Martin Knight, an associate at Bath-based landscape architects Grant Associates, has been appointed to the Design Council’s new network of built and natural environment experts.
The 400-plus individuals in the network are active leaders and change makers from a number of professions, backgrounds and regions who collectively embody the organisation’s commitment to make life better by design.
The network, which replaces the Design Council’s previous roster of built environment experts, will be key to the role it plays in delivering design advice and support services.
Chartered landscape architect Martin, pictured, joined Grant Associates in 2015. He has since worked on a diverse portfolio including higher education, residential, strategic small and large-scale mixed-use master planning projects, parks and public realm design.
His portfolio includes Mountbatten House, known as the Hanging Gardens of Basingstoke and cited as one of the 15 most important modern listed buildings in the UK, and the West Slope Residences project at the University of Sussex’s Falmer campus near Brighton.
A key current focus is Brabazon, YTL Developments’ transformation of the former Filton Airfield on the edge of Bristol into a new community and one of the largest brownfield redevelopments in the UK.
Martin has joined the new Design Council network as an expert associate. His role will involve strategic design support and design reviews, contributing to a community of practice that will develop, co-create and partner on new projects, programmes and opportunities with the Design Council, sharing knowledge and expertise with fellow experts and wider society.
He will also participate in thought workshops, roundtables, panel discussions and input into policy development.
Martin said: “I’m absolutely delighted, very proud and honoured to have been appointed to the role of Design Council expert associate.
“I believe design is at its best when it is collaborative in nature; involving the viewpoints and talents of designers, thinkers and communities within the Design Council’s new network is a chance to help facilitate and encourage this approach, throughout the world of design.
“As a landscape architect, I believe that fundamentally our role is to make the world a better place for people and nature. My involvement with the Design Council feels like a wonderful fit and I’m excited to share my passion, professional knowledge, experience and skills to help the Design Council make life better by design.”
Grant Associates has been involved in major eye-catching architectural schemes across the globe for 21 years. The firm, which also has an office in Singapore, has recently worked on the Friendship Park project in China’s innovative Tianjin Eco-City and a former industrial wasteland on Sydney’s waterfront.
Closer to home, it has also supported Bath’s Forest of Imagination community arts event, promoted the delicate ecology of Wessex Water’s operations centre on the city’s outskirts, and helped regenerate Bristol’s historic Harbourside as part of a £120m scheme for developer Crest Nicholson.
