Max Fordham, OBE MA (Cantab) FREng FCIBSE MConsE Hon FRIBA

Max Fordham's reputation as an environmental engineer is surpassed by none. As principal of Max Fordham LLP, a practice of building services engineers he has contributed to some of the most advanced buildings of the last 20 years. He is Visiting Professor in Building and Design at the University of Bath and was President of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers from May 2001 to May 2002.

Working with leading architects in the UK, recent projects include the Centre for Contemporary Arts, Rome (Zaha Hadid); Victoria House, London (Alsop Architects); Great Glasshouse, National Botanic Garden of Wales (Foster and Partners); LSO St Luke’s, London (Levitt Bernstein); Gagosian Gallery, London (Caruso St John); Royal Festival Hall, London (Allies + Morrison).

Max has been voted into Building's 40th Anniversary Building Industry Hall of Fame. The Building Hall of Fame's stellar list, which contains 39 other luminaries who have "done most to change the built environment for the greater good since 1966" also includes Ove Arup, Denys Lasdun, Lords Foster and Rogers and Zaha Hadid.

Sue Dunster, Manager and Librarian at the ZEDfactory

Sue studied Architectural History as part of her History of Art degree at Edinburgh University. In the mid-80s her silk screen printing studio designed hosiery for retail and merchandise for such groups such as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the anti-fur campaigners Lynx. At the same time. while starting a family, she was building Hope House which, designed by Bill Dunster, became the prototype for BedZED (Beddington Zero Energy Development) The UKs largest carbon neutral eco-community.

As both client and Clerk of Works Sue's interest in construction widened to a more practical level and she went on to a more proactive role as manager and librarian of the architectural practice, ZEDfactory when it was founded in 1999.

Andrea Deplazes, Professor of Architecture at ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)

Andrea is Professor for Architecture and Construction at the ETH [Swiss Federal Institute of Technology] Zurich and a partner at the architectural firm of Bearth & Deplazes in Chur. The firm’s architectural portfolio include public and institutional projects, urban design, housing, and industrial buildings, with special focus on wood construction. In addition, it acts as design consultants for civil engineering projects.

In 2006 Andrea's book Constructing Architecture was presented with the RIBA International Book Award for Architecture.

Edward McAlpine, Project Manager at Sir Robert McAlpine

Edward is a project manager with Sir Robert McAlpine, one of the UK's leading building and civil engineering contractors. Privately owned by the McAlpine family, the Company was founded by Edward’s great, great grandfather in 1869. Edward’s experience extends over a wide variety of fields including business development and client relations as well as project management. He is currently project manager for commercial buildings in London. The McAlpine portfolio includes such projects as: Emirates Stadium – Arsenal FC, New Street Square, The Dorchester Hotel, also the Imperial War Museum, North, Millenium Centre, Cardiff and the Eden Project in Cornwall.

Will Alsop, Architect

Will Alsop produces architecture of exceptional imagination. His practice Alsop Architects is responsible for a number of distinctive, exciting and controversial 'Modernist' buildings distinguished, among other remarkable features, by their vibrant use of colour and unusual forms. Will’s work has won praise from critics and fans of avant-garde architecture and, as with much modern design, has attracted passionate debate.

In 2000 his design for Peckham Library won the RIBA Stirling Prize, while more recently, the Blizzard project, a new medical school, also won a distinguished award at the Leading European Architects Forum (LEAF) in the 'Best use of technology within a large scheme' category.

Will Alsop studied at the Architectural Association School of Architecture and set up a practice (Alsop & Lyall) with fellow student John Lyall in 1981, subsequently renamed Alsop & Stormer in 1991. Alsop Architects was formed in 2000 and has practices in London, Singapore, Toronto, Beijing and Shanghai.

Will's book SuperCity was particularly controversial. It has been the subject of a Channel 4 television documentary and an exhibition at the Urbis museum in Manchester. It describes his vision of a 'Supercity' - a futuristic conurbation - stretching along the M62 corridor, from Liverpool to Hull.

Doug Atherley [Chair], Kinari Design and BIDA

Doug Atherley, after 20 years in international banking, studied at the New York School of Interior Design and at the Inchbald School of Design. Coming from a business background he is actively involved in improving the professional image and practice of the interior design industry both through his business, Kinari Design, an international design consultancy, and in the role of marketing director of the British Interior Design Association.

Kinari Design is an international design consultancy handling projects ranging from small design briefs to major refurbishments and building projects. With a multi-lingual design team they act on behalf of clients in London, Milan, New York, San Francisco, Tokyo, Hong Kong and the Caribbean.

Helen Fifield, Managing Director at Design Centre Chelsea Harbour

Helen started her career at The Conde Nast Publications working at The World of Interiors, Brides and, for six years, as Publishing Director of House & Garden. Whilst European Director of American House & Garden, she was approached by the new owners of Design Centre Chelsea Harbour to help them create the ultimate design destination. She joined as Managing Director in 2003 and after a £6 million refurbishment, Design Centre Chelsea Harbour has become a European centre of design excellence.

Ghislaine Wood, Curator and author, V&A

Ghislaine is the curator of Surreal Things: Surrealism and Design, the hugely popular major spring Exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum. She was also, in 2003, the lead curator of the V&A's critically acclaimed exhibition Art Deco 1910-1939. As deputy curator Ghislaine also, 3 years earlier, put together the Art Nouveau 1890-1914 exhibition that attracted similar praise and high visitor numbers.

As well as being a member of the V&A's Research Department Ghislaine is an active editor and author. In this capacity she edited Surreal Things: Surrealism and Design, co-edited a book on Art Deco and contributed to a book on Art Nouveau [all published to accompany the exhibitions].

Jeremy Myerson, Director of the Helen Hamlyn Centre and Professor of Design Studies at the RCA

Jeremy developed his interest in design and architecture as a journalist and editor on titles including Design, Creative Review and World Architecture. In 1986 he was founding editor of Design Week and in 1999 he joined the Royal College of Art to set up the RCA's Helen Hamlyn Centre with Roger Coleman. Today he is Director of the Helen Hamlyn Centre and Professor of Design Studies at the RCA where he also leads the InnovationRCA network for business. He is the author of many books including The 21st Century Office, New Workplace New Culture, IDEO: Masters of Innovation, New Public Architecture and Beware Wet Paint with Alan Fletcher. He has curated many national exhibitions, including Doing A Dyson at the Design Museum and Rewind: Forty Years of Design and Advertising at the V&A. Jeremy is also a Trustee of the Audi Design Foundation and the Gordon Russell Trust, and chairs the British Council's Design and Architecture Advisory Group.

Tim Benton, Professor of Art History, Open University

Tim's research interests include Le Corbusier's work of the 1920s and 1930s and the history of modern architecture and design. For several years he has been working on Le Corbusier's domestic architectural designs (1914-1935) which includes a study of all the architectural drawings and documents associated with these projects. He has developed computer software for the analysis of architectural drawings as part of this research. Elsewhere he has contributed to two major exhibitions at the V&A: Art Deco 1910-1939 (2003), Modernism Designing a New World (2006) and to the first major retrospective exhibition of the work of Charlotte Perriand (2006).

Adrian Forty [Chair], B.A., M.A., Ph.D

Adrian Forty is Professor of Architectural History at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. His primary research interest is in architecture's place in the mental life of societies. He is the author of Objects of Desire: Design and Society since 1750 (1986) and of Words and Buildings: A Vocabulary of Modern Architecture (2000).

Dalibor Vesely, Director (Emeritus) of Graduate Studies, Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge

Dalibor Vesely is Director (Emeritus) of Graduate Studies, Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge and Professor of Architectural History and Theory at PennDesign, University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on the hermeneutics of architecture and the humanistic understanding of architecture in society. He is the author of Architecture in the Age of Divided Representation and winner of the 2005 CICA Bruno Zevi Book Award.

Diana Periton, Head of Architectural History and Theory, Mackintosh School of Architecture

Diana studied architecture at Cambridge University where she completed her Diploma in 1987 and an M. Phil on the History and Philosophy of Architecture in 1993. She has taught at Cambridge, Oxford Brookes, the University of Central England in Birmingham and, for fourteen years, at the Architectural Association, London, where she was Assistant Director of Histories and Theories. She joined the Mackintosh School of Architecture in 2004. Her current research is on the relationship between the home and the city in late 19th and early 20th century Paris. Recent publications include The Home as Aesthetic Refuge, in Tracing Modernity, eds. Mari Hvattum and Christian Hermansen, Routledge 2004, and The Coupe Anatomique, Journal of Architecture, Autumn 2004.

Irénée Scalbert, Architecture critic

Irénée Scalbert is an architecture critic based in London. He has contributed articles and essays to most European magazines on a wide range of historical and contemporary issues. He is the author of A Right to Difference: The Architecture of Jean Renaudie (2004). He has taught at the Architectural Association for many years and is a member of the editorial board of AA Files. He was also Visiting Design Critic in 2006 and 2007 at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard. In addition to his teaching, he is a regular guest lecturer.

Sarah Wigglesworth, Architect

Cambridge graduate and joint winner [with Jeremy Till] of the Fulbright Arts Fellowship in Architecture, Sarah has, since 1992 devoted her time to teaching and to Sarah Wigglesworth Architects, an award-winning London-based architectural practice. With a wide and varied portfolio, projects include private and social housing, master-planning and cultural buildings, offices and structures for education, arts and sports. The practice also specialises in low energy and sustainable building and creative use of readily available materials.

As professor of Architecture at the University of Sheffield since January 1999 Sarah has taught and lectured worldwide, most recently at the Architectural Association in London and the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal. She has also published extensively and, in addition to authoring numerous essays, she is joint editor (with Katerina Ruedi and Duncan McCorquodale) of Desiring Practices: architecture, gender and the interdisciplinary (Black Dog Press, 1996) and (with Jeremy Till) The Everyday and Architecture (Academy Wiley, 1998).

Irena Murray, Director, RIBA British Architectural Library

Irena Murray is Sir Banister Fletcher Director of the RIBA British Architectural Library. Her research focuses on the relationship between architecture and language, particularly as expressed in the diary and epistolary form. She is the editor of Moshe Safdie: Buildings and Projects (1996) and translator for the Getty Research Institute of Karel Teige: Modern Architecture in Czechoslovakia (2000), edited by Jean-Louis Cohen.

Dikkie Scipio [Chair]

Dikkie has been a senior partner at Claus en Kaan Architecten since joining the practice in 1995. She studied applied arts and interior design at the Royal Academy of Art of The Hague after which she was trained as an architect at the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture. Dikkie also participates in art, urban and architectural related committies and boards. Her interest or writing led her to study journalism and variously as author, initiator and editor she is responsible for several publications and books. Most recent of these is 'Bouwmeesters', a collection of lectures on 12 eminent examples of Dutch architecture.

With offices in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, Claus en Kaan Architects has a strong position within European architectural practice

Paul Crosby, David Chipperfield Architects

David Chipperfield Architects has won over 40 national and international competitions, also many international awards and citations for design excellence among which are RIBA, RFAC and AIA awards. In 2007 the Practice won the RIBA Stirling Prize.

The portfolio includes major cultural centres, mixed-use and residential developments and private houses in Europe and USA.

Mrs Kathy Thurman MCIAT

Kathy began her career with an apprenticeship at shipbuilders Vosper Thornycroft in Portsmouth. She continued at a number of architectural practices, including Ove Arup, before forming her own practice in 1983. Since then her extensive knowledge and experience of the construction industry has been used on a great many projects varying both in kind and scale from housing estates to listed buildings and department stores to nursing homes.

John Halton, MCIAT

John is a founding director of John Halton Design Ltd, an award winning practice specialising in residential, commercial and conservation projects.

The Practice received the Judges Special Award at the RICS East Midlands Awards 2006 and a Civic Trust Commendation in 2007 for an ecclesiastical project in Market Harborough, Leicestershire.

John Halton Design has been featured in a number of publications and encourages a creative and pragmatic approach to architecture and management of the built environment. In 2006 it received the Judges Special Award at the RICS East Midlands Awards, and a Civic Trust Commendation in 2007 for an ecclesiastical project in Market Harborough, Leicestershire. John is a corporate member of three professional bodies, including the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technology, which he represents.

Adrian Williamson, MCIAT

Adrian is a partner of WM Design LLP, an innovative, ecologically aware architectural practice situated in Menai Bridge, Anglesey, North Wales. Favoured for their experience by local Health boards and Trusts, developers and self-builders in the North Wales region, the partners have a broad range of skills that cover all aspects of modern architectural design and construction. The practice is able to provide CAD, Visualisation services, advice on Building Regulations and Planning, site supervision and monitoring, contractual management, and architectural design consultation. ]A history of close multidisciplinary practice has developed strong ties with Landscape Architects, Planning Consultants, Drainage and Flood Risk Analysis Consultants, Structural Engineers and Quantity Surveyors, where specialist knowledge is required. Before forming the practice Adrian was an architectural consultant in the NHS for some 15 years where he specialized in health care projects, housing and eco homes developments.