Bath architectural firm Nash Partnership’s urban design director Amanda Taylor has been appointed to a national network of design experts.
Amanda is one of 150 professionals recruited recently as the first of 400 built environment experts (BEEs) by Design Council Cabe. She is one of just 22 to have been appointed in this round from the South West. 
In her role Amanda will work closely with Design Council Cabe to champion design in the built environment. Together with Design Council Cabe and fellow BEEs, she will provide independent, expert advice to promote and support well-designed buildings, spaces and places that improve everyone’s quality of life.
Design Council Cabe – the result of the 2011 merger between the Design Council and Cabe, the advisory body on design in the built environment – aims to inspire new design thinking, encourage local debate and inform Government policy by influencing and inspiring the people who make decisions.
It advises Government and provides support to local authorities, communities and the private sector to promote and deliver good design through a dedicated team of staff and expert and multi-disciplinary BEEs.
At Nash Partnership, Amanda leads a skilled urban design team of six who work alongside the practice’s architects, planners, regeneration experts, heritage specialists and geographers.
Amanda has worked on projects including the award-winning transformation of the previously run-down St Pauls area of Cheltenham.
Her research on how the design process for St Pauls contributed to the area’s regeneration was published in the Journal of Urban Regeneration and Renewal.
Her current projects include a masterplan for the former Ministry of Defence site in Bath, designed to create a new sustainable neighbourhood on the outskirts of the city.
Design Council Cabe director Clare Devine said: “We have been laying the foundations for our future, building on what we do best, refining and developing new services, expanding our skills set and building relationships to deliver our programmes. To support this, we have expanded our BEE network both in its geographical spread and range of disciplines and skills.”
Amanda added: “I am delighted to be joining this high-profile national network of experts who are all working together to improve people’s lives through design. An important part of the role is to provide inspiration, good practice and innovative thinking to effect change, and I am looking forward to playing my part with Design Council Cabe.”
