_Reflections on practice: Capturing innovation and creativity _

The 2007 Research Symposium takes its theme from Leon van Schaik’s recent book Mastering Architecture – Becoming a Creative Innovator in Practice. Launching the event, Professor van Schaik’s keynote presentation will describe his international reflective practice research programme. In the programme practitioners acknowledged as innovative examine, before critics and their peers, their own body of work and its impact – and reflect on their ways of working and future directions. For many practitioners, a design approach is implicit and intuitive. But through this programme of reflection and examination, processes become more visible and accessible, and a language emerges to capture them – to the benefit of critics, educators, and the practitioner community.

A range of established and up-and-coming UK practitioners will respond to the theme by presenting their own recent work to illustrate their design position and the routes they have taken in pursuing innovative practice. The symposium will also include examples of action research where designers engage directly with stakeholders to challenge perceptions and to devise creative new solutions in sectors as diverse as healthcare and disaster relief.

_Symposium convenor _
Katharine Heron, Head of Architecture, University of Westminster

_Chair _
Paul Finch OBE, Editor, Architectural Review

_Opening address _
Sunand Prasad, RIBA President elect

_Keynote speakers _
Leon van Schaik AO, Innovation Professor, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
Piers Gough CBE, CZWG Architects

_Speakers _
Declan O’Carroll, Arup Associates
Kathryn Findlay, Ushida Findlay Architects
Deborah Saunt, DSDHA
Richard Blythe, Terroir, and RMIT
Alex de Rijke, de Rijke Marsh Morgan
Peter Barber, Peter Barber Architects
Sean Griffith, FAT
Gillian Lambert, ‘voluntary D & B’
Fred Manson, Thomas Heatherwick Studio
Susan Francis, CABE
Tony Lloyd-Jones, University of Westminster
Susannah Hagan, UEL