Workshop Leaders
Allies and Morrison is an award winning architectural and masterplanning practice. They have been extensively involved with the regeneration of the King’s Cross area and their environmentally sensitive design of a mixed-use block at 1 Goods Street is set to become an exemplar of energy efficient design. On day 1 Stephen Workman of Allies and Morrison led walking tour of King’s Cross Central.
BDP is the largest interdisciplinary practice of architects, designers, engineers and urbanists in Europe. Founded in 1961, BDP now employs more than 1000 architects, designers, engineers, urbanists, sustainability experts, lighting designers and acoustics specialists in 15 studios across the UK, France, Ireland and Netherlands. On day 5, BDP's Lee Wyles and Julie Hawkins gave the group an introduction to the work of BDP and how the practice uses Computer Aided Design.
Alan Dein is a Sony award winning documentary feature presenter, oral historian and interviewer. He has worked extensively in King’s Cross, most recently on the King's Cross Voices project, which began in response to the major redevelopment and regeneration of King’s Cross and aims to record people’s memories and unique experiences of the area. The Urban Pioneers spent day 3 with Alan, discovering this remarkable project and interviewing residents in Somers Town, regular visitors to Kings Cross, and commuters at St Pancras Station.
Tom Dyckhoff is a writer, broadcaster and architecture critic. He regularly presents BBC2’s The Culture Show, is Architecture Critic for The Times, and a Stirling prize judge. In March, Tom will visit Lille with the Urban Pioneers in which they will write critical articles comparing the railway architecture of the two cities.
Harriet Fleuriot is an award-winning filmmaker with a penchant for performance. Her short films have been screened at more than 25 film festivals, film nights and music festivals. She is working with the group to create a short film about Kings Cross, its architecture, residents, history and visitors, which will be screened at the celebration event at The German Gymnasium on 30 March.
Ian Gardner works for Arup, an independent firm of designers, planners, engineers, consultants and technical specialists. Founded in 1946 with an initial focus on structural engineering, Arup first came to the world’s attention with the structural design of the Sydney Opera House, followed by its work on the Centre Pompidou in Paris. As well as designing High Speed 1, formerly the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, Arup is the lead designer on the £774m redevelopment of Kings Cross St Pancras Underground Station. On day 2, Arup's Ian Gardner talked to the group about the engineering challenges that had to be overcome in this vast scheme.
Jefferson Communication's Ian Lindsley was originally a NatWest graduate trainee in the City, before he became a trade union official in the film, TV and theatre business. He was seconded to work for the Labour Party for a year in parliament in 1990. In 1991, he set up and ran a corporate and financial PR company in Beijing, China and moved to Santiago, Chile in 1994 to manage exchange programmes with the UK. From 1996 onwards, he was a Director at Shandwick and Burson-Marsteller, then moved to The Communication Group as MD before leaving to start Jefferson Communications in 2004. He will help the Pioneers to plan their final celebration event.
Adam Khan established his architectural practice in 2006. Working with artists, gallery owners, regeneration agencies, housing developers, and private residential clients, the practice has developed a broad portfolio including a Youth Centre in Kings Cross, which the Pioneers were given a tour of prior to its official opening in February.
Tom Keeley is an artist and writer whose work talks about the city and its inhabitants. Working mainly in print, this has included everything from campaigns to re-use abandoned cooling towers as spaces for art, to fanzines about post-industrial cities. He has been featured on Channel 4's Big Art Project and in the 2006 Venice Architecture Biennale and will be working with the Urban Pioneers to produce a fanzine about Kings Cross.
Alastair Lansley CBE is a former member of British Rail's architects’ department. In the 1980s and 90s he worked on the reshaping of Liverpool Street Station, and was the lead architect for the renovation of St Pancras Station.
The London Wildlife Trust is the only charity dedicated solely to protecting the capital's wildlife and wild spaces, engaging London's diverse communities through access to its nature reserves, campaigning, volunteering and education. In January, the Urban Pioneers were given a guided tour of Camley Street Natural Park in Kings Cross and constructed habitats for birds and bats.
Public Works is a London based not-for-profit art and architecture practice working within and towards public space.All public works projects address the question how the public realm is shaped by its various users and how existing dynamics can inform further proposals. Their work includes socio-spatial and physical structures, public events and publications. Current members are Kathrin Böhm, Torange Khonsari, Andreas Lang and Polly Brannan who work with an extended network of project related collaborators.
Juliet Quintero is an architect and one third of dallaspierce+quintero, who in 2009 won The Architecture Foundation's competition to redesign the public realm in Amelia Street, Elephant and Castle with their proposal, Abundant Amelia. The Kings Cross Urban Pioneers spent a morning in January with Juliet visiting and discussing successful and less successful buildings and public spaces in Kings Cross.
Squire and Partners is a leading UK architecture practice, whose recent projects include the new headquarters of the fashion house Reiss. The practice’s sensitive conversion of a former printing works in King’s Cross into their office has won awards for its openness and successful street frontage. Pioneers worked with the practice in February to redesign a former tram shed in St Chad's Place, King's Cross.
YCN (Young Creative Network) is an agency for illustrators, designers and animators. YCN's clients include Sony Playstation, Mica and Topshop. The organisation also runs awards, publications and events, and has created the Urban Pioneers: Between the Bridges website. On day 9, Pioneers will visit YCN's workshops to create banners for and design their website with the Young Creative Network team.
