About

Guy Briggs is a consultant architect and urban planner based in Cape Town. He combines teaching (as a part time 3rd year design tutor at the University of Cape Town Architecture School) with architecture and urban design practice.

Before returning to South Africa in September 2010, he spent the previous 12 years in London, where he specialized in urban regeneration, development strategy, and master planning. He was the urban design director at international consultancy EDAW, and co-Chair of the Bristol Urban Design Forum (leading design review and its Strategic Urban Design Advisory Group). Other previous roles include chairing the Board of Trustees of Motiroti (an independent arts company), providing design review advice as a panel member of the London Borough of Hackney Design Review Panel, and acting as guest critic at Bartlett School of Architecture (for MA Urban Design) and LSE Cities Programme (Design Studio).

Guy is currently a member of the Urban Design Institute of South Africa, an academician of the Academy of Urbanism (UK), and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (UK).

Guy’s focus is on cities and sustainability. He has a keen interest in the role of tall buildings in promoting sustainable urbanism: whether through densification and effective use of scarce infrastructure and resources; provision of sufficient accommodation in areas of high demand; signposting regeneration and renewal initiatives; or creating urban landmarks. He is also keenly aware of the significant impacts tall buildings may have on the urban environment, and the need to avoid or mitigate these. He has written tall building policies for London and Derby in the UK, and has published several articles and papers on issues of tall buildings, regeneration, urbanism and sustainability. Guy has lectured in the UK, USA and South Africa.

Current projects include an Urban Design Framework for The Fringe - Cape Town’s emerging creative and design quarter, and a revitalization strategy for the iconic Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton, Johannesburg. He is also currently advising the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, and is a member of the Waterfront Design Review Committee. Previous projects include the master plan for the 2012 Olympic Games in London and associated regeneration strategy for the Lower Lea Valley; master plan for the development of Saadiyat Island – Abu Dhabi’s emerging cultural tourism and creative/design industry district; and preparation of the strategic policy framework for managing development of tall buildings in London. Guy's work is driven by a strong belief in the need for a socially responsive approach to urbanism and development, in which places are shaped and created by and for the people that will use and inhabit them. Guy is currently working with Oxford Brookes and Warwick Universities in the UK, and a number of universities in Southern Africa, to establish a research network focused on urbanization and sustainability in sub-Saharan Africa. The research network, entitled City-form Africa, builds on the existing City-form and City-form India networks.

Guy Briggs is a consultant architect and urban planner based in Cape Town. He combines teaching (as a part time 3rd year design tutor at the University of Cape Town Architecture School) with architecture and urban design practice.

Before returning to South Africa in September 2010, he spent the previous 12 years in London, where he specialized in urban regeneration, development strategy, and master planning. He was the urban design director at international consultancy EDAW, and co-Chair of the Bristol Urban Design Forum (leading design review and its Strategic Urban Design Advisory Group). Other previous roles include chairing the Board of Trustees of Motiroti (an independent arts company), providing design review advice as a panel member of the London Borough of Hackney Design Review Panel, and acting as guest critic at Bartlett School of Architecture (for MA Urban Design) and LSE Cities…

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