Future Cities Forum Winter Awards 2024 judges

Image: courtesy of Buro Happold showing its project work on Battersea Power Station, entered for Future Cities Forum Winter 2024 Awards.

Future Cities Forum is holding its Winter 2024 Awards this week and has assembled an expert all-female panel to discuss the projects entered across category areas of infrastructure, international museum design, heritage, net zero, workplace and arena design.

Please see the background on our panellists below:

Ellie Evans, Managing Partner, Volterra Partners

Ellie is the Senior Partner at Volterra, leading the company’s involvement in major developments and nationally significant infrastructure projects. Ellie is passionate about challenging methodologies and developing bespoke approaches which really get to the heart of the issue. She is an expert in socio-economics, having given evidence at planning committees on social, economic, health and equality impact.

With over twenty years’ experience at Volterra, Ellie has significant experience in estimating the socio-economic impact across all types of property development including residential, leisure, office and mixed use schemes. She also leads Volterra’s work on major infrastructure projects, recently including freight, solar, port, rail and commercial DCOs and other nationally significant projects. 

Jenny Gardner, Director of Development, ARC Group (Advanced Research Clusters)

Jenny Gardner, ARC’s director of development and construction, spends a lot of her time asking questions. 'Who is this space for?' 'Are their needs being met?'' What does inclusivity really look like?' In her quest for answers, she’s established a new guiding principle for ARC — one that seeks to make spaces better for everyone, not just a select few. ARC's campuses for science and technology businesses include Harwell in Oxfordshire, Oxford Cowley, Uxbridge and Hammersmith London. Jenny joined ARC from JLL, after spending 14 years working in real estate in the US.

Yasmin Ali, Project Director (New Town Hall Delivery), London Borough of Tower Hamlets

Yasmin is the team leader who led the delivery of the award winning conversion of the historic Royal London Hospital building in Whitechapel into the modern Tower Hamlets Town Hall. Before taking on this delivery role in 2015 she was a housing delivery team leader.. Yasmin has a degree in biomedical sciences from the University of Westminster.

Claire McKeown, Director of Estates Transformation, ZSL (Zoological Society of London)

Claire has recently joined ZSL from the V&A where she led on the capital development of V&A East in Stratford and the management of V&A Storehouse. At ZSL her role 'is to maximise the potential of the London and Whipsnade sites creating pioneering destinations for visitors for generations to come'. She trained as an architect having studied at the Bartlett, the Royal College of Art and Cambridge University.

Vicky Smith, Director of Strategy and Major Projects, National Museums Liverpool

Vicky Smith trained as an architect and worked in the private sector for many years. She has led on the delivery of many major projects in the public sector including Eastside Park and Centenary Square in Birmingham. She started at NML in April heading up a new Strategy & Major Project directorate to deliver the museums three transformation pillars of development which include the new International Slavery Museum.

Laura Matthews, Partner, Sheppard Robson

Laura has worked across many sectors at the practice but has gravitated towards education buildings and is now particularly involved in the design of low-carbon schools. Whether working on schools, universities or student living projects, Laura has a particular expertise in the early briefing phases of projects. These strategic stages set a clear direction for a project, building on the culture and specific ambitions of the client organisation and the communities they serve. Strategic vision, and the ability to listen carefully, is supported by Laura’s experience of the construction phases of a project, allowing her to lead a project through every stage.

Teresa Tirado, Associate Architect, BDP

Based in Bristol Teresa is a design-led architect and urban designer working across the private and public sectors. Her strengths lie in project running, early-stage design and delivery over a range of project scales and sectors, specifically in adaptive reuse and repurposing of existing assets.

She regularly teaches and acts as a Part3 Professional Examiner at various universities including Westminster, Bath and UWE.. Her experience as a practicing architect covers all stages and she has have a good understanding of the legal aspects of appointments and contracts, the design and construction processes and have acted as expert witness in court.

Teresa was educated at Instituto Nacional de Administración Pública and Universidad de Zaragoza.

Ceri Baxter, Associate, Pilbrow & Partners

Having worked at Farrells for two years, Ceri joined the Clerkenwell-based Pilbrow & Partners in 2021 to work on major commercial schemes. The practice is currently completing London's 'most energy efficient multi-tenanted commercial building' at London Bridge for Dutch developer EDGE. The Secretary of State has also just resolved to grant planning consent for 458 Oxford Street - the Pilbrow & Partners-designed HQ building and store for M&S.

Ceri trained in architecture at the Universities of Westminster and Manchester.

Olivia Forty, Associate, Wright & Wright

Olivia joined Wright & Wright in 2018. She has worked on projects including St Edmund Hall, the British Museum Masterplan, Corpus Christi College and St John’s College. She is very interested in how contemporary interventions can be carefully inserted into sensitive heritage settings. Olivia completed her Part I at the Glasgow School of Art and her Masters at the Technische Universiteit Delft.