Julia Barfield will share insights and experience from a career spent designing, delivering – and helping to secure funding for – pioneering projects for ambitious clients at a free-to-attend seminar on the morning of Tuesday 27th October at the Building Centre in central London as part of RD26.

Julia Barfield will share Marks Barfield’s experience of working with ambitious clients who require funding, and explain how the practice helped to get the project off the ground.

Starting with the London Eye – where the practice acted as both architects and client  – Barfield will draw on 11 projects including high-profile projects such as Cambridge Central Mosque, and future projects such as the West Somerset Lagoon, to explain how architects can:

• Unlock projects – Using architectural expertise, creativity and networks to bring ambitious projects to life.
• Build relationships – Developing long relationships and trust with clients and communities, connecting people and resources to maximise value.
• Work within funding constraints – Phasing projects sensibly with achievable outcomes, tailor deliverables and structure fees around available funding.
• Protect professional value – Establishing clear appointments, responsibilities, fees and insurance from the outset.
• Deliver wider benefits – embedding social value, community engagement, accessibility and regenerative design into project decisions.
• Challenge business as usual – collaborating across disciplines to find innovative ways to reduce costs, carbon and resource use.
• Invest in innovation – using research and development to test new approaches, develop practical tools and share knowledge (and cover some costs)
• Champion quality and long-term impact – demonstrating that financial constraints need not compromise architectural ambition or lasting value.

Barfield will be joined by:

• Roger Madelin of British Land talking about what architect/client collaboration
• Daniel Bianchi from Cullinan Studio who will share the practice’s experience of using Integrated Project Insurance (IPI), a form of contract in which all the key parties involved in a building project (client, architect, engineers, contractors and consultants) sign up to a single alliance contract, with conditions that incentivise shared responsibility, eliminating conflicting insurance concerns and leading to better collaboration between all parties.
• Neuroscientist Beau Lotto of the Hummingbird Learning Lab, who will talk about the factors that hinder or facilitate successful collaboration
• Colin Rohlfing of global architecture practice HDR who will share the practice’s experience of helping clients to deliver regenerative outcomes on large commercial projects.
• Hayley Chivers from Plan A who will talk about the challenges of working on high-profile projects such as The British Museum, The British Library and the Bank of England to deliver regenerative outcomes on budget and on time

Book your place

An icon of the capital, the London Eye by Marks Barfield Architects.

Launched by Architecture Today, Regenerative Design 2026 is a month-long programme of exhibitions and events that takes place at the Building Centre throughout October 2026.

The ambitious client: beyond business as usual will be delivered in partnership with HDR.