People Matter: Inclusive Sustainability - Designing Environments as if People Matter?

Paul Morrell

Paul Morrell was appointed as the Government's first Chief Construction Adviser in November 2009 with a brief to champion a more coordinated approach to affordable, sustainable construction.  He is a chartered quantity surveyor and was formerly senior partner of international construction consultants Davis Langdon (now part of Aecom), where he had worked since graduating from university until retiring in 2007. 

He has extensive experience of major construction projects in both the public and private sectors, with a particular specialisation in commercial development, value management and procurement strategy and practice.
He is a Fellow of the RICS and of the ICE, and an Honorary Fellow of both the RIBA and the Association for Project Management. He served as a Commissioner on CABE from 2000 to 2008, including a term as Deputy Chairman; and was awarded an OBE for services to architecture and the built environment in the 2009 New Year Honours list. 

In Government, Paul chaired the Government Construction Board, responsible for the development of a new cross-Government construction strategy (which included strategies for the introduction of Building Information Modelling and Soft Landings), targeting a reduction of 20% in the cost of public sector construction without loss of value. He also served on the Board of the Cabinet Office Major Projects Authority; and led the BIS Innovation and Growth Team study into low carbon construction.

He now practises as an independent consultant, and is a Visiting Professor at Nottingham Trent University.

Paul Fletcher, through...

Former architect with over 25 years experience, Paul leads through... an organisation offering ‘futures’, ‘strategy’ and ‘ideation’ for users and enablers of the built environment. Supporting leading national innovation agencies, local authorities, universities, NGOs, to global professional services companies.

Paul was instrumental in developing the RIBA Client Adviser initiative and in shaping the RIBA Plan of Work 2013, specifically stage 7 and 0.

He is an acknowledged thought leader on built environment futures and founder of Whetstone, a think-tank purposed with reimagining the built environment sector.

Julie Fleck, OBE MRTPI

Julie worked as a local authority town planner for 9 years before specialising in access for disabled people as the Corporation of London’s Access Officer.  Julie then became Principal Access Adviser at the Greater London Authority (GLA) where she developed the London Plan policies on inclusive design and wrote the Supplementary Planning Guidance 'Accessible London’.  Julie provided technical access advice on strategic planning applications referred to the Mayor and contributed to the development of the Olympic Delivery Authority’s award winning Inclusive Design Strategy and Standards.

In 2012 Julie was seconded to the GLA’s London 2012 Unit as Paralympic Adviser and helped make London ready for disabled visitors coming to London for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.  Following the success of the Games - ‘the most accessible Games ever’ - a secondment to Government to lead a Paralympic Legacy project followed - the Built Environment Professional Education Project (BEPE).  BEPE is raising awareness about inclusive design principles and processes and is stimulating a systematic change in the way built environment professionals are taught inclusive design. Julie is currently supporting the Construction Industry Council to assist in the transition of the BEPE project from a government / Mayor of London initiative to an industry owned and led project.

Julie is a member of the British Standards Institution Committee B/559 (responsible for developing standards on access for disabled people to buildings), is a member of the Royal Town Planning Institute and the Access Association and was awarded the OBE in 2004 for services to disabled people. 

Tony Watts, Hartley Watts Communications

Tony Watts OBE has spent some 30 years writing and campaigning on later life issues – both as a journalist editing the UK’s first national newspaper for older people and latterly as Chair of the South West Forum on Ageing, which represents older people into Government. He also sits on the Partnership Board steering the activities of the national Age Action Alliance, and is the South West Housing Champion for Older People.

In 2012 he gave evidence in the House of Lords towards the “Ready for Ageing” paper which has since helped shape thinking on our ageing society. He comments regularly in the national and regional media on ageing issues. In 2014 he was made an OBE for his services to older people.

In his day job as a copywriter and journalist, he continues to focus on property, economic development and later life issues.

Lydia Ragoonanan, Innovation Lab

Lydia Ragoonanan  recently led the  Rethinking Parks programme, an 18 month programme to find, test and learn from new business models to pay for the UK's public parks.  Rethinking Parks was a joint Nesta, Heritage Lottery Fund and Big Lottery Fund programme.

A seasoned innovation professional, Lydia's work at Nesta also extends to the Cities of Service UK programme ( a social action movement) and in working with the People Powered Results team who are working to transform the health and care system.  Before joining Nesta, Lydia was Principal Strategist for the New Zealand Transport Agency. Prior to this she worked in the risk and internal audit team for the former airport operator BAA, and has worked in government policy and strategy roles in the UK and in New Zealand.

Michael Kohn, Stickyworld Ltd

Michael Kohn is founder and CEO of Stickyworld Ltd, a visual stakeholder communications platform that makes it easy for organisations to involve wide groups of people in making better products, services, buildings, places and cities together. Founded in 2010, Stickyworld has attracted a growing number of customers from local government, energy and utilities, construction, architecture and design sectors. A former architect, Michael’s career spans 20 years including award-winning concept design work, administration of multi-million pound construction projects, university research and lecturing, and collaborative technology R&D. 

Paull Robathan, Aequus Developments

Paull’s technical expertise is in Technology, Strategy, Design and Intelligent Buildings. He gained an MBA from London Business School is a Fellow of the British Computer Society and a Chartered IT Professional. He was the first Chairman of the European Intelligent Building Group, and is a management committee member of the CIBSE Intelligent Buildings Group. He has been a principal in ground breaking studies in Flat Screen Technology, Network Computing, and the Future of Financial Markets Technology.

Following an early career in IT in the Health Service in Wales, and in London at Kings College Hospital and North West Thames Regional Health Authority, Paull worked in International Financial Markets, Telecommunications and Design and set up a multi-national specialist technology strategy consulting business (Infact) now part of WS Atkins. He returned to the Health Sector as Governor, non Executive Director and IT Projects Director at Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust.

He was Visiting Fellow at Imperial College School of Management, Visiting Lecturer at the College of Estate Management in Reading and Tutor in Strategy for the Open University Business School. Paull has developed and delivered training programmes on Risk, Strategy, E-Commerce and Digital Technology in UK, Europe, US, Canada, Asia and Australia. He has authored and collaborated on books about Trading Floor design, Facilities Management, Risk Management and Contingency Planning

Paull was a District Councillor between 2003 and 2011. Leader of South Somerset District Council from 2004-2006. Chairman of South Somerset Together, the Local Strategic Partnership 2006-2012.

He was until December 2014 Vice Chairman of Raglan Housing Association, and until December 2015 independent Committee member of Stonewater Housing.

Sevra Davis, RSA

Sevra Davis is Director of Design and Challenges at the RSA and Director of the RSA Student Design Awards. A dedicated champion of design for social good, Sevra spent 10 years working in industry as an architect and urban designer before joining the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (The RSA).  During her time running the RSA Student Design Awards, Sevra has led the development of the competition to include workshops, mentoring opportunities, and an annual ‘roadshow’ introducing the briefs to universities in the UK and internationally. She has consulted on design education for international government clients, and frequently speaks on a wide range of topics around designing for social impact, design thinking, and open innovation. She is currently developing a strategy for the RSA on how to better use and apply design thinking and skills for maximum impact.

Michael Clinton, The Schumacher Institute

Michael is a Research Director at the Schumacher Institute, a role shared with Dr Jenneth Parker. Michael attained his MSc from Cranfield Institute of Technology (now Cranfield University) in Aerospace Vehicle Design. He joined the Royal Aircraft Establishment and worked on Laser Radar systems for a number of years before switching to Operational Research. In this role he supported the MOD procurement programme in a decision support role. As such he worked on many complex programmes that required consideration of a wide range of factors, across a range of technical, operational and geopolitical disciplines, in essence applied Systems Thinking.

Michael remained with the organisation through its development and eventual privatisation and the formation of QinetiQ. The increased commercialisation of the business exposing him to many aspects of business and commercial protect management. He also has a keen interest in economics and resource depletion which gives further depth to his Systems Thinking approach to problem solving.

More recently Michael has been instrumental in setting up Initiative Homes Ltd, under the umbrella of the Schumacher Institute, aimed at working with communities to produce accessible affordable sustainable homes. As a disabled person Michael has a wealth of practical experience of the built environment and the additional challenges faced by many vulnerable people as a result of out of date designs and poor awareness amongst today’s designers and developers. Initiative Homes is aimed at demonstrating that it is possible to provide the infrastructure to support a truly inclusive and equal society…

Steve Maslin, Building User Design

Steve is known for both writing and also speaking at events such as Workplace Trends and Learning Environments on the relationship between the people, their minds and their environments.  He is an Architect, a member of the National Register of Access Consultants, Senior Research Fellow at the Schumacher Institute for Sustainable Systems, a Built Environment Expert for Design Council CABE, Director of Building User Design and Design Director of Initiative Homes  - the Schumacher Institute’s new start-up.    He’s also the instigator of this conference series and of People Matter, the Schumacher Institute’s Human Factor’s consultancy

Because he is both an architect and provides design advice around people’s needs, Steve has been involved in a wide range of projects.  Recent clients include Parliamentary Estates, Sky and HEFCE.  He takes particular interest in design in use matters, emphasising the importance of joined-up (systems) thinking when his clients develop project briefs and believes enabling and positive user experiences of built environments, informed by stakeholder engagement, leads to greater wellbeing, organisational effectiveness and therefore increased social, economic and environmental sustainability.  He is also a big fan of Service Design philosophy and methodology and advocates its application in architecture.

Steve has also served as a member of the Building Research Establishment Global’s Standing Panel of Experts and on several British Standards Institute (BSI) committees.  This includes the BSI committee responsible for Access within the built environment.  He also leads efforts towards establishing Design for the Mind guidance and has been a steering group member for several Facilities Management standards and a Code of Practice for the Recognition of Dementia-Friendly Communities.