About this event

Nature based solutions, science, technology, community or strategy – how do we make the best impactful adaptations to increase resilience? Challenge the status quo and business as usual?

We have a great line up of speakers who are listed further down this page. You can read their bios to find out more about them!

There will also be expert guided visits to Union Gardens, Greyhope Bay Project, as well as Krystina Johnson Award for Sustainable Architecture Student Project! This will be presented and judged at the conference on the Saturday.

The SEDA Conference 2024 will take place at Aberdeen Town House from Friday 27th September to Saturday 28th September 2024. Once again it will be a weekend full of thoughtful and insightful discussions!

This page will be regularly updated in lead up to the event, so check back over the coming weeks to see a detailed event programme and speaker biographies.

Event details

Venue: Aberdeen Town House, Broad St, Aberdeen, AB10 1AQ.

Date: Friday 27th September – Saturday 28th September

Times: Each Day from 10am to 6pm

Ticket details

In Person Event Ticket Price

Full Conference In Person (Non-members) - £130

Full Conference In Person (SEDA members) - £100

Full Conference In Person (Student / Unwaged) - £50

1 Day in Person (Non-member) - £75

1 Day In Person (SEDA member) - £60

1 Day In person (Student / Unwaged) - £30

Online Event Ticket Price

Full Conference Online (Non-members) - £90

Full Conference Online (SEDA members) - £60

1 Day Online (Non-members) - £55

1 Day online (SEDA members) - £40

1 Day online (Students / Unwaged) - £8

2 Days online (Students / Unwaged) - £10

Early Bird Ticket Price

The Early Bird Ticket Prices will be 10% off the main price!

May East

Keynote Speaker Day 1: Friday

May East is an international urbanist specialised in nature-positive and gender-sensitive cities. A UNITAR Fellow, her current work involves the use of regenerative design approaches for shaping 20-minutes neighbourhoods, mining cities and informal settlements. She holds a Master of Science in Spatial Planning with specialization in the rehabilitation of abandoned villages and a PhD in Architecture and Urban Planning on the topic What if Women Designed the City?Currently, she serves as the UN House Scotland Director of Cities programme. May was awarded Women of the Decade in Sustainability and Leadership by Women Economic Forum in 2019.

She has also been Internationally recognised in the Top 100 Global Sustainability Leader three years in a row and was awarded Women of the Decade in Sustainability, 2019.

To find out more about her, go to her website: www.mayeast.co.uk

Dr. Susan Krumdieck

Keynote Speaker Day 2: Saturday

Professor Krumdieck is Chair in Energy Transition Engineering at Heriot-Watt University in Scotland where she is offering a range of education and international online training, and leads the Transition Engineering Labs Research of the Islands Centre for Net Zero. The ICNZ was announced in 2021 with £33M in core and matching funding to realise transition to climate-safe energy in the Scottish Islands by 2030. Before taking the position in Scotland, Susan made major contributions in energy transition engineering research and was active in support of industry, local and central government, and communities through her Advanced Energy and Material Systems Lab research group.

Susan is the co-founder and a Trustee of the Global Association for Transition Engineering (GATE). Transition Engineering is an emerging transdiscipline that, like Safety Engineering, has straight-forward methods and tools for duty of care in meeting sustainability objectives and dealing positively with wicked problems in all sectors. Susan has more than 160 peer reviewed publications, and her book Transition Engineering, Building a Sustainable Future (CRC Press, 2020) has received great reviews and sold more than 40,000 copies. 

Transition Engineering is growing rapidly with more than 20 PhDs, 500+ engineers completing the training courses, thousands of people from all backgrounds completing on-line microcredentials at University of Canterbury in New Zealand, and a new Masters and research centre at Heriot-Watt University in Scotland. Susan’s pioneering research over 25 years has provided insight, fundamentals of engineering whole systems transitions, and innovations in data observatories and engineering tools for transition of personal and freight transport and energy. She is probably most well-known for providing frank and politically agnostic information about technology or energy problems and options.

PhD  Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder

MS Mechanical Engineering and Energy Systems, Arizona State University

BSE Mechanical Engineering, Arizona State University

New Zealand Order of Merit Queens New Years Honours 2020

Martin Brown, FRSA 

Keynote Speaker Day 1: Friday

Meet Martin Brown, FRSA, Regenerative Provocateur based in the Forest of Bowland in Lancashire, UK, and as VP of Living Future Europe based in South Tyrol, Italy. 

Martin, recognised as an ILFI Living Futures Hero is a pioneer in the built environment  regenerative movement advocating for regenerative and salutogenic principles as an  advisor, educator, commentator, speaker, and author. Publications include his Regen/Notes Newsletter, The Regenerative Playbook, RESTORD2030, Sustainability - Restorative to  Regenerative, FutuREstorative and the From Surviving to Thriving Regenerative Social Housing report.  

Through a life of outdoor exploration, Martin feels a strong kinship with and deep  appreciation of place and the natural world and seeks to invoke that feeling in others. 

He blends this passion for the outdoors, his career in the built environment, and his  dedication to a regenerative future to support, counsel, nurture, and provoke many  organisations on their regenerative journeys and discoveries. As the Founder and host of  Zoom Regenerative, an online conversation series, Martin provides the time and space for  regenerative voices globally to share insights and experiences. 

Martin’s life-long career in the built environment has been diverse, spanning construction  and FM project management, business improvement and sustainability consulting in the UK  and overseas. He is an active Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts that furthers his  regenerative and social reach across sectors. A founder of Regen/, ConstructCO2 and  Be2Camp, a Founding Fellow of The Benchmarking Institute, Past Vice Chair of the EU  RESTORE Cost Action, Past Chair of Lancashire Constructing Excellence and currently Co Chair of Longridge Environment Group. In 2023 he was nominated as a top 50 Global Sustainability Expert with Thinkers 360. 

Martin Brown is an inspirational and leading voice in the (built environment) regenerative  movement, driving change and shaping a better future for all. 

Martin Brown. FRSA 

Regenerative Provocateur, Fairsnape  

Vice President: Living Future Europe 

Co-Chair Longridge Environment Group 

Prof Sue Roaf

Keynote Speaker Day 2: Saturday

Sue Roaf B.A. Hons, A.A. Dipl., PhD, FRIAS is Emeritus Professor of Architectural Engineering at Heriot Watt University. An award winning author, architect, teacher and solar energy pioneer. She spent ten years in Iran and Iraq, on archaeological excavations, nomadic migrations, and researching desert technologies. Her 22 books include those on The Ice-houses of Britain, Ecohouse design, energy efficient buildings, adapting buildings and cities for climate change, sustainability indicators, adaptive and resilient thermal comfort, natural energy buildings and transforming markets in the built environment. An ex-Oxford City Councillor, she is a Director of AES Solar Energy Ltd. and Ecohouse Initiative Ltd. and an advisor to the Resilient Design institute in New York (https://www.resilientdesign.org). She has chaired many conferences including www.plea2017.net, www.comfortattheextremes.com and www.icarb.org/2023-conference/. She led Scottish Government programme on Adaptation in the Built Environment from 2010 to 2016, and is currently working in Antarctica and arid regions in Western Australia on extreme design. 

Prof Gokay Deveci 

Prof Gokay Deveci is a chartered architect and holds a professorial chair at the School of Architecture & Built Environment, RGU.

His areas of interest are affordable and innovative low-energy housing design, environmental monitoring and Post Occupancy Evaluation. For the last 25 years, his practice-based research outputs have contributed significantly at the national and international level to the advancement of knowledge in Innovative, low-energy housing which can be evidenced through his design outputs. His research-based practice has designed a number of innovative low-energy housing projects since 1990, including the first ever social housing project in Britain that has met the 'Passivhaus' energy standards in 2010. His projects have been groundbreaking and have won a series of prestigious international and national design awards from the RIBA, RIAS, and the Saltire Society.

He has been working on multidisciplinary research project looking at Co-Housing typologies for senior occupants including active ageing, social isolation, health & well-being, and business models for rural and remote communities. Prof Deveci is the Architect for the Greyhope Bay Centre in Torry Battery Aberdeen, and currently co-creating with all stakeholders towards the Phase 2 development.

His recent work Boxwood was nominated for the Scottish Design Awards 2024.

Catherine Payne​​​​  

Senior Climate Resilience  Manager, SNIFFER

Cat is an unabashed climate science anorak and a committed science communicator. She has spent 23 years working in the private, public and third sector translating climate science into meaningful messages to inspire local action to adapt to the impacts of climate change. She is passionate about challenging the status quo, transformational adaptation and showcasing the multiple co-benefits that climate resilience can bring if it is designed collaboratively and considered holistically. At Sniffer, Cat is currently leading the Climate Ready South East Scotland project – the first climate risk and opportunity assessment for the region which aims to identify how climate change could impact the region and where collaborative, regional solutions are needed to adapt so that we can minimise risks and realise any opportunities. She also works on the Adaptation Scotland programme, and on coastal change issues. She was a co-author of last year’s Adaptation Scotland report ‘Land Use and Climate Change Adaptation in Scotland’ which illustrated how Scotland’s resilience to climate change impacts is inherently interwoven with how land is used and owned.

Dr. Arno Verhoeven

Dr. Arno Verhoeven (Sr. Lecturer) is Director of Edinburgh’s Conscious Energy Research Team (E-CERT), co-founder of the Fife NanoGrid, an energy initiative partnership in the Forth Green Freeport and is a part of SEDA Solar. He is co-convenor of the Critical Change Research Group, part of Design for Change [MA] in the School of Design/ECA at the University of Edinburgh. His PhD thesis with the Design Group at the Open University (UK) examined design thinking across multi-stakeholder environments seeking shared understanding, through prototype development and narrative knowing, highlighting ways in which designers negotiate difference within and across various contexts and worlds. He has over 20 years practical design experience in industry, worldwide.

His research critiques methods of design knowledge production, adopting a critical perspective of design practice as story-telling and narrative construction, adopting inclusive, participatory, speculative and performative practices, drawn from anthropology, sociology, critical making and speculative design. Application of the research involves interdisciplinary working, notably in health/well-being, cultural heritage, and energy sectors. Current projects include leading a Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Citizens’ Advice Scotland, co-designing continuous service improvement frameworks using No-Code practices (UKRI) and the OffGrid Studio Initiative/Solar Imaginaries partnership with University of Toronto, Concordia University (Montreal), Cornell and Stellenbosch University (SSHRC/AHRC/ESRC).

Past projects include “Energy and Forced Displacement” in partnership with Moving Energy Initiative and Practical Action (ESRC); “Wheels of Change”, in partnership with Whizz-Kids, DuchenneUK and Fraser-Nash (People’s Postcode Lottery) and “Shifting the Narrative” in partnership with Scottish Communities Climate Action Network (SSCAN) and the Scottish Storytelling Centre (British Academy). He has published extensively through Routledge, Berghahn, and Palgrave, as well as through associated academic journals and conferences.

Maeve Sherry

Maeve is a risk professional and former Chief Risk Officer with extensive international experience within the insurance industry, including with one of the UK’s leading insurance companies.

 A strong advocate for the mainstreaming of climate and sustainability-related risks into risk management and strategic decision-making in the financial services sector, in her current capacity as Research Fellow with the London School of Economics and Political Science, Maeve is supporting the EU Horizon Europe NATURANCE project, which is examining the technical, financial and operational feasibility and performance of nature-based solutions from an insurance and investment perspective.

Rachel Sayers

Rachel has 25 years experience in practice with a long standing interested in projects for communities which have a social, sustainable and educational agendas.

Over the past few years she has embraced getting to know Dundee and the surrounding landscape and has enjoyed being back in Scotland, having trained at the Mackintosh school of Architecture, Glasgow School of Art.

These communities range from rural neighbourhoods in the rapidly urbanising Global South, mixed use schemes for Peabody Trust, homes for an ageing demographic where everyday connections to a landscape environment has proved central to well being.  Educational communities at Oundle where close connections between wider landscape brought relevance to the science teaching, higher educational communities such University of Sussex where the scales of student mature landscape valley as the University of Southampton spaces for teaching and learning encourage serendipitous connections.

A number of other projects have explored ways of making places which directly reconnect people with the natural world, Eden Project Portland, the Journey, the new home for Bristol Zoological Society for their conservation work and outreach in the landscape, feasibility design for Eden Project Dundee.

She has had a lead role in a number of projects bringing sustainable principles to designing across cultures and climates including the Aga Khan Academy in Dhaka Bangladesh and masterplan and for the Royal Scientific Society and RSS campus in Jordan. These projects have involved close collaborations with partner architects.

Rachel co-leads our activities to promote equity and diversity in our practice, our profession and architectural education, supporting our commitment to the diverse communities we live in and design for.

Rachel is a trustee of the Feilden Foundation which seeks to use it’s resource to empower communities through the design of places for teaching and learning, and programmes which support educational infrastructure.  The charity is also engaged in live building projects in Rwanda and Madagascar and exchange programme for good practice within schools in Uganda.

Gail Halvorsen

Halvorsen Architects & chair SEDA Land

After qualifying from the Architectural Association School of Architecture, Gail worked for Michael Hopkins and Partners in London. She established Halvorsen Architects in 1994, moving to Edinburgh in 1999, where she specialises in ecological design for residential and nursery school buildings, and retrofitting agricultural buildings. Gail was chair of ECAN (Edinburgh Chartered Architects Network) from 2001-2 and on the board of Gorebridge Community Development Trust for 10 years, being chair from 2014-16, where she project managed the £2.5m community centre, Gorebridge Beacon. She was a Civic Trust Award assessor 1997–2011 and has run environmental projects with primary schools. Gail is a director of the Scottish Ecological Design Association and founded and chairs SEDA Land to help affect social and environmental change in rural Scotland.

David Hunter

David has been involved in conservation and land management for the last ten years, having worked for the RSPB, BTO and a number of ecological consultancies. He has a broad bank of knowledge and experience in improving and managing biodiversity in many scenarios. He founded his own business in 2021, and now manages a range of sites for conservation around Northeast Scotland, as well as Scotland's largest wildflower nursery.

Geoff Squire

Honorary scientist, James Hutton Institute

Geoff is a biologist specialising in sustainable systems, global energy-matter cycles and biodiversity. He spent formative years in the Microclimatology in Tropical Agriculture group at Nottingham University before working on land use and sustainability in several countries of Africa and south-east Asia.  He joined the forerunner of the James Hutton Institute over 25 years ago, since then leading multi-partner research programmes (UK and EU) and research departments in topics including vegetation systems, landscape-scale geneflow,  and environmental risk assessment. More recently, he was the first head of the Institute’s Agroecology group. Now retired, he continues an interest in the biology of land use, both in a personal capacity and supporting ex-colleagues and students. 

Caitlyn Johnstone

Caitlyn is an ecologist with a fascination for investigating the connections in nature and applying the lessons from them for the betterment of both people and the environment. As a nature-based solutions scientist and lichenologist with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, she works to bring those connections to the fore in ways that solve the negative impacts of climate change, improve biodiversity, and deepen our scientific understanding.

Caitlyn’s career takes her to the field, the lab, the lecture hall, and ecosystems in multiple countries, always working at the intersection of scientific understanding and human action.

Andrew Macqueen

Andrew is an independent forester based in South Scotland, involved in various aspects of forestry but specialising in site recognition and species selection (Silviculture).

He is passionate about increasing diversity of both species and silvicultural systems in our forests and keen to reduce the polarisation between 'productive' and 'native' forestry. As Tilhill Forest Manager, Andrew won the Cofor Future Forestry Leader Award 2020. Andrew currently manages Crofthead forest, Moffat.

Fiona Macintyre

Fiona founded Greyhope Bay in late 2015 with the ambition to connect and engage communities with the marine wildlife, environment and heritage on Aberdeen’s doorstep. She is purpose driven and leads Greyhope Bay as Chief Executive by rooting the project in its core values of community empowerment, co-creation and authentic placemaking. 

Fiona has successfully built a team around her and mobilised a community behind Greyhope Bay which led to the successful opening of the Greyhope Bay Centre in April 2022. The centre and cafe is off-grid and runs of innovative green technology including solar and battery energy and rainwater harvesting and treatment. From this spectacular location the charity run a diverse programme of creative community, educational and public events.  

Her and her team continue to identify opportunities and needs of the community and the historic monument within which the project resides. After 8 months of community workshops the team have co-designed an expansion that serves the growing demand and honours the historic site.

Janice Foster

Janice Foster, a chartered building services engineer, has been a building performance researcher with the Mackintosh Environmental Architecture Research Unit (MEARU) at the Glasgow School of Art for the past 11 years. Her research focuses on building performance evaluation, particularly in housing projects, and includes energy efficiency, indoor environmental conditions and occupiers' experiences of their home environment.

Insights from this work help to guide design approaches and establish benchmarks for new and retrofitted buildings. Janice is a member of SEDA’s Health and Wellbeing group. 

2024 Shortlisted Students Biographies

Daisy Bond: The Street Garden Apartment
I am currently studying Architecture at Edinburgh University. My interests lie within sustainable and alternative building approaches, working with existing buildings and incorporating the wider context into my designs. I appreciate the connected importance between interiors, exteriors and landscapes and would love to work on holistic projects within this realm. I have a passion for model making and enjoy the creative process this brings.

Eliza Holmes: artists’ community hub, Forres
I am passionate about sustainable design and focusing on eco-friendly solutions has led me to complete several projects exploring green architecture. I’m also particularly interested in creating spaces that foster community and promote convivial living as I believe architecture has the power to unite people. I am eager to continue exploring this idea in my future work.

Lilla Toth: Social Housing in Torry, Aberdeen
I am a passionate third-year architecture student at Robert Gordon University, focusing on exploring the meaning of sustainable design and innovative spaces. With a growing skillset in 3D modeling, drafting, and showcasing well-rounded ecology, I aim to create functional and culturally representative structures.

Rosie Hall: carpentry school, Dalkeith country park
My name is Rosie and I am going into my third year of architecture at Dundee University. I grew up in Edinburgh and developed an interest in physics and illustration at school. Outside of my studies, I am part of a football team and work at a pottery workshop. I am grateful for the opportunity to research sustainable design in more depth and am excited to apply this to future projects.

Flora Quinnell:  The Milky Way 
Flora Quinnell, an architectural student from the Shetland Islands. I enjoy exploring radical creativity throughout university projects and have a heart on how to engage communities and give back to people throughout my designs. I have a passion for travel, the natural world and exploring the outdoors. When I‘m not studying I’m chasing sunsets and surfing the seas!