating landscape as a manifestation of the culturallyframed relationships between people and their territories. Alex’s research-informed teaching at BCU focuses on how designers ‘get to know’ the places they’re working with, and how this impacts their design processes. His background in historical urban geography, mapping and conflictresolution underpins emerging research exploring how theories and practices of reconciliation can transform relationships with the land.
Alex has a background in historical urban geography and cartography. After graduating with a degree in Geography from Aberystwyth University he worked as a land surveyor and at the Land Registry before re-training as a landscape architect at the University of Central England (now BCU).
After a short time in practice Alex returned to BCU to undertake a PhD (‘Site Seeing: Interpreting Site in Landscape Architecture’) with Prof Kathryn Moore.
SPEAKERS
Joanna Averley
Joanna Averley took up the role of Chief Planner at MHCLG in September 2020. She is a town planner with 30 years’ experience working across government, major projects and with local authorities. She has been involved in all aspect of planning research, policy, practice and project delivery. Prior to this role she was at HS2 where she led on how the railway interfaces with its context with plan making and consenting processes. Until taking up the role of Chief Planner she was a London Mayor’s Design Advocate and Chair of the London Borough of Wandsworth’s Design Review Panel. Joanna has worked on major regeneration and masterplanning projects from Manchester City Centre to the London Olympics. Joanna has held a number of senior roles as Senior Manager for Growth and Development for Crossrail 2 at TfL, Deputy CEO and Director of Design and Planning Advice of CABE, CEO of Centre for Cities, CEO of LandAid and Director of Design for the Olympic Delivery Authority. Joanna has held a number of non-executive roles including Trustee of MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology).
Francesco Bandarin
Francesco Bandarin (Venice, Italy, 1950) is an architect and urban planner, specialised in urban conservation.
From 2000 to 2010 he was Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and Secretary of the World Heritage Convention. From 2010 to 2018 he served as Assistant Director-General of UNESCO for Culture.
He is Advisor of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and Member of the Advisory Committee of the Smithsonian Institution Center for Cultural heritage. He holds degrees in Architecture (IUAV Venice) and City and Regional Planning (UC Berkeley) and has been Professor of Urban Planning and Urban Conservation at the University of Venice (IUAV) from 1980 to 2016. He currently teaches at SciencesPo in Paris.
Dr Jemma Browne
Jemma is the Head of Architecture, Course Director BA (Hons) Design for Future Living and Associate Professor Teaching and Learning.
Jemma completed her Doctoral research Spatial Representations of Memory and Identity in the City in 2018 and is currently pursuing themes from within this project to develop a theoretical context to understand how cultural identities could be traced within city spaces, using the concept of urban cultural topography.
Her research also considers how the findings might also contribute to the broader debate as to how heritage and regeneration successfully connect the past and the present by exploring how postindustrial cities in the UK are spatially transformed through time by the layering of new and existing expressions of cultural identity; in particular as a result of postcolonial migration. Her work seeks to understand the role that the collective memory of post–colonial diasporic communities plays in the formation of the cultural identity of space within UK cities.
Thomas Cabai
Thomas Cabai is an architect and PhD candidate in Architectural Urban and Interior Design in Politecnico di Milano. He is a member of the National Biodiversity Future Center in Italy, collaborating on projects of Restoration Ecology, Phytoremediation, and Mycoremediation. The same interest is pursued as a practitioner, dealing with restoration projects of abandoned wetlands and meadows in northern Italy. He has worked at the landscape architecture office Land srl, at an independent videogame startup, and collaborates with various architecture offices.
Marina Cervera
Marina Cervera is a graduate of Architecture and Landscape Architecture from UPC BarcelonaTech, Spain. She holds a Master’s Degree in Landscape Architecture (MLA) and Urban Planning Research (MIUrb) from the same institution. She is currently pursuing a PhD at BCU, focusing on landscape governance and sustainable urban development. Her professional experience spans roles in planning, landscaping, and architecture, including work at Ateliers Jean Nouvel (Paris) and the Landscape Architecture Office of the College of Architects of Catalonia. She is also an adjunct professor at UPC BarcelonaTech and CEO at her studio NABLABCN.
Emma Collett
Emma is a lecturer in Landscape Architecture and Sustainable Urbanism, doctoral researcher and chartered Landscape Architect with a decade of experience delivering UK-based projects. Built upon a foundation of art practice and educated in architecture, landscape and urban design, Emma’s work crosses disciplinary boundaries to place the human experience at the centre of design rationale. As a primarily visual communicator, she rationalises abstract concepts through drawing to interrogate the built environment. Recently, Emma has successfully secured an AHRC funded research project at the University of Birmingham (Designing the Green Transition) which seeks to maximise biodiversity and wellbeing in carceral environments.
Sandra Costa
Sandra is Academic lead for Landscape Architecture & Course Director MA Landscape Architecture. She is a lecturer and researcher in landscape architecture and design with diversified experience encompassing teaching, research and professional practice. She has lectured in the UK and Portugal in undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Her teaching explores current issues and challenges faced by landscapes and the built environment, to create resilient environments, healthy urban landscapes and long-term visions for areas identified for future housing and employment, together with strategies relating to important matters such as climate change, food urbanism and public health and wellbeing.
She has a strong interest in user-based perceptions, experiences and interactions with the environment. Her research has focused on exploring the choreographies of landscape experience through which individuals negotiate wellbeing. Emphasis is on the in-depth nature of person-place interactions and the role of places in the production of loops of ‘positive states of being’, ‘enhanced spatial awareness’ and specific identities of self.
Eliki Diamantouli
Eliki A. Diamantouli holds a Diploma of Architectural Engineering (integrated master) from the University of Thessaly (Darch, Greece) and is a master student in landscape architecture (March) at the Technical University of Munich (Freising, Germany). She works in different countries through Europe focusing on participatory practices, small-scale architectures and landscapes. Currently, Eliki is at her third year of a
dual doctoral research entitled “From wasteland to landscape” (DICEA, University of Naples Federico II, Italy; Darch, University of Thessaly, Greece), with focus on care practices of wastescapes (open dump sites, landfills) along with spontaneous (and not) vegetation of these in-between territories.
Dr Gareth Doherty
Dr Gareth Doherty ASLA is Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture and Affiliate of the Department of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. Doherty takes a human-centred approach to design and theory that aspires to shape environmentally and socially just landscapes. Doherty contributes to core knowledge in landscape architecture through applying ethnographic fieldwork and participatory design methodologies to design and theory. This work critically reassesses 20th-century approaches to the observed landscape to advance new pedagogy, tools, and techniques that address contemporary design issues of equity, identity, cultural space, and the human impacts of climate change. Through what he terms “landscape fieldwork,” Doherty unravels diverse landscape narratives that have not yet been formally documented as evidenced through his books, Paradoxes of Green: Landscapes of a City-State (University of California Press, 2017), Landscape Fieldwork: How Engaging the World Can Change Design (University of Virginia Press, 2025); and his recent fieldwork on African landscape architecture.
Holly Doron
Holly is a UK-based architect on the social lab team of CoLab Dudley and Dudley People’s School for Climate Justice. She was previously associate director at a community architecture practice, with 13 years of experience in participatory design in the community and culture sectors, and 5 years teaching in Birmingham. She is currently doing a collaborative doctoral award with CoLab Dudley, CIVIC SQUARE and Birmingham City University, funded by AHRC through M4C, to explore how regenerative research practice within social infrastructure might invite regenerative cultures of collective place-based learning and action for flourishing futures.
Hugh Ellis
Hugh is Policy Director at the Town and Country Planning Association, where his role includes leading on policy development, briefings and engagement with central government and politicians. In 2018 he led the secretariat for the Raynsford Review, setting out a blue print for a new planning system in England. Since 2015 Hugh has co-authored three books, including Rebuilding Britain and Town Planning in Crisis with Kate Henderson, and The Art of Building a Garden City with Katy Lock and Kate Henderson. Hugh was closely involved in the passage of the 2004 and 2008 Planning Acts, including providing evidence to public bill committees and working closely with parliamentarians on both Commons and Lords committee stages of subsequent planning legislation. Hugh has given oral evidence to the House of Commons Select Committees on various planning inquiries. He has led on TCPA campaign work on ‘planning out poverty’ and planning for people, and he is a strong critic of policies such as Permitted Development. Hugh sits on the UK Government Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) Planning Sounding Board.
Marco Fiorino
Marco Fiorino is an architect and a first-year Doctor of Design candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. His current research at the GSD examines the historical transformation of landscape practices in rural areas, using ethnographic methods to understand how socio-economic shifts, infrastructure changes, and conservation approaches impact human-environment relationships over time. He has both taught and practiced architecture in the United Kingdom, serving as an Associate Lecturer at Norwich University of the Arts, and has also taught design studios and history and theory courses at the Leicester School of Architecture, DMU. In practice, Marco has worked with the environmental design firm Architype Architects, focusing on public projects in rural and coastal environments, as well as with smaller firms specializing in conservation and heritage projects. He graduated with an MPhil in Architecture and Urban Design from the University of Cambridge, a Professional Practice degree from the AA and holds a BA (Hons) in Architecture from the Leicester School of Architecture, DMU.
Rachel Fisher
Rachel Fisher is Deputy Director for Land Use Policy at DEFRA and is responsible for developing and delivering environmental planning reform policy, local Nature Recovery Strategies, biodiversity Net Gain, and a Land Use Framework for England. In 2012 she co-founded Urbanistas an international network whose mission is to amplify the voices of women to make cities better for everyone.
She has held a variety of roles in policy and public affairs across the built environment industry including the Cities and Local Growth Unit, National Housing Federation, Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), Design Council and Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. She is an associate member of the RTPI, a Cambridge Centre for Science and Policy Fellow, and a Fellow at Zinc VC.
Professor Clare Fitzsimmons
Clare’s background in environmental research, coupled with commercial experience gained in defence and marine consultancy sectors has given her a wide array of interests, unique analytical skills and familiarity with novel techniques not formerly applied to marine environmental issues. Although her expertise developed across several fields, a common theme is the analysis of complex systems. She now applies this to marine management and governance, primarily investigating socioecological systems.
Interested in the ways in which human activities and their organisation impact upon the marine environment; she focuses on understanding governance systems to support decision making for natural resource management, and associated values and trade-offs made at multiple scales. Current research is developing novel social network analysis and futures techniques to explore marine resource management and governance through large-scale regional work.
Andrew Grant, RDI, Hon D.Litt, CMLI, Hon FRIBA, FRSA
Founder and Director of Grant Associates, Andrew’s work is centred around sustainable landscape architecture and ecological placemaking. Andrew led the multi-disciplinary design team for the Gardens by the Bay in Singapore. This 54 hectare public park has won multiple international design awards and featured in David Attenborough’s
Planet Earth 2. He is a member of the UK’s National Infrastructure Commission Design Group, a member of the Bath World Heritage Site Advisory Board, co-founder of the Forest of Imagination project in Bath and Chair of the Bathscape Landscape Partnership. In 2012 he was awarded the title RSA Royal designer for Industry and in 2023 he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters by Bath Spa University in recognition of his outstanding work as a landscape architect and his passion and approach to nature, creativity and imagination.
Glenn Howells
Glenn Howells established Howells (previously Glenn Howells Architects) in 1990 and since then the practice has built a strong reputation for designing innovative, award-winning buildings and shaping cities throughout the UK.
Glenn has influenced some of the UK’s most complex and ambitious regeneration projects and been particularly influential in shaping regional cities including Birmingham and large areas of East London. Leading on numerous major design competitions and some of our award-winning projects across all sectors, including masterplanning and urban regeneration projects. With a HQ in Birmingham and an office in London, Howells are now leading on several international projects in Australia and central Europe.
Glenn is particularly interested in the power of culture to create interesting places to live and work and outside of Howells, Glenn has spent time on several boards for creative and educational organisations and advised government bodies and local authorities. These include Birmingham City Council, RIBA, CABE, Canal & River Trust, University of Warwick, Birmingham City University, Design: Midlands, Ikon Gallery and Birmingham Hippodrome.
Jennifer Lenhart
Jennifer Lenhart is Global Lead for WWF’s Cities programme, which has engaged circa 900 cities in 70 countries. She holds a PhD in urban climate governance from Wageningen University and has nearly 20 years’ experience addressing urban environmental challenges via holistic approaches. She previously worked at the City of Malmö, Sweden; UN-Habitat in Nairobi, Kenya; and an urban sustainability consultancy in Seattle, USA. She is currently on a leave of absence, brought in by
Ambition Loop, a global NGO based in Santiago de Chile on a mission to lead and inspire coordinated, transformative action on a small number of major challenges, co-founded by former UN Climate Champions Nigel Topping and Gonzalo Muñoz. Serving as Land and Soil Lead, her team is tasked with building an Action Agenda within the UNCCD (land convention).
Professor Jala Makhzoumi
Jala Makhzoumi is adjunct professor of landscape architecture, American University of Beirut, vice president of the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) and acting president for IFLA Middle East. In her practice, research and teaching, Jala pioneers a landscape approach that is place and culture responsiveness, that mediates community needs and environmental health and landscape heritage conservation. Her books include Ecological Landscape Design and Planning: The Mediterranean context, co-author Pungetti (Spon, 1999), The Right to Landscape: Contesting landscape and human rights, co-editors Egoz and Pungetti (Ashgate, 2012) and Horizon 101 (Dar Qonboz, 2010) a reflective collection of paintings and prose on landscape and identity. Jala was profiled by the Aga Khan Women Architects in 2014, received the European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools (ECLAS) Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019, and is laureate of the 2021 IFLA Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Award for her outstanding contribution to education and practice.
Dr Alessandro Martinelli
Previously involved in research projects and didactic activities at the Accademia di architettura in Mendrisio and the International Institute of Architecture in Lugano Vico Morcote, the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam, the Barcelona Institute of Architecture, the Canadian Centre of Architecture in Montreal, the Archivio Cattaneo in Cernobbio, the Shih Chien University and the Huafan University in Taipei, Alessandro Martinelli, PhD, is Associate professor at the Department of Landscape architecture, the Chinese Culture University, Taipei. He is also the editorial director of ListLab Publisher (listlab.eu), Chair of the IFLA Education & Academic Affairs Committee, and immediate past chair of the IFLA Asia Pacific Region Education & Academic Affairs Committee (iflaworld.com). Finally, he works with BIAS Architects & Associates (biasarchitects. com) on design and curating projects concerning the public space today.
Tuanne Monteiro de Carvalho
Tuanne is currently a PhD candidate in urbanism at the Postgraduate Program in Urbanism (PROURB), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in Brazil. She has been awarded a CAPES/PRINT scholarship to undertake a doctoral internship at the Technische Universität Berlin (TU-Berlin) in Germany (20232024). Her research, entitled “Torn Landscapes,” is supervised by Dr. Denise Barcellos Pinheiro Machado, PROURB/UFRJ and co-supervised by Dr. Juliana Canedo, Habitat Unit/TU-Berlin. She is an architect and urbanist (2017) with a master’s degree (2021) from the Federal University of Alagoas (UFAL).
Professor Kathryn Moore
The UN-Habitat Urban Thinkers Campus is led by Professor Kathryn Moore, Director of the WMNP Lab at BCU.
On moving from practice into academia, Moore follows a pragmatic philosophy to redefine theories of perception, the design process, landscape and epistemology to demystify the art of design. Applied beyond the academy, she uses this radical premise, working across silos, through advocacy, engagement and mapping, to create the West Midlands National Park (WMNP) and the WMNP approach. Attracting considerable national and international interest, it is inspiring new habits and behaviours and establishing a dynamic and effective trajectory for practice, pedagogy, research and policy development to better deal with the global challenges we face. President of the International Federation of Landscape Architects from 2014–2018, a founding partner of the World Design Summit, leading to the World Design Declaration signed in Montreal 2017, Chair of the pilot High Speed 2 (HS2) landscape guidelines, and a member of the Independent National HS2 Ltd Design Panel from 2015–1024, she is taking a lead role in redefining the relationship between landscape, culture, governance, finance, health and quality of life.
Roger Mortlock
Roger joined CPRE in May 2023 from the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust (GWT) where he had been CEO for 10 years. Prior to that he worked in policy and campaigns, including as Deputy Director of the Soil Association and in communications roles at the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal College of Nursing. Since joining CPRE, Roger has launched a refocused strategy that highlights
the importance of integrated land use planning solutions and published CPRE’s General Election manifesto calling on all parties to develop a joined-up planning system for the climate, people and nature.
Taps Mtemachani
Having worked in the NHS for 21 years now, Taps trained as a General Nurse in Staffordshire and then spent the last 12 years working primarily around Integrated Care in senior commissioning roles that focused on service improvement and system reform. As Director of Transformation and Partnership for NHS Black Country Integrated Care Board (ICB), Taps takes the executive lead for the ICB on population health management, addressing inequalities and system reform including the development of the Integrated Care Partnership. As well as developing the strategic approaches, processes, and infrastructure to drive population health improvement, a significant part of Taps’s role is building relationships and effective strategic partnerships within and beyond the Black Country.
Daisy Narayanan
Daisy Narayanan is Director of Public Realm at The Crown Estate. She was formerly Head of Placemaking and Mobility at the City of Edinburgh Council where she led on delivering a city-wide, integrated approach to transport and placemaking. She trained as an architect and urban designer, before focusing on sustainable transport and climate action over the last decade.
Daisy sits on the Board of Architecture and Design Scotland and The Transport Planning Society. She is a member of the Evidence Group of Scotland’s Climate Assembly and sits on the judging panel for the National Transport Awards. She has recently been awarded an MBE for services to Inclusive Urban Planning and elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Drawing on her previous experience working in India, Singapore, England and Scotland, Daisy believes passionately in the importance of creating inclusive places for people: places that reflect and complement the communities that live in them.
Dr Savita Raje
Savita Raje has been teaching for the last 34 years at the Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT), Bhopal, including 4 years as Professor at the School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal. She was the UNESCO Expert for heritage issues of Madhya Pradesh (2004–2009) and was invited as Trainer cum Resource Person for the Indian Mayors Study Tour to France in 2008. She has been a jury member for the Post Graduate Program in Architecture at the School of Architecture, ParisBelleville, France ( 2002–2008) and is a Member of the Scientific Committee of Mediterranean Design Association, Italy. She is the founder of the Master of Landscape Architecture at School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal and also started M.Arch (Conservation) at SPA Bhopal during her tenure as Head of Department of Architecture. She is the President of ‘LIVING HERITAGE ALLIANCE’, and the Honorary Chairperson of the ISOLA ( Indian Society of Landscape Architects) Madhya Pradesh Chapter.
Gulnara Roll
Gulnara Roll is Head of the Cities Unit at UNEP’s Climate Change Division, supporting cities in climate mitigation and adaptation. Gulnara has been with the UN since 2009, holding various positions at the UN Economic Commission for Europe in Geneva, Switzerland; and the UN Regional Commissions Office in New York. Before joining the UN, she worked in international programme management and academia in Brussels and in Tartu, Estonia. Her educational background is in Environmental Sciences and Policy, and Human Geography; she also has an Executive MBA in Management of International Organizations.
Michael Schwarze-Rodrian
Michael Schwarze-Rodrian, studied Landscape Planning at the TU Berlin in the 1970s. He continued as scientific assistant at the Institute of Landscape Economy (1980–1985). Since 1987 he worked as a public Landscape Planner in the Ruhr region. He developed and moderated the Emscher Landscape Park in co-operation with the International Building Exhibition (IBA) Emscher Park. From 1997 to 2000 he was head of the Regional Development Department and head of the Department Emscher Landscape Park of the Regional Cities Association Ruhr.
He moderated the Masterplan Emscher Landscape Park 2010 (2001–2006). He continued his work for sustainable development between 2007
to 2011 in the Regional Business Development Agency Ruhr. From 2012 to 2020 he was the EU Representative of the Ruhr Regional Association. He focussed in these years on the integration and bundling of several spatial, environmental and economic strategies under the label Green Infrastructure Ruhr.
Michael Schwarze-Rodrian is member of the German Academy for Urbanism and Spatial Planning (DASL) and Visiting Professor for Landscape Architecture at Birmingham City University since 2022.
Andrew Rudd
Andrew Rudd is Urban Environment Officer in UNHabitat’s Programme Development Branch in New York. He is leading the development of the agency’s urban biodiversity programme, now focused on projecting ad mapping land use change and habitat loss in fast-growing metropolitan areas. He has managed projects related to urban form and public space in more than 20 countries. Before that, he co-led the agency’s substantive advocacy efforts for the Sustainable Development Goals. Previously he worked as an architect in New York. He was lead author of Cities and Nature: Planning for the Future (UN-Habitat 2022), co-author of A New Pattern Language for Growing Cities and Regions (Sustasis 2020), and editor of The Quito Papers and the New Urban Agenda (Routledge 2018). Andrew studied architecture at Yale and urbanism at the LSE.
Professor Hanifa Shah
Professor Hanifa Shah is Pro Vice-Chancellor
STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Computing, Engineering, and the Built Environment. She is also interim Executive Dean of Arts, Design, and Media until the end of 2024. Hanifa is responsible for setting the vision and direction for the faculties, providing strategic leadership, and ensuring effective people, operational, and financial management. As the Pro Vice-Chancellor STEAM, Hanifa leads the STEAM ambitions as outlined in the University’s Strategy for 2030 and Beyond, including embedding the STEAM agenda into education, research, and enterprise across all faculties.
Hanifa joined Birmingham City University in 2010 as Associate Dean for Research and Enterprise. Before this, she held senior roles at Staffordshire University for 16 years, including Director of the Centre for Information, Intelligence and Security Systems. During this time, she also
held a Visiting Professorship at the University of Manchester. Her wide-ranging experience of higher education spans teaching, research, enterprise and industry engagement combined with leading academic strategy development and organisational change.
Sandeep Shingadia FCILT
Sandeep has over 26 years’ experience in the transport sector and is responsible for leading the development of strategic partnerships at regional, national and international levels to facilitate the development of integrated transport programmes ready for delivery.
Sandeep works strategically with partners to deliver the right transport solutions that benefit a wider investment, economic growth, creating great vibrant places and supporting our residents and business through greater connectivity through sustainable transport options.
Alongside his role at TfWM, Sandeep is Vice-President of METREX (The Network of European Metropolitan Regions and Areas), Board Director for Colmore Business Improvement District and a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Logistics and Transport.
Mette Skjold
Mette Skjold is Senior Partner and CEO of the internationally renowned nature-based design studio SLA.
Based in Denmark and Norway, SLA’s 130 landscape architects, anthropologists, biologists, lighting designers, and urban planners are currently working on significant landscape-led projects on four continents, including the Earls Court masterplan in London and the ID Manchester transformation in central Manchester.
Mette is a specialist in nature-based urban development with a strong focus on biodiversity, sustainability, and life quality. Mette is a powerful voice in the international architectural debate and one of the leading advocates for bringing nature’s ecosystem services into our cities to solve their many challenges: from cloudbursts and flooding to air pollution, social segregation, and lifestyle diseases.
Mette is also a strong advocate for incorporating life cycle analyses and biodiversity into urban planning – a topic she keynoted with world-renowned economist Sir Partha Dasgupta at the UIA World Congress of Architecture in Copenhagen last year.
Damian Tang
Damian Tang is the Director-General of the Circular Cities Network, an initiative he co-founded with eight global organizations. He also chairs the IFLA Asia Pacific Region Advisory Board. As the founder of the URDX Studio, Damian integrates neuroscience and human survival instincts into urban design, creating regenerative spaces that are both aesthetically pleasing and responsive to users’ needs.
Educated at the University of Melbourne with degrees in Planning, Architecture, and a Master’s in Landscape Architecture, Damian is a fellow and past president of the Singapore Institute of Landscape Architects and IFLA Asia Pacific Region. He also studied circular economy at the University of Cambridge. Formerly a Senior Design Director at NParks, he spent over 20 years in public service, contributing to biophilic strategies and resilient master plans. Damian’s public service has earned him three Minister's Team Awards and the National Day Public Administration Medal awarded by the President of the Republic of Singapore.
Yarden Woolf
Yarden Woolf is a fully funded 2nd year PhD researcher at UWE Bristol, England. Her research explores the relationship between students’ experience in greenspace, nature connectedness and pro-environmental orientation. She holds a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture and a Master’s degree in Urban Design and City Planning (UCL), and has nearly eight years of experience working on different planning projects.
Ayaka Yamashita
Ayaka Yamashita is a Japanese landscape researcher, cultural producer, and third-year Doctor of Design student at Harvard Graduate School of Design. She co-founded EDAYA, a studio preserving Kalinga bamboo instruments in the Philippines. Ayaka holds a Bachelor of Agriculture in International Sustainable Agriculture Development and a Master of Health Sciences in Human Ecology from the University of Tokyo. She earned her Master’s in Design Studies at Harvard GSD as a Fulbright scholar. Her research explores how nature and local lifestyles are represented through sound, bridging theoretical concepts with practical applications.
Ghazaal Zare
Ghazaal Zare is a PhD graduate from the Islamic Azad University, Isfahan (Khorasgan) branch, in Iran. She completed my Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Architecture, at the Islamic Azad University, Science and Research branch in Tehran, and in the Shiraz branch, respectively. Since 2008, she has been conducting research in the field of biophilic design.
