At Urban Splash, this mission aligns perfectly with what we strive for every day – creating homes and communities that are designed to last. My role as Director of the Future is about exactly that: building forward-thinking ideas into how we live, work, and build. I’m proud to work alongside colleagues across the business who are equally committed to this cause.

It's the latest in a series of exciting extra-curricular initiatives that I’m involved in. Others include the World Economic Forum (WEF), where I support conversations about how the built environment must evolve in response to global changes. One of the highlights of that work was attending the Baukultur Alliance annual meeting at the WEF headquarters in Geneva last year. True to my values, I travelled there by train from the North of England – a small gesture in support of sustainable travel. That journey, and the conversations I had at the meeting, deepened my belief in the power of international collaboration to drive change in our industry.

It’s not just me doing this work – our Urban Splash team is actively involved in shaping the wider conversation too. Our Co-Founder Jonathan Falkingham MBE recently joined the judging panel for the Davidson Prize – an initiative that celebrates bold, imaginative approaches to residential architecture. This year’s theme, Streets Ahead: The race to build 1.5 million homes, prompted some truly inspiring responses with the winning concept proposing co-living and affordable housing sensitively integrated into a high street setting.

Jonathan and my colleague Mark Latham also contributed to the Design Council Homes Taskforce earlier this year – a government-backed initiative examining how we can meet the UK’s housing targets without compromising climate goals. Their work advocated for a “whole stock” strategy, prioritising reuse and retrofit – a philosophy that’s long guided our projects, like the transformational work we’ve done at Park Hill in Sheffield.

That’s on top of a host of other colleagues stepping up and speaking at events all over the country – most recently my colleague Emma Gardiner talked about commercial property and the success of Royal William Yard in Plymouth at an event for North West Business Insider, while many colleagues including our development manager Sian Stanhope spoke at this year’s UKREiiF.

Events like those, and my own role as part of the RIBA advisory group allows us to bring our Urban Splash experiences into a wider dialogue about the future of our profession. It isn’t just about design – it’s about how we run our businesses, how we support our teams, and how we embed long-term thinking into every stage of development.

I'm excited to be collaborating with a group of brilliant minds who, like me, are passionate about shaping a better future for architecture – one that’s creative, inclusive, and resilient. Together, we can make sure our industry not only survives the challenges ahead but thrives in spite of them.