Architecture – You Ask the Questions

Stella Creasy was elected MP for Walthamstow in 2010, having previously served as a local councillor, Mayor and Chief Whip of the Council. Before she became the MP she worked for the Scout Association and gained a PhD in Social Psychology from the London School of Economics. In her time in parliament to date, she has served on the Public Accounts Committee, in Labour’s Shadow Home Affairs and Business team and led campaigns on tackling legal loan sharking, online harassment, housing and public debt management. Currently she is on the Science and Technology Select Committee and working on campaigns around PFI, housing, women’s equality and tackling islamophobia.

Asif Khan founded his architecture practice in 2007. The studio works internationally on projects ranging from cultural buildings to houses, temporary pavilions, exhibitions and installations. Notable projects include the ‘MegaFaces’ pavilion at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, Coca-Cola Beatbox pavilion at London 2012 Olympics, and most recently he was a finalist in the competition for the Helsinki Guggenheim Museum and the British Pavilion at Milan Expo 2015. A recipient of numerous awards, Khan lectures globally on his work, sits on the board of Trustees of the Design Museum and teaches MA Architecture at the Royal College of Art.

Amanda Levete is a Stirling Prize winning architect and founder and principal of AL_A, an international award-winning design and architecture studio. Recent commissions include the highly anticipated expansion of the V&A in London, the remodelling of Galeries Lafayette Haussmann in Paris, a 1.5 million sq ft luxury shopping mall and hotel in Bangkok on the former grounds of the British Embassy, a new centre for the cancer care charity Maggie’s in Southampton, a 13-hectare media campus for Sky, a cultural centre in Lisbon commissioned by Energias De Portugal (EDP), and MPavilion 2015 in Melbourne. She is a regular radio and TV broadcaster, writes for a number of publications and lectures throughout the world.

Sarah Sands is editor of the Evening Standard. She trained on The Sevenoaks Courier as a news reporter, before moving to the Evening Standard – initially as Editor of the Londoner’s Diary – and took further posts as Features Editor and Associate Editor. She joined the Daily Telegraph in 1996 as Deputy Editor to assume responsibility later for the Saturday edition. She was appointed the first female Editor of The Sunday Telegraph in 2005. In 2006 she worked as Consultant Editor on the Daily Mail and in 2008, she became Editor-in-Chief of the UK edition of Reader’s Digest. She was appointed Deputy Editor of the London Evening Standard in 2009 and became its Editor in 2012.

David Twohig is Chief Development Officer and Head of Design and Placemaking for the Battersea Power Station Development Company, where he spearheads design on one of the highest profile urban regeneration projects anywhere in the world. Previously David worked for Treasury Holdings in both Ireland and China, and over his career has worked on major urban regeneration projects in Europe, Russia and Asia. David is also the author of Living in Wonderland, a book which addresses the shortcomings of contemporary development and the need to design places for people.