Farrell Centre

Sir Terry Farrell is one of the UK’s leading architect-planners. During fifty years in practice he has completed many award-winning buildings and masterplans, including the MI6 Building, Alban Gate, Embankment Place and The Home Office Headquarters in London as well as millennium projects, such as The Deep in Hull, and UK masterplans including those for Greenwich Peninsula and Paddington Basin. Notable projects in East Asia include Incheon airport in Seoul, Beijing Station and Guangzhou Station in China (the largest in the world), and the Peak Tower and Kowloon Station development, both in Hong Kong. Farrell has longstanding connections to Newcastle. He grew up in the city and studied at Newcastle University (1956–61). He produced the masterplan for regenerating the quayside in the early 1990s, and has since undertaken several major projects in the city, including the Centre for Life (2000), the Newcastle University campus masterplan (2004) and the extension to the Great North Museum (2009). In 2018, Farrell generously donated his practice archive to Newcastle University as a resource for research and public engagement. At the same time, he agreed to give £1 million towards the creation of the Farrell Centre as an ‘urban room’ focused on Tyneside which would also contribute to broader national and international debates around architecture and cities and the future of how we live. Sir Terry Farrell stepped back from the practice he founded in 1965 – known today as Farrells – in 2019. Part of the series 20x20 – a podcast where we ask leading architects, urbanists and thinkers 20 questions over 20 minutes, exploring everything from their ideas and interests to the present and future of architecture and cities. Hosted by Owen Hopkins.

Before setting up Ash Sakula in 1994, Cany Ash worked for the GLC Architect’s Department and Burrell Foley Fischer, as well as in New York and Berlin. She has taught at a number of architectural schools as a critic and studio tutor and is an external examiner at Cambridge University. She is an experienced co-designer, leading design workshops with young people and many community groups. She has served on the RIBA Awards Group, as a CABE Enabler, a Client Design Advisor and a Civic Trust Awards Assessor. She is member of the South East Design Review Panel. Part of the series 20x20 – a podcast where we ask leading architects, urbanists and thinkers 20 questions over 20 minutes, exploring everything from their ideas and interests to the present and future of architecture and cities. Hosted by Owen Hopkins.

Mat Barnes is director of CAN – and architecture and art studio which designs characterful buildings, places, objects and spaces that subvert and amplify their social and cultural contexts and respond to their physical bounds. CAN create idiosyncratic and striking projects, underwritten by cultural and historical research, and believe that architecture can and should make the city a more joyful, inclusive and exciting place to live and work. Prior to founding CAN, Mat was an Associate at Studio 54 Architecture where he was responsible for the award-winning Peabody infill housing projects delivered through the Small Projects Panel. He also delivered the complex Arlington Road housing scheme in Camden. He is a former member of STORE, a teaching and arts collective and has delivered lectures on CAN's work across Europe. He has been a guest critic at a number of universities including UCL and Westminster. He consolidated his various creative practices to form CAN in 2016. Part of the series 20x20 – a podcast where we ask leading architects, urbanists and thinkers 20 questions over 20 minutes, exploring everything from their ideas and interests to the present and future of architecture and cities. Hosted by Owen Hopkins.

Pooja Agrawal is an architect and planner who is currently CEO of Public Practice. She previously worked as a public servant at Homes England and the Greater London Authority, where as part of the Regeneration and Economic Development Team she helped co-found Public Practice in 2017. Prior to this, she worked at private architecture and urban design practices including Publica, We Made That and G-Tects (New York) and taught at Central Saint Martins and was a Trustee for the Museum of Architecture. Alongside Public Practice Pooja co-hosts spatial equality platform Sound Advice and co-published Now You Know, a compendium of fifty essays exploring spatial and racial inequality. In 2018 and 2019 she was nominated for the Planner’s Woman of Influence. Part of the series 20x20 – a podcast where we ask leading architects, urbanists and thinkers 20 questions over 20 minutes, exploring everything from their ideas and interests to the present and future of architecture and cities. Hosted by Owen Hopkins.

Jayden Ali is founder of JA Projects – a London based practice working at the intersection of architecture, urban strategy, art and performance. "We work", the practice writes, "in culturally rich spaces, on projects we love, in places and contexts we care about. "Our approach to architecture and city-making mirrors our social values – places should be diverse, supportive and enriching. "Our work strikes a balance between playfulness and precision, and is driven by a design ethos grounded in observation, participation and collaborative design. "Our ultimate goal is to weave beautiful stories and deliver exciting projects that speak to and for the people they serve. "From ground-breaking exhibitions, through low-carbon buildings, to pioneering urban strategy, our projects intervene both socially and spatially to deliver a more sustainable and more equitable world." Jayden teaches at Central St Martings where he is Unit Leader as well as a Course Tutor on both M ARCH Architecture and MA Cities. He previously taught the Global Free Unit, alongside professor Robert Mull at the University of Brighton, a diploma unit that assists students in making independent projects based upon their personal interest, histories and beliefs. Jayden graduated from the The Cass with a previous degree from the University of East London. Part of the series 20x20 – a podcast where we ask leading architects, urbanists and thinkers 20 questions over 20 minutes, exploring everything from their ideas and interests to the present and future of architecture and cities. Hosted by Owen Hopkins.

Anne Thorne founded Anne Thorne Architects Partnership in 1991. Prior to that she was a founder member of Matrix Feminist Design Co-operative 1980. Her work includes co-housing, the design of affordable passive housing and the conversion of existing houses to low energy standards and primary schools in Brixton and Essex including for children with special needs. Her work has always considered energy efficiency – excluding pollutants using natural and re-cycled materials. Collaboration is key to her practice. He work with artists on the re-design of the subway network at Aldgate included extensive community surveys, working with traffic engineers to enable planting trees in place of the subways. She was Master of the Art Workers Guild in 2019. Frances Bradshaw has been a partner at Anne Thorne Architects since 1995. She has focussed on how women’s lives shape and are shaped by buildings and the city, on participatory design, on regeneration and community projects, and on low energy and ecological building design including building to the the passivhaus standard. She has contributed through practice based research, lectures, articles and seminars to developing and forwarding sustainable design and construction, and has been Trustee of the Association for Environment Conscious Building since 2012. Fran studied architecture and trained as a bricklayer. In 1980 she was a founder member of Matrix, the feminist design collective, and is a joint author of ‘Making Space - Women and the man made environment’ (1984, reprinted 2022). Part of the series 20x20 – a podcast where we ask leading architects, urbanists and thinkers 20 questions over 20 minutes, exploring everything from their ideas and interests to the present and future of architecture and cities. Hosted by Owen Hopkins.

Microcities is the office of Mariabruna Fabrizi and Fosco Lucarelli, architects, teachers and curators. Their current topics of research are the spatialisation of mental processes, the relationship between architecture and information, the evolution of the domestic space. Their work takes the form of architectural projects, exhibitions curatorship and design, and articles on Socks-Studio and elsewhere. They curated the exhibition “Inner Space” at the Lisbon Architecture Triennale 2019 and are currently working on “Database, Network, Interface, the Architecture of Information” for the gallery Archizoom in Lausanne. They published the book Inner Space in 2019 for the publisher Poligrafa. Their works have been awarded and exhibited widely. They are both associate professors at the EAVT Paris-Est. Part of the series 20x20 – a podcast where we ask leading architects, urbanists and thinkers 20 questions over 20 minutes, exploring everything from their ideas and interests to the present and future of architecture and cities. Hosted by Owen Hopkins.

Fergus Feilden is director of Feilden Fowles – an award-winning, London-based architecture studio, which he founded with Edmund Foyles in 2009 following their first project, Ty Pren, a passive long-house in the Brecon Beacons. Today, Feilden Fowles deliver a range of buildings across the UK, producing architecture that is rich in character and distinct in identity. The practice’s approach is both academic and hands-on; they engage in contextual research while exploring materiality and craft through large-scale prototypes and models. Projects are underpinned by a strategy of longevity over short-termism, using robust yet adaptable structures and simple but beautiful materials. Fergus is currently working on projects with clients such as the National Trust, TfL, the Science Museum Group and Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Feilden Fowles was shortlisted for the Stirling Prize in 2019, was named BD Young Architect of the Year 2016 and has received numerous RIBA and Civic Trust awards. Part of the series 20x20 – a podcast where we ask leading architects, urbanists and thinkers 20 questions over 20 minutes, exploring everything from their ideas and interests to the present and future of architecture and cities. Hosted by Owen Hopkins.

Marina Tabassum is a Bangladesh based architect, educator and academic. She graduated from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) in 1995. The same year, with Kashef Mahboob Chowdhury, she founded URBANA, an architecture practice based in Dhaka. In 2005, Tabassum established MTA (Marina Tabassum Architects). The practice's Bait Ur Rouf Mosque in Dhaka won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2016 Alongside her work in practice, Tabassum is Director of Academic Program at the Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements since 2015. She has conducted design studios at BRAC University since 2005 and has also taught an Advanced Design Studio as visiting professor at the University of Texas. Part of the series 20x20 – a podcast where we ask leading architects, urbanists and thinkers 20 questions over 20 minutes, exploring everything from their ideas and interests to the present and future of architecture and cities. Hosted by Owen Hopkins.

Niall McLaughlin was educated in Dublin and received his architectural qualifications from University College Dublin in 1984. He worked for Scott Tallon Walker in Dublin and London between 1984 and 1989. He established his own practice in London in 1990. Niall McLaughlin Architects make high quality modern buildings with a special emphasis on materials and detail. Niall won Young British Architect of the Year in 1998, he was one of the BBC Rising Stars in 2001 and his work represented Britain in a US exhibition Gritty Brits at the Carnegie Mellon Museum. His designs have won many awards in the UK, Ireland and the US, including RIAI Best Building in the Landscape and the RIBA Stephen Lawrence Award for the Best Building under £1million and was on the Stirling Prize Shortlist in 2013 and 2015. Niall is a professor of architecture at University College London, Lord Norman Foster visiting Professor of Architecture, Yale, 2015, and visiting Professor University of California Los Angeles, 2012-2013 a Member of the Architectural Review Editorial Board and an Honorary Royal Designer of Industry. He was chair of the RIBA Awards Group from 2007 to 2009. He lives in London with his wife Mary, son Diarmaid and daughter Iseult. Part of the series 20x20 – a podcast where we ask leading architects, urbanists and thinkers 20 questions over 20 minutes, exploring everything from their ideas and interests to the present and future of architecture and cities. Hosted by Owen Hopkins.