InfraVision Think Tank For Sustainable Infrastructure

So pleased to share that our Doire Masterplan has been awarded 2nd place at the InfraVision Student Competition! It was an honour to attend the event in Paris earlier this week. Inspired by ‘Doire’ the Irish for “oak grove” the proposal uses the oak ecosystem as a model for regeneration. Growing up in Northern Ireland, this project was especially meaningful. It is a reminder that design can bridge divides and imagine a more connected, sustainable future for our communities. A huge thank-you to the InfraVision Think Tank For Sustainable Infrastructure and our tutors at the University of Bath for their support. We’ve left Paris inspired to keep driving positive change for our future cities 💫 A heartfelt thank you to my team: Amy Thompson, Caitlin Boeshart-Thomas, Alice Kimpton, Sophie Davies Read about our project here - https://lnkd.in/ggDbYtuT

I am excited to share that our team, Doire, won 2nd place in the InfraVision Think Tank For Sustainable Infrastructure 2025 inaugural competition! Part of Paris Infraweek, this year’s theme “Cities of Tomorrow: Reimagining Urban Infrastructure” invited students worldwide to explore new ways to create connected, sustainable and resilient cities. 🏙️ Our project reimagines Derry / Londonderry as an urban ecosystem inspired by its name, Doire, the Irish word for ‘oak grove’. Inspired conceptually by the grove, our masterplan links green corridors and civic nodes with transport, energy and water systems, catalysing both ecological, economical and social resilience. Attending the awards in Paris just last week and seeing so many inspiring projects and meeting professionals across several industries was an incredible experience. It has been a privilege to work with Caitlin Boeshart-Thomas, Amy Thompson, Caitlin Meier and Alice Kimpton and I am grateful to InfraVision Think Tank For Sustainable Infrastructure and the University of Bath for their support. Congratulations to all participating teams, it was inspiring to see all the innovative ideas from across the globe! 🌍 #InfraVision #UrbanDesign #Sustainability #FutureOfCities #ParisInfraweek #UniversityOfBath

Last week, alongside my team from the University of Bath, I was privileged to attend the annual Paris #Infraweek, Europe’s leading infrastructure event held at The Ministry of Finance, Paris. It was incredibly exciting to contribute to the InfraVision Think Tank For Sustainable Infrastructure conference - Cities of Tomorrow: Reimagining Urban Infrastructure, through our role as a finalist in the international competition - ‘The City as a Network'. Perhaps even more exciting is the fact that our team won the competition! Many thanks to Gwen Colin, the teams at Vauban Infrastructure Partners and Altermind for their facilitation, as well as Professor Sadie Morgan OBE and the judging panel for their incredible feedback. You can see our winning project: Mohalla Van, which looks to celebrate innovative, challenging and community-centric regenerative design, here: https://lnkd.in/e6SrkKyA It was also great to exchange ideas about the future of our urbanities with a host of interesting figures - Ladeja Godina Košir, Paulo Moura, Reuven Carlyle and Thomas Jolly to name just a few. I found it enlightening to engage with the macroeconomic factors that currently influence infrastructure finance and I have gained far greater understanding of their intersection with academia, policy and delivery. There were some fantastic panels and keynotes discussing risk, resilience, sobriety, interconnectivity and diversification, as well as the role of transition brokers and the sharing economy; I am looking forward to bringing these thoughts back into our Placemaking team as part of my renewed role at Arup Bristol! #Infraweek #urbandesign #universityofbath #regenerativedesign #infrastructure 

What a whirlwind of a week, whisked to Paris by Vauban Infrastructure Partners to present my team’s proposal for Infravision’s international infrastructure design competition, themed ‘The city as a network’, at the #ParisInfraweek. This is one of Europe’s major flagship infrastructure events, providing the opportunity to discuss our work with a host of influential change makers. And a wonderful surprise to be presented as the winning group (alongside University of Bath teammates Jamie Ferguson, Marco Lin, Joel Boyd, Siena C. and Benjamin Hanger) by the fantastic Professor Sadie Morgan OBE, on stage as part of InfraVision Think Tank For Sustainable Infrastructure’s conference proceedings! Our project looked to celebrate community-led regenerative interventions embedded within an innovative theory of change. You can read more at this link (https://lnkd.in/edrwWaBn) and also as a feature in Vauban’s annual research report (our image also featuring on the cover). The experience has certainly reaffirmed for me the value and skills that architects can bring to these discussions, but also the need for us to be proactive and positive in the way we engage. Thank you Ladeja Godina Košir for igniting this in our conversation, and introducing the future role of ‘transition brokers’ in facilitating systemic change. Many thanks to the jury - Sadie Morgan, Paulo Moura, Dominique Alba, Fanny Bourdais de Charbonnière, Dario Nardella. I am also hugely grateful to Vauban, Altermind and Infravision - in particular, Gwen Colin, Maxence de La Rochère, Thomas Bourleaud, Niccolò Bonacina - for organising and supporting the competition, and enabling us to actively participate in the conversations. It is rare for a competition to facilitate such meaningful interactions and recognise student work for its legitimacy beyond the academic ‘fortress’. 

It was an honor and pleasure to speak at Vauban Infrastructure Partners's event at Paris Europlace #infraweek2025. Hosted by CEO & founding partner Gwenola Chambon, we embraced fabulous learning about market & policy alignment for sustainability action worldwide. Quality global infrastructure unleashes quality of life, climate resiliency, affordability, innovation and economic growth. And we connected students worldwide. Gwen Colin InfraVision Think Tank For Sustainable Infrastructure Earth Finance