‘The Deep Retrofit exhibition curated by Lucy Bullivant at the Building Centre, London, 2023, is an excellent response to a complex and evolving area of design and construction expertise. The approach taken combines clear engaging graphics, explanatory summary notes, all supported by a good range of case studies from around the UK.
This orchestrated information strikes a good balance between technical know-how, statistical data and points of interest. It is an area I have reasonable knowledge of as an architect and affordable housing practitioner, but I came away more informed and envisioned. Get along and see it while you can before 20 October 2023!’
David Clare, CEO, Habitat for Humanity GB Homes
‘After meeting Lucy at an NLA networking event, we clicked and conversations flowed. Lucy has extensive industry knowledge, insight and prowess. She is incredibly multifaceted, being consultant, author, expert advisor, curator and much more besides. I was immediately in awe and transfixed by her insights. I then enrolled on a women’s leadership course and was required to find a mentor. It took only a moment to think of Lucy. Having plucked up the courage to ask, Lucy accepted. We met regularly over a few months. Conversations were semi structured, with themes, agendas and exercises. Lucy was proactive in identifying material and content to discuss. I highly value the sessions which took place and they provided much food for thought, influenced future plans and the art of the possible. Lucy has an amazing art of conversation and I only hope to continue this as a friend. It has been a real privilege to have her as my mentor’.
Charlotte Glazier CMLI fCMgr, Programme Manager, Greening the Public Realm, Islington Council.‘Many thanks for your amazing creation of such a successful and relevant virtual presence’ – a regular monthly programme of curated talks online for Temple Bar Trust from July 2020 onwards, many of which Lucy has also chaired’.
Philip Cooper BArch RIBA FRSA, Master, The Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects.
‘I recently served as Dr Lucy Bullivant’s mentor for her PhD by Prior Output while I was PhD supervisor at the CASS, London Metropolitan University (2010-17). It was based on her award-winning book Masterplanning Futures, 2012, supplemented by essays and exhibitions. Lucy has a remarkably rich knowledge of a wide range of international contemporary cities, and her manner of continuing enquiry and generosity with her audiences ensures she captures imaginations and future collaborators.
We are indebted to her for our understanding of the shift in city-making from top-down design and systems to an engaged, bottom up orchestration of sustainable creative civic life, with communication and collaboration addressing a much wider constituency than the professional discourse among experts. She draws on architectural and urban history, planning, anthropology, politics, economics, ecology, sociology and contemporary design practice to fully exploit practices of publication, lectures, conferences and exhibitions.
Lucy’s consultancy activities ensure her thinking is always embedded within the possibilities and limitations of concrete conditions, and she has an unusually broad range of colleagues and collaborators, from politicians and business leaders through academics, architects and urbanists to ordinary citizens. The energy, commitment and sound judgement she brings to this enterprise means she occupies a quite singular position in a field of deep significance to the Anthropocene crisis. I have nothing but admiration for Lucy’s work and I recommend her in the very highest terms, without reservation’.
Peter Carl, Distinguished Professor, Chinese University of Hong Kong, formerly Visiting Professor, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, 2017-2019.
‘I handed the award to Lucy for her book Masterplanning Futures because, as unanimously agreed by the judges, it was the best researched, most interesting, and opinionated book we viewed. The panel described it as ‘forward looking, design focused and exploratory’ and lauded its celebration of ‘the struggle for innovative form’.
‘I handed the award to Lucy for her book Masterplanning Futures because, as unanimously agreed by the judges, it was the best researched, most interesting, and opinionated book we viewed. The panel described it as ‘forward looking, design focused and exploratory’ and lauded its celebration of ‘the struggle for innovative form’. Lucy’s book Masterplanning Futures (Routledge, 2012, was awarded Book of the Year at the Urban Design Group Awards (UK), February 2014.
Alastair Donald (British Council, Art, Architecture, Fashion), Chair of the judges, Urban Design Group Awards (UK), 2014.
‘Lucy Bullivant has worked as a London-based architecture curator, author, critic, guest lecturer and advisor on a full time independent consultancy basis since 1987. During this time she has forged global connections with leading museums, galleries, cultural institutions, publishers and corporate bodies, advancing projects which highlight the qualities and skills of UK architects. In all her projects, be they writing, facilitating, curating, advising, lecturing or architectural judging (for the AA, the RIBA and the Berlage Institute), she has consistently advocated higher design standards and experimental multidisciplinary strategies. Her work as a critic and author, as well as a regular chair of events and guest lecturer internationally, brings fresh research ideas to bear on every task, and means she is well suited to the role of advancing the public’s understanding of architecture’s role in society.
Her international exhibitions and conferences (as well as their related publications) have covered ground-breaking and yet popular projects – as evidenced by their attendances. They have featured leading and emerging international practitioners from a range of disciplines, and dealt with topical issues relating to architecture’s role as a social art, including its ‘new pragmatism’, its relationship with landscape architecture; alternative strategies in public housing design; the role of responsive environments; and the cultural history of children’s environments within and beyond the Western world. She has consistently strived to bring important topics and individuals to public attention, not relying on commissions, but also working speculatively on self-generated projects, often at her own risk – for instance her Masterplanning Futures, a book for Routledge (2012) was made possible by grants from CABE and other cultural bodies.
She is a widely respected for her work in building awareness of the cultural value of architecture and for her investigations into emergent modes of practice and their social effects. Her consistent publication in leading specialist magazines globally shows her commitment to communicating topical concepts, views and projects to an international audience. The RIBA is pleased to recognize her independent, yet deeply collaborative, cross-cultural international work.’
The above citation was made by the 2010 RIBA Honours Committee chaired by RIBA President, Ruth Reed with architects Edward Cullinan, Eva Jiricna and Chris Wilkinson, engineer Max Fordham and client Laura Lee. 12 new Honorary Fellowships of the RIBA were made to individuals from a wide range of backgrounds, including politics, journalism, landscape design and engineering. RIBA Honorary Fellowships reward the particular contributions people have made to architecture in its broadest sense: its promotion, administration and outreach; its role in building more sustainable communities; and its role in the education of future generations. The lifetime honour, conferred annually, allows recipients to use the initials Hon FRIBA after their name.
‘The presence of Lucy Bullivant caused a stir in the room. She is an author and advisor who researches processes of urban design and innovative synergies, known for her articles on architecture in The Guardian and publications including Masterplanning Futures…Bullivant defined and exemplified the new priorities of contemporary urban planning: the social equality of citizens, the diversification of land uses, the need to reinvent the infrastructure, and the achievement of ecologically advanced results’.
Lluis Comeron and Roger Subirà, Secretaria, Collegi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya (COAC), Barcelona, Spain, on the occasion of the Congrés d’Arquitectura, COAC, 2016.
‘Bullivant’s presentation was like a speed-mentoring session through her very thoughtful and detailed book, beginning with the over-arching premise that there has been a “necessary evolution” from 20th-century top-down master planning, which tended towards a “cut-and-paste urbanism,” to 21st-century bottom-up “adaptive” planning. The challenges facing cities and regions today, she said, require “a dynamic relationship and equilibrium” between those top-down aspirations of the past” and “bottom-up thinking” of today’.
Kirsten Richards, Editor, Oculus, AIA NYC chapter, launch event for Lucy’s book, Masterplanning Futures, AIA Center of Architecture, NYC, 2013.
‘I work with Lucy on the LEAF Architectural Awards. Her knowledge & her hard work as a judge as well as presenting the awards in 2011 was faultless. She is always happy to help and I am pleased that once again she is on the judging panel for the 2012 award show.’
Natasha Raynor, Global Digital Sales Manager, CNN International, London (presenter of the LEAF international architectural awards 2011, staged at the 5-star Landmark Hotel, Marylebone, London).
‘I invited Lucy to lecture to our Masters students at the Royal College of Art. She gave the most well prepared, fluent and cogent talk of the whole series, packed with research and thoughts, and brilliantly illustrated with a generous pack of slides’.
Alex Haw, Unit tutor, Architecture, Royal College of Art and founding director, Atmos (2012).
‘Space Invaders puts the spotlight on a younger generation of British architects to reveal new and sometimes unfamiliar directions in Britain’s architectural production. In an exploratory spirit of cross-fertilisation, Space Invaders launches in Lisbon as part of the Experimental design biennale, an international festival celebrating conceptually innovative approaches to design, now in its second year. We would like to thank our two curators, Lucy Bullivant and Pedro Gadanho, for their enthusiasm and tireless commitment to the project, and for providing their invaluable perspectives from outside and within Britain’.
Emily Campbell and Andrea Rose, Art, Architecture & Design, The British Council (2001)
‘Lucy Bullivant and Jutta Oldiges have been responsible for curating the exhibition, Kid size: the material world of childhood, and the catalogue, during a three year gestation, and have overcome many difficulties. I should like to thank them both wholeheartedly for their unconditional commitment and great stamina’.
Alexander von Vegesack, Director, Vitra Design Museum (1997)