Press Release: Open City appoints world-renowned engineer Albert Williamson-Taylor as president
Leading practitioners also join board of education and built heritage charity
Albert Williamson-Taylor, director and co-founder of international engineering firm AKT II will serve as education and built heritage charity’s first ever president.
Caro Communications founder Carolyn Larkin, Southbank Centre Head of Partnerships Edward Francis, long standing Open House Festival volunteer Peter Bury and Director of Masterplanning Selina Mason also appointed as trustees.
Open City, the 30-year-old educational charity best known for staging Open House Festivals in London and around the world, has appointed Albert, co-founder of international engineering firm AKT II, as its inaugural president.
Williamson-Taylor, who has been a trustee of Open City since March 2021, has been principal design director of AKT II for over 25 years and has worked on numerous high-profile projects across over 50 countries.
As president, Albert will support Open City’s work - leading critical debate about the future of the urban landscape, delivering life-changing outreach programmes supporting young people from under-represented communities, and celebrating the unique heritage of London and cities across the world. He will also support Open City in forging new partnerships with industry leaders in the built landscape.
Williamson-Taylor has been appointed alongside a number of new Open City board members including Carolyn Larkin, Edward Francis, Peter Bury and Selina Mason who will serve on Open City’ board of trustees overseeing the strategic direction of the charity.
Williamson-Taylor said:
“It’s a privilege to be made Open City’s inaugural president. From my perspective as an engineer, there couldn’t be a more important and relevant charitable initiative for our urban design industry; Open City is opening up the best of our cities’ structures, every year, so that the public can – rather than just viewing curated photographs and images – now experience and appreciate the incredible physicality and beauty of our urban fabric and infrastructure, for themselves. I admire Open City’s passion, and their stewardship of our forthcoming generation of designers and industry-makers. I look forward greatly to supporting Open City’s fantastic work.”
Phineas Harper, chief executive of Open City, said:
“Albert is one of the most accomplished and pioneering designers in the world. His engineering practice AKT II is renowned around the globe for their ingenuity and creativity. At Open City we believe in critically exploring all aspects of built heritage including the physical and social infrastructure on which cities thrive. I am thrilled that Albert is stepping up to president of our organisation and look forward to working with him to take the impact of our programmes to the next level.”
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Notes to editors
About Albert Williamson-Taylor
In addition to his professional practice, Albert has taught with London’s Architectural Association School of Architecture (the AA) since 2011; he leads the technical tutoring for the master-level architecture course within the institution’s avant-garde Design Research Laboratory (DRL) department. He has also served as a design-review panellist for the London Borough of Southwark and the London Borough of Newham. He is a fellow of the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) and an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
About Carolyn Larkin
For more than thirty years Carolyn Larkin has coordinated PR and communications internationally for major names in the design, architecture, property, and cultural sectors.
An industry matchmaker noted for her ability to bring people together, her passion lies in forging connections and communicating the value of good design to the wider public. Carolyn has represented a variety of national pavilions and cultural organisations at the Venice Biennale since 2004 , and been instrumental in establishing key awards, events, and forums. This includes the Sharjah Architecture Triennial, the AR emerging architecture awards, World Architecture Festival, the Davidson Prize, 100% Design, the Jane Drew Prize, Clerkenwell Design Week, Architecture Week (now the London Festival of Architecture) and New London Architecture.
Recognised as an industry authority, she was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the RIBA in 2023, sits on the external affairs committee at the Design Museum in London and is Chair of the Ambassadors at the London School of Architecture.
About Selina Mason
Selina is an Architect masterplanner focusing on urban regeneration masterplans. At present Selina leads master planning across Lendlease Europe’s urban regeneration portfolio; working with the project teams to ensure that our masterplans will deliver great places for the people who will live and work in and around them. She led the UCL East Olympicopolis masterplan at the QEOP and the design and delivery of London's post Games Transformation masterplan. Selina was Director of Design Review at CABE from 2005-2007, and she is currently Chair of Havering Design Review Panel.
About Peter Bury
Peter Bury is a long-standing supporter of Open City. He has been attending Open House events since 1997, volunteering as a building steward at the Open House festival since 2000, and working as an office volunteer since 2015.
Peter's career was in telecommunications and broadcasting, including responsibility for managing the radiocommunications of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012. After he retired he was able to indulge his passion for architecture and urban planning by volunteering at St Paul's Cathedral and at Open City.
Volunteers are fundamental to the success of Open City and Peter sees his Trustee role as a bridge between the charity and our volunteers. He aims to help the Board understand the views of the volunteer community and make the most of this immense resource.
About Ed Francis
Ed Francis is a business development and partnerships specialist with a decade's worth of experience working in the charitable, cultural and heritage sectors- most recently at the Southbank Centre, managing the organisation's key strategic relationships with global corporates, foundations, cultural institutes and government bodies.
About Open City
Founded in 1992, Open House Festival, Open City’s most well-known programme, has grown from featuring a handful of free building tours over a single weekend, to a giant city-wide celebration of architecture, communities and built heritage across all 33 London boroughs. Over its three-decade history, the Open House Festival has helped set up sister festivals across the world from New York City to Lagos. There are now nearly 60 Open House Festivals worldwide which together attract around 750,000 visitors a year.
About AKT II
AKT II is a design-led, interdisciplinary engineering practice. The company has been operating since 1996 (originally as Adams Kara Taylor), and today unites 300+ staff, with 50+ cultural backgrounds, who are together applying insight from the firm’s work throughout 50+ countries. The team’s service to both the art and science of design is so far recognised with 400+ design awards including four RIBA Stirling Prize wins, while the practice has been named the Building Awards 2019 ‘Engineering Consultant of the Year’ and the Architizer A+ Awards 2021 ‘Engineering Firm of the Year’.
For more information, or for press enquires please contact:
Open City
Phineas Harper
07703471733
AKT II
Caitlin Martin Hope Stanton
Digital Marketing Coordinator Communications Coordinator
caitlin.martin@akt-uk.com hope.stanton@akt-uk.com
+44 (0)20 7250 7773
Images
Imagery can be downloaded here.