Our non-executive director Michelle McDowell is set to chair City Architecture Forum’s ‘retrofit and re-use first: the City’s journey to net-zero’ panel next week.

Taking place on Tuesday 16^th April, the panel will evaluate the challenges to London’s property market posed by the need to establish a more circular economy.

Following the recent update to the draft 2040 City Plan – which lays down a challenge to all involved in the City’s built environment to ‘retrofit and re-use first’ to get to net zero carbon – the expert panel will explore:

• What does this mean for development, investment and design, and what does it do to viability?
• How can buildings provide what employers and employees need post-Covid – to ‘earn the commute’ – if new build is too difficult?
• Does the answer lie between retrofit and smart design and specification alongside dis-assembly, re-use and recycling within a circular economy?

Taking place at 6.30pm – 8.30pm at Temple Bar, Paternoster Square, the panel will comprise:

• Dr Barbara Marino, strategic development and compliance director at Keltbray
• Kirsten Kane, principal planning officer (sustainability) at the City of London Corporation
• Tina Paillet, co-founder of Circotrade and current president of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
• Michelle McDowell MBE, our non-executive director and panel chair

To find out more about the event and register visit City Architecture Forum’s website.

As a trailblazer in the profession, Michelle was the first woman vice-president of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the first woman chair of the Association for Consultancy and Engineering and received two lifetime achievement awards as well as an MBE in 2010 for services to construction. She is a champion for equality, diversity and sustainability, issues at the core of our practice. Watch Michelle in action exploring how retrofit is the way forward here.

Founded in 1991, City Architecture Forum is a cross-disciplinary group of professionals with an interest in the quality of architecture and public realm in London, and an ambition to influence policy makers and share understanding of issues facing the sector.