I love airports. My passion for travel and interest in urban planning first came together through my TU Delft MSc Urbanism thesis on Airport Driven Urban Development in the context of the Amsterdam metropolitan area. Since then, I have gained 11 years of experience working in different countries across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia and continue to learn the complex processes through which socio-economic trends influence the ways we shape our cities.
Throughout my career, multi-disciplinary collaboration is a critical tool I have used to unlock value and distil complex information to key messages. Helping to foster working relationships between architects, economists, transport planners, engineers, and cost consultants in the process. Using this approach, I helped airport authorities define strategic long-term development plans, with careful thought to airport operations, airport area economic competitiveness, impacts on local communities, connectivity, and local and regional priorities. Working closely with airport area masterplanning teams, I ensured proposals included location-specific measures to mitigate impacts, promote benefits for local communities, and adhere to legal frameworks.
This complements my professional experience in developing regional spatial frameworks, city structure plans, railway area regeneration masterplans, and working on nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs). I have gained a detailed understanding of cities from the perspective of transport, health, and environment systems, succeeding in breaking siloed approaches on large scale projects. As I progress through my career, I want to continue my learning to better support efforts on carbon emission reduction and embedding circular economy strategies in the built environment.