Date: 19 March 2012

Chair: Will Hunter, Deputy Editor of The Architectural Review.

Peter Buchanan studied architecture at the University of Cape Town, graduating in 1968. He has worked as an architect, urban designer and planner in various parts of Africa, Europe and the Middle East. He is also a writer and critic, curator and consultant. Through the 1980s he was Deputy Editor of The Architectural Review, publishing prolifically in that journal and others. Since 1992 he has curated exhibitions, written the four volumes of Renzo Piano Building Workshop: Complete Works and Ten Shades of Green, and consulted on urban design and green issues.

Michael Sorkin is director of Sorkin Studio. He is Distinguished Professor of Architecture and Director of the Graduate Program in Urban Design at the City College of New York. From 1993 to 2000 he was Professor and Director of the Institute for Urbanism at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. His books include Variations on a Theme Park, Exquisite Corpse, Starting from Zero and Indefensible Space. Forthcoming are Twenty Minutes in Manhattan, Eutopia, All Over the Map and Project New Orleans. Sorkin is also President of Terreform, a non-profit organisation engaged in urban research and advocacy.