Places
Heritage, Identity, Creativity “London’s Cultural Engine”
What kinds of places do we need to maximise socially impactful and sustainable change? How can we create positive, inclusive and valuable places of assembly?
Our Panel Lead
Adala Leeson
As Head of Social and Economic Research at Historic England, Adala leads the team behind 'Heritage Counts' publication series, producing and disseminating evidence on how heritage supports the economy, society and the environment. She is also Principal Investigator on a national project building shared taxonomies for arts, culture and heritage. A decade advising on economic development and regeneration, plus two years as a researcher at the LSE, means she’s an authority on making the value case for heritage.
Our Expert Panel
Gee Sinha
Founder of ReSpace and the Alliance
Gee is on a mission to restore the Tate Institute ‘beyond its former glory in an eco-friendly way’. As founder and Director of ReSpace, a social enterprise that brings derelict buildings back into local use, he is rebuilding Silvertown’s 1887 workers’ institute with donated surplus from local developers and businesses, and with Sugarcrete, a low-carbon alternative to brick made from sugarcane. The model is designed to cover its own costs with minimal funding. For Gee, reuse reveals the value of what gets wasted, ‘not just financially but emotionally too’.
Marc Buchner
Director at The Big Fridge
Marc Buchner is one of the forces behind the Big Fridge, the Royal Docks community hub that hosts everything from citizen-design forums to local family celebrations at our OAA Day venue Compressor House. As a founder and CEO of Envercapital, a global private investment firm backing high-growth, sustainable businesses in emerging markets he has started and run four impact-driven businesses across five continents. Marc also chairs the Board of GovRisk and led the technical side of the £0.5 billion Girls’ Education Challenge Fund.
Jonny Gordon-Farleigh
CEO of Stir to Action & 21st Century Social Clubs
Social clubs, says Jonny, are 'decades-old community businesses'. As programme director of 21st Century Social Clubs, backed by £2.7 million from the National Lottery Community Fund, he is helping revive them in coastal towns, rural areas and former coalfields. It is one strand of his work as co-founder and Managing Director of Stir to Action, where he designs national programmes and partners with local government to close the 'ownership gap'.