Oxford City Council

JAMES NEWTON

James is an architect with broad experience ranging from feasibility to technical design. Most recently working with Kristofer Adelaide Architects, he developed the A.F.R.O House modular housing concept, responding to lessons learned from the global pandemic, which was shortlisted for Brick-by-Brick's ‘Housing for a Better World’ competition and HUB White Hat's Architects Pitch. Previously, James worked at Apt where he was responsible for all residential packages on Medius House, a social and intermediate housing project on a tight site in Central London. James is a keen artist and has been a member of Portland Sculpture and Quarry Trust since 2017, helping with their RA 250th celebrations and a new research project linking Portland Stone buildings in London with the quarries and community of Portland.

As Senior Urban Design Officer for Oxford City Council, James has joined the planning service to promote design quality and ensure developments create a positive legacy for the city. He is inputting into major planning applications and pre-applications, as well as shaping the way the team approaches urban design.

KATE BEECHING

Kate has 12 years of experience working in regeneration and communities, most recently as Community Asset Manager for Clarion Housing Group where her focus was on improving the sustainability of 65 community facilities across England. Kate shared the learnings from this work in the Community Asset Transfer toolkit for Housing Associations, published with HACT. Throughout her career Kate initiated a broad range of social and environmental improvements in estates, including delivering engagement events, fundraising, project management, distributing grants and contracts. She is also a trustee for Likewise, an innovative social care and mental health charity, and volunteers for Bermondsey Welcomes Refugees.

Kate joined Oxford City Council as Programme and Partnership Manager working on the Oxford West End programme. She is responsible for ensuring the vision for the programme is realised through a high degree of co-ordinated action, both in design and planning of new developments, but also in the promotion of the opportunity to investors, developers and occupiers, and the coordination of delivery, especially around hard and soft infrastructure.

Contact Kate via LinkedIn.

ROO HUMPHERSON

Roo has over twenty-five years’ experience as an architect specialising in residential design. As director at Pollard Thomas Edwards (PTE) between 2001- 2008, he led award-winning regeneration projects across the UK and established PTE’s first regional office. His career ranges from master-planning and project management to detailed design and his approach to community engagement has won awards for residential and dementia projects. His pro-active approach has included setting up his own beneficial development company supporting enfranchised leaseholders struggling to refurbish their own homes. Roo has also taught Professional Practice at London South Bank University from 2008 to 2016.

Roo has joined Oxford City Council as Regeneration Manager to support the delivery of two major regeneration schemes that present a once in a generation opportunity to make a step-change in the physical and social environments of two of Oxford’s biggest and most important housing estates.

ROSA APPLEBY ALIS

Prior to joining Public Practice, Rosa was an architect with experience from the scale of the one-off residential project to masterplanning new neighbourhoods. In her most recent role as project architect at ZCD Architects, as well as architectural work, she mentored junior members of staff, and prepared community engagement sessions. Before joining ZCD, she was employed at Farrells, contributing to masterplanning Old Oak Common and advocacy for Gatwick Airport. She has also produced site specific installations and films exploring how expectations of space influence behaviour and is keen to find ways to enhance sustainability and aesthetic appeal in the built environment.

As part of the fourth cohort of Public Practice, as Senior Urban Design Officer at Oxford City Council, Rosa joined the Urban Design and Heritage team to raise the profile and standard of design across the city. Her role involved inputting into major residential and regeneration projects as well as planning policy, and providing mentoring and advice on design for team members.

TED MAXWELL

Ted is a creative team and project leader with experience in the 'meanwhile' side of the property sector. Since 2015 he has worked at Dot Dot Dot, the property guardian social enterprise, becoming its Head of Business Development & Marketing in 2018. He has created and managed partnerships across sectors, delivering property guardianship in regeneration contexts, enabling creative and charitable uses, such as artist studios and community kitchens, and securing long-term outcomes from interim opportunities. Before working in the property sector, his career included leadership roles in the transport, tech, events and community sectors.

Ted’s role as Regeneration Manager for Oxford’s Covered Market entails leading on a feasibility study and business case for major investment to help deliver the Oxford Strategic Partnership’s objective of inclusive growth, including agreeing a procurement and delivery strategy for major capital works.

In July 2021, Ted helped to launch Broad Meadow, a temporary meanwhile project promoting active travel, biodiversity and arts & culture in the public realm. The space helped to increase footfall in the town centre and aims to inform the development of longer-term regeneration projects.