Whose House: Creative Visions for Housing

Speakers

Kareem Dayes

Kareem is co-founder of RUSS, a community land trust based in London. RUSS have just completed London’s largest community-led, self-build scheme of 36 homes in Lewisham.

As an instigator and community organiser, Dayes is committed to building a more equitable society aligned with the planetary boundaries all humans inhabit.

Betty Owoo

Betty Owoo is a London-based spatial designer and writer interested in the potential of public service, policy and culture to shape urban environments for the better. She is currently a Senior Design Officer at the Greater London Authority's Design Unit, working to promote quality and inclusion in the built environment through policy and development management. She is also a founding member of PATCH, a multidisciplinary group that uses writing as a springboard to create spatial interventions and design ephemeral events. Trained in architecture, she is energised by urban landscapes, and curious about the intersection between architecture and ecology in the city. Her practice centres around championing underrepresented groups in the public realm. She has written for Dezeen, the Architectural Review, the Architects Journal, Design Council, and Urban Design Group Journal.

Astrid Smitham

Astrid Smitham is an architect and co-founder of design and research practice APPARATA, who recently completed the Stirling Prize nominated A House For Artists and received the Neave Brown Award for Housing 2023. Their work is focused on helping to create carefully considered spaces for community, work and living that are convivial, adaptable, and climate resilient. Central to their design approach is creating agency for people and communities to have ongoing impact on their surroundings. 

David Ogunmuyiwa

A former local authority housing officer, David is founding partner of Architecture Doing Place, an architecture and urban design practice who aim to produce beautiful buildings and spatial interventions from an immersion in the arts and contemporary architecture. They were recently named an Architects’ Journal ‘AJ100: Disruptor’ practice and also included in the Architecture Foundation’s ‘New Architects 4’.

David holds advisory roles including as a Mayor’s Design Advocate for London; Expert Advisory Group member for Historic England; board member of Urban Design London; and advisory board member of New Architectural Writers. He contributes to design review panels for the GLA, Westminster, St. Albans, Brighton & Hove, Guildford, Luton, Kingston and in Kent.

He is a past-curatorial board member for the London Festival of Architecture and a Board Trustee of the Architecture Foundation. He mentors widely including for Public Practice and the Royal College of Art, teaches architecture at Portsmouth University and is an external examiner at London Met University.

More speakers to be announced.