SPEAKERS

PHIL Allsopp

Phil graduated from Kingston University School of Architecture becoming a licensed architect and a Chartered Member of the RIBA. Post graduate research in environmental physics at the University of Wales, gaining a Master of Science (Public Health) from Columbia University, and a US Public Health Service Fellowship with the Office of the US Surgeon General, shifted his career into the public health and economics fields with top-tier management consulting firms, Blue Shield of California, and later as CEO of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation at Taliesin West, Arizona.

He is CEO of Orbis Dynamics Inc., a Senior Scientist with ASU’s Global Futures Laboratory, and Adjunct Professor with Mohawk College’s School of Climate Action, Ontario Canada.

 Phil is an RIBA Trustee and Council Representative for the Americas Region, Co-Chairs the RIBA’s EAG on AI-Generative Design-Data, and represents the RIBA in the UN’s Global Initiative on Virtual Worlds and AI.

KAREN ANDERSON PRIAS

Karen Anderson is the current President of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) and a founding partner of the award-winning architecture practice Anderson Bell Christie. With a career spanning over three decades, Karen has been a powerful advocate for socially responsive architecture and design excellence across Scotland.

In addition to her work in practice, Karen has made significant contributions to the wider design community. She served as Chair of Architecture and Design Scotland, where she helped shape national policy and championed quality in the built environment. More recently, she co-founded hirta, a platform dedicated to promoting excellence in Scottish design and supporting the next generation of emerging designers.

COLIN BAILLIE

Colin is a practicing architect and director of Baillie Baillie – a small studio building a reputation for their considered approach to materials, resources, and landscape. In a time of unprecedented environmental change, Baillie Baillie are committed to working with natural materials and progressive approaches to construction. Colin is a member of the RIBA Council, a Trustee at Kyle & Lochalsh Community Trust where he lives in the Scottish Highlands, and External Examiner at Scott Sutherland School of Architecture and Built Environment. He has contributed to Alder Magazine, and the RIAS Quarterly as a writer and critic, and has taught as a studio tutor at the University of Strathclyde, and the University of Dundee.

Katie Clemence-Jackson

As CEO of the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard, Katie leads the development, delivery, and future planning for this important industry initiative, working with experts from across the country. In her role as Chair of CIBSE’s Sustainability Group, Katie co-ordinates a broad range of sustainability experts to raise awareness of emerging sustainability topics, share knowledge, and reflect CIBSE’s insights as part of multi-disciplinary conversations.

Fatma Pelin Ekdi - Carbon Balance Consultant, Anderson Bell & Christie

F. Pelin Ekdi is a carbon balance consultant at Anderson Bell Christie with a PhD in Urban Planning, specializing in sustainable urbanism, place-based net-zero solutions, and nature-based solutions.

ANN-MARIE FALLON, architype, passivhaus trust

Ann-Marie is an Associate Director at Architype and recently taken on a role as Co-Director of the Passivhaus trust. She is a chartered member of RIBA and ARB, and a member of the Passivhaus Trusts technical advisory group. Having qualified as an architect in TU Dublin Ireland she went onto gain a Masters with Cardiff University in Environmental Building Design, and still supports third level education today in environmental design and external examining.

Architype will give an overview of how Local Authority Estates they have worked with have delivered on decarbonisation through new build and existing building strategies. Currie Community High School is a recently completed Passivhaus School with sports and leisure facilities including a pool. Estate wide strategies will cover retrofit including feedback on pilot projects.

SAM PATTERSON, Embodied Carbon Assessor, Atelier Ten

Sam Patterson is an Embodied Carbon Assessor at Atelier Ten, an Emergent Sustainable Built Environment Materials (ESBEM) Innovation Network Steering Group member and member of the RIAS Nominations Committee. His interests are in rapidly renewable building materials, the way that low carbon specifications change the way we build, and how we manage circular and regenerative outcomes.  

Nerissa Yeung & Sam Llewellyn Smith, GROUPWORK

GROUPWORK is an Employee Ownership Trust of architects founded in 2003 by Amin Taha. Hailed by the Financial Times as producing “perhaps the most sophisticated, witty and thoughtful new building in years”, the studio has been twice shortlisted for the Stirling Prize and are recipients of RIBA awards for every completed project. Studio partners teach worldwide, including positions at Yale University as the Norman R. Foster Visiting Professor, as Visiting Professors at Harvard’s GSD and as Associate Lecturers at the Royal College of Art and the UCL Faculty of Engineering. Studio partners also sit on sustainable development advisory boards of two property funds and are involved as trustees of the Sir John Soane Museum and chair its annual Soane Medal. Recently, the studio has been awarded research grants from UK and central governments to develop low-carbon building technologies that have direct industry application, most recently via the Design Museum’s “Future Observatory” annual £24m fund. In 2027, a publication for RIBA and The Institution of Structural Engineers will focus on innovations with carbon-negative stone-timber hybrid structures and their applicable use in the construction sector.

LORI MCELROY, Professor of Smart Cities, University of Strathclyde

Lori is an environmental engineer who has supported communities to deliver sustainable architecture for over 25 years in practice and research, working in the private and public sectors. She is committed to the delivery of a better built environment at environmental, social and economic levels, and in particular the opportunities that this can afford in respect of fuel poverty alleviation, and community empowerment through job creation and skills development. Lori is Chair of the Existing Homes Alliance and sits on a number of Scottish Government working groups linked with the government’s commitment to the inclusive delivery of a zero carbon built environment by 2045.

Jonathan McQuillan - Director, Anderson Bell & Christie

Jonathan McQuillan is an Employee Owner, Architect and Director at Anderson Bell Christie. He specialises in sustainable design, retrofit, and net-zero strategies, with work that has shaped Scottish building standards and design guidance.

BROOKE SMITH

Brooke is Sustainability Lead for Scotland and the North of England at Max Fordham, specialising in Net Zero carbon strategies for both new-build and retrofit projects. With an academic background in Civil and Structural Engineering and expertise in circular economy and whole life carbon analysis, Brooke has delivered sustainability strategies across offices, universities, residential, and cultural buildings. Her work spans deep retrofits and sensitive refurbishments of historic assets — including the National Galleries of Scotland, alongside embodied carbon assessments for buildings such as the Whittle Laboratory in Cambridge and the mass timber ‘Xylo’ office building in London. Brooke has also contributed to four pilot projects for the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard and supported public sector advisory work, including for the Scottish Government’s Net Zero Public Sector Buildings Standard.