4×4 Manchester met in May 2016 to answer the Big Questions. The second event asked speakers to explore the topic of War & Peace.
Speakers: Sue Manley, Cany Ash and Kim Cooper & Douglas Smith and Paul Bower
Sue Manley
Sue Manley is a wayfinding architect, and director at Placemarque. She has many years experience specialising in preparing wayfinding strategies, place identity and bespoke public realm projects. Her approach is firmly founded in the principles of urban design, delivering wayfinding strategies that are rooted in the local context, to celebrate what is unique and communicate that essential DNA of a place. She works all over the country.
Cany Ash
After graduating from Cambridge, Cany Ash, worked with DEGW, and Burrell Foley Fischer in London. She has also worked in Berlin with Leon Wohlhage and Augustin Frank, and in New York with Barry Benepe pioneering the world’s first urban farmers’ markets.
The work of Ash Sakula, founded with Robert Sakula in 1994, is focused on architectural authenticity rooted in changing times: always a challenging cat and mouse game with fashion and new technologies. Their projects for arts organizations, shared workspaces, public space and affordable housing are diverse and particular. Current work includes Wickside a park, food market, co-working spaces forge , brewery nursery and 500 homes in Hackney Wick and a Caravanserai in China and creative cluster in Colchester.
She sits on an number of design reviews panels for Design South East and is an external examiner for the masters in Narrative Environments m Central St Martins, London.
Paul Bower
Paul describes his current roles as crossing between a designer, a built-environment strategist and an architectural researcher.
He is architecturally trained and is in the process of finishing a PhD in Architecture at Queen’s University Belfast; researching architectural practice and contested territories in the past and present of Belfast, Northern Ireland.
He is also a part-time design tutor at the University of Liverpool School of Architecture. In his spare time he is a voluntary director of Levenshulme Market, a unique social enterprise market which runs every Saturday between March and December in South Manchester where he lives with his wife and young daughter
Kim Cooper & Douglas Smith
Kim and Douglas spoke about their project designing post-war housing for Syria. The brief was to encourage people to move back to the area assuming a ‘post war’ environment and develop housing schemes that are quick to erect but long-term and attractive enough to bring people back.
Kim is a Town Planner at Arup, working in their Liverpool Office. Kim’s interests in planning centre on urban regeneration and economic development of cities. Kim also has a keen interest in consultation and has expertise in dealing with a wide range of interested parties from members of the public to senior council officers. Prior to working for Arup, Kim worked in the Chief Executive’s Policy Team at Liverpool City Council and had high level exposure to the cities strategic growth plans, including being involved in producing the Liverpool City Region Devolution Deal.
Kim is Vice-Chair of the RTPI’s North West Young Planners Committee and a member of the RTPI’s North West Regional Activities Committee.
In her spare time, Kim is a Trustee at Plaza Community Cinema, Crosby; A volunteer-led commercial cinema, with an arts and education programme.
Douglas is a Graduate Civil Engineer at Arup, based in the Liverpool Office. Doug has a wide interest in all aspects of engineering, in particular bringing enthusiasm and more sustainable ideas to a variety of infrastructure projects. He is currently working on Master Planning projects in Dubai and Abu Dhabi as part of the Infrastructure team, in addition to a number of community schemes in the Liverpool area.
Doug graduated from Manchester in the Summer of 2011 with a Masters of Engineering where he graduated with a First Class Honours with a focus on the Environmental and Water sectors. His other interested include rock climbing, travelling and reading.
Watch videos from the other 4×4 events by clicking the links below: