Ben Denton, Westminster City Council; Martyn Evans, Cathedral Group; Pete Jefferys, Shelter & Eleanor Dodman, AADipl2014; chaired by Joanna Chambers, AA Council
How to meet London’s housing needs is one of the most pressing issues facing the capital today. The Architectural Association School of Architecture is joining in the debate and as part of its public programme, is holding a series of events next spring to bring together architects, politicians, planners, developers and commentators to debate the key questions. The series will culminate in an open jury when students of the AA will share their ideas with an audience comprising speakers, academics, members and fellow students. The open jury will enable students to present their work to the participants in this series, and will be followed by a closing session which will bring together the key outcomes of the debates.
Martyn Evans is the Creative Director at Cathedral Group, a specialist mixed-use property developer based in
an 18th Century listed church in SE1. Cathedral’s £2.5bn development pipeline includes a number of large mixed-use public private partnership schemes in London and the South East, regenerating town centres and building new public facilities funded by private speculative development. Regeneration schemes include the former EMI/HMV factory complex in Hayes, West London, 19 acres of the Greenwich Peninsula and The Movement, a mixed use site next to the DLR station in Greenwich, South East London. In May 2014 cathedral was acquired by Development Securities PLC, a joint venture partner for some time. Before joining the Cathedral board in 2011, Martyn ran a successful branding and communications consultancy, working in the property, regeneration and urban design sectors for, among others, CABE, The Design Council and Design for London with a particular focus on regeneration through creative industry and cultural engagement.
Image: Robin Hood Gardens-London, http://photolibrary.aaschool.ac.uk