We are delighted that Helle Søholt, founding partner and CEO of Gehl, Copenhagen will present the RIBA Cornwall and Cornwall Architectural Trust annual lecture 2020 as part of the RIBA People, Places, Planet programme.
Programme
- 6pm: Introduction from RIBA Cornwall Chairs Richard Tosic and Helen Brooks
- 6:05pm: Helle Søholt, Gehl
- 6:45pm: Questions
- 7:30pm: Close
About Helle Søholt, CEO and Founding Partner, Architect MAA, M. Arch
Helle Søholt is Founding Partner and CEO of Gehl. She started the company with Professor Jan Gehl in 2000. Through her leadership, strategic and organisational talent, the office has developed a knowledge base and experience portfolio that is respected internationally in the field of urban design and urban development.
Today, Helle is a prominent leader in her field. Over the past years, Helle has acted as an advisor to the City of Copenhagen and other great cities in Scandinavia like Oslo, Stockholm and Gothenburg, advocating for a new alternative to traditional planning.
Helle is often leading and facilitating large change processes in cities, where she aims to move those involved from a traditional planning approach, towards a 21st century value based planning model, centred on people. Using her pragmatic idealism, Helle manages to facilitate processes where people become the drivers of change. She enjoys fast idea generation, solving complex urban challenges and facilitating processes by engaging multiple stakeholders.
Internationally, Helle has worked in cities such as Cape Town, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Seattle, New York, Vancouver, London, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur and Melbourne, adding to her global experience in the field of urban design and development. She has extensive international urban design experience at various levels of intervention and at a multitude of scales: from urban research and analysis, visioning and strategy to design development and implementation.
In 2010, Helle was awarded membership of the Danish Arts Society, as well as the Danish Dreyer’s Prize of Honour for Architects in Denmark. She also serves as board member for several foundations, organisations and committees, such as the Realdania Foundation in Denmark and the Danish Federal Real estate Development Agency.
In addition, Helle has served as a keynote speaker focusing on the issue of urban quality, quality of life and mobility at a wide range of internationally renowned conferences. She also regularly forms part of design competition juries, expert panels and debates. She is a strong advocate for healthy urban living, supports compact urban form, human scale and mobility for all. In contrast to urban complexity, Helle enjoys gardening, healthy food and to watch art exhibitions and theatre plays which offer visual pleasure and artistic expression.
Helle is educated as an architect from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and the Copenhagen Business School in Denmark, and the University of Washington in Seattle, USA.
If you require further information regarding this event, please contact claire.bower@riba.org.
Ticket prices
- RIBA Member: £5
- RIBA Student: Free
- General admission: £7
The ticket fee will go towards funding Devon and Cornwall Travelling Scholarship Award for local architecture students.
