Architects Declare appoints two Student Ambassadors

UK Architects Declare is delighted to welcome two brilliant Student Ambassadors - Amy Thompson and Anushka Gupta - to support our Steering Group. 

As we mark AD's first five years and plan for our next phase of work, we want to ensure our approach is informed by and remains relevant to a wide range of current and emerging thought on architecture’s place in tackling the planetary emergency. This new role builds on our existing Steering Group members' breadth and depth of experience by ensuring our discussions and plans benefit from the perspectives of students who can draw on their learning and knowledge of student networks to help shape our thinking, how we engage with different audiences and partners, what support we offer signatories, and where we can best intervene to change the systems that perpetuate a degenerative built environment to ones that promote regenerative policies and actions.

As we say in our accompanying LinkedIn post on this development - with links to Amy and Anushka's LinkedIn profiles - there is a lot to be done with regards to building climate literacy around regenerative practices into mainstream architectural education. There have already been some good initiatives, as highlighted in Hattie Hartman's recent Architects’ Journal article (Architectural education is changing. But is it changing fast enough?) but these need scaling up and fast. As Amy and Anushka say in our post: 

“Through our term we aim to lay the foundations towards this goal and establish connections that will allow the network to grow, including outcomes which:

• provide a fresh perspective on current climate mitigation solutions
• keep signatories and aspiring architects connected to new thinking
• give agency to the architects of the future as they move into practice; allowing them the skills to create the change that is needed.”
  

Anushka is a final year undergraduate architecture student at the University of Bath. She has completed internships at NLA and SEA LAB, and has organised large-scale events such as an inter-university student competition and the stuCAN festival as part of Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN).

Amy is currently studying towards her Part 2 qualification at the University of Bath and has a passion for Regenerative Design. She has worked at Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios on the regenerative Eden Dundee Project, and is currently conducting her final year research paper on the topic.

AD Steering Group member Zoe Watson says: “I think what excites me the most about this new role is the fresh perspective and energy Amy and Anushka will bring. As professionals it is easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day client pressures. However, as the climate crisis will affect future generations the most, it seems perhaps more obvious to younger generations that change is the only way forward.”

Amy and Anushka's term runs until June 2025, when we will start planning for next year's Student Ambassador(s) to build on their work with us. This new role is a special addition to support our Steering Group: its existing members work in a range of architectural practices and other built environment organisations around the UK and are also trustees of AD's registered Charitable Incorporated Organisation.