Sustainability

IONA NORTON

Iona is a chartered mechanical engineer with 6 years of experience across a number of building sectors, scales and countries. She has a background in sustainability and building physics, and specialises in energy strategy and low carbon heat network design for residential buildings and masterplans.

She has a keen focus on sustainable design that maximises social value for the end user and local communities. She is one of the main authors of CIBSE guides AM16: Heat Pump Installations for Multi-unit Residential Buildings and AM17: Heat Pump Installations in Large Non-domestic Buildings.

JOSEPH PENN

Joseph is an architect and climate activist. Most recently, he was a project architect at Rock Townsend working on schools and higher education facilities including new-build, extension and retrofit. He helped to develop the office’s approach to sustainable practice as part of a focus group. In 2019 Joe co-founded Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN) in order to help catalyse radical, urgent action in the construction industry. ACAN was built around the values of inclusion, empowerment and collective agency. Alongside this work, he teaches Architecture at Cardiff University where he shares his knowledge of sustainable construction techniques and community engagement.

Contact Joseph via LinkedIn

TARA GBOLADE

Tara Gbolade is the co-founder of Gbolade Design Studio and winner of the RIBAJ Rising Star award in 2018. She specialises in residential and mixed-use developments for public and private sector clients, creating homes and communities that are Design-led, Commercially viable, Innovative, and Sustainable. As an Architect, Passivhaus consultant, and BIM and generative-design champion, she has overseen and been involved in a range of mixed-use developments from 10 to 900 homes.

Part of the second cohort of Public Practice, Tara joined Epping Forest as Sustainability Officer. She provided specialist technical advice on masterplans and planning applications; and developed a Sustainability Checklist to inform Local Plan policies and guide the development of strategic sites and Harlow & Gilston Garden Town.

ELZBIETA KALETA

Elzbieta is an architect with multi-sectoral experience in architecture, urban planning, disaster risk reduction, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. Her international experience from the UN-Habitat and engagement with global city networks equipped her with a unique perspective on urban development approaches.

Before becoming an Associate she worked for the UN-Habitat and the Global Network of Civil Society Organisations for Disaster Risk Reduction, and represented these at the World Urban Forum 11 and COP26. During her time in the private sector, she worked on mixed-use and residential schemes, and managed spatial coordination of regeneration masterplans, such as the Brent Cross Town.

ÚNA HARAN

Úna is an architectural designer and researcher specialising in sustainable design with an interest in equitable housing. Before becoming an Associate, she worked with 51 architecture, where she led Lifecycle Carbon Analysis and advocated for the specification of natural materials as a means of reducing embodied carbon.

Her research spans subjects from the impacts of legislation on Gypsy Roma and Traveller communities and the relationship between tenancy and dweller agency, to self-build, materials networks and circular economies. She has extensive experience of heritage projects and the creation of biodiverse landscapes.

Úna is an ambassador for the Architects Benevolent Society and is passionate about challenging barriers to the construction industry.

RAFE BERTRAM

Prior to joining Public Practice, Rafe Bertram worked for Foster+Partners for 18 years, running projects ranging from tents for the Red Cross to retail venues for Apple and eco smart cities. Sustainability is Rafe’s personal passion and he approaches each project as a vital opportunity to diminish environmental impact and enhance social benefit. Some of his most recent projects are smart sustainable cities in California, a masterplan for an evolving university campus in England and innovation in prefabricated buildings.

As part of the third cohort of Public Practice, as Sustainability Lead for Meridian Water, Enfield’s flagship £7bn regeneration programme of an 85-hectare site, Rafe worked with Directors, Heads of Service, the community and partners to drive Enfield’s vision for Meridian Water as the greenest development in London. He formulated and implemented a strategic approach to making Meridian Water a low carbon area, including building energy-efficient homes, integrating sustainable transport options, making excellent use of water, improving air quality, ensuring the development of a healthier place and significantly reducing the use of non-renewable resources.

Rafe is now Sustainability Facilitator at Enfield Council, continuing his work on embedding climate strategy at each stage of the project process. He developed a Job Description Template to aid Authorities in defining the role of a Sustainability Facilitator in their own teams.

You can contact Rafe via his LinkedIn account.

You can watch Rafe's Associate Story video here.