Young Urbanists: Build Your Career in the Built Environment

Concha Aranda Iglesias

Concha is an Associate Partner at Foster + Partners in London. She has contributed to major regeneration and city‑shaping initiatives. With over eight years of international experience shaping masterplans and strategic placemaking projects across the UK, the Netherlands, and Spain. 

Having lived and worked in London, Rotterdam, and Madrid, she is skilled at adapting design thinking to diverse cultural and urban contexts. She brings a blend of creative design and technical expertise with a people‑focused approach to teamwork, communication and project leadership, working closely with clients, city authorities and communities to shape resilient and inclusive urban environments.

Concha holds an MSc in Urbanism from TU Delft and a Bachelor of Architecture from the Technical University of Madrid.

Phillip Elgarf-Weir

Phillip is a Lead Designer at Kier, responsible for leading the design delivery of construction and regeneration projects at Kier Construction London. He provides strategic direction to multidisciplinary teams, ensuring that design solutions meet client aspirations while balancing programme, cost, compliance, sustainability, and operational requirements.

Drawing on extensive experience across major capital projects and as an architect, Phillip specialises in creating clarity within complex project environments, bringing together clients, consultants, specialist subcontractors, and project delivery teams to achieve aligned and coordinated outcomes. He champions a proactive approach to design assurance, risk management and stakeholder engagement, ensuring projects are delivered safely, efficiently and to the highest standards of quality.

His expertise spans design governance, technical coordination, statutory compliance, procurement support and construction-stage design management, with a particular focus on delivering certainty, managing risk and enabling successful project delivery within challenging operational and regulatory environments.

Siddiqa Islam

Siddiqa is a director of major built environment projects and is dedicated in delivering homes, infrastructure, public realm and managing corporate assets that serve local communities. She has a background in local authority government and is passionate about working with residents and stakeholders to help improve the built capital around inner city urban areas that also deliver better social and health outcomes for communities.

Siddiqa has extensive experience of managing complex multi-million pound regeneration projects and area wide master plans across London. As well as experience in rolling out development projects internationally, co-ordinating large multidisciplinary teams across continents.

Laurance Townsend 

Laurance is a Project Director specialising in the delivery of complex construction, infrastructure, and estate transformation projects. He has great experience leading multidisciplinary teams across higher education, infrastructure, commercial and science environments, with a particular focus on live operational facilities. He is passionate about helping clients simplify the complex technical, stakeholder, and programme challenges to deliver successful outcomes.

Laurance has extensive experience managing major capital programmes and technically complex projects from inception through to completion. He has led projects across the UK for leading universities and private sector organisations, coordinating diverse stakeholder groups and project teams to deliver projects safely, efficiently and with minimal disruption to ongoing operations.