Initially set up entirely by volunteers, the Society now has three full time and two part-time staff based at our London offices, with a wider community of people making vital contributions on a voluntary and freelance basis.
Staff
Catherine Croft Director
Catherine has been Director of C20 Society since 2002, and is Editor of the C20 magazine. She works Monday – Friday.
Catherine read Architecture at Cambridge University, and did an MA in Material Culture & Architectural History in the USA, where she held a fellowship at the Winterthur Museum in Delaware. She has lectured to post graduate building conservation students throughout the UK, and is an alumni of the Architectural Association course. Prior to C20 Society she worked for English Heritage as a buildings inspector in London and the Midlands. Author of a book on Concrete Architecture, Catherine writes on contemporary as well as historic buildings, lectures internationally and teaches a course on concrete for conservation professionals at West Dean College.
Oli manages the society’s campaigns, press, brand and partnerships. Amassing 10 years experience with British design brands Anglepoise and Tom Dixon Studio, he developed global partnerships and collaborations with the likes of Paul Smith, Margaret Howell and the National Trust.
More recently, he co-founded the successful campaign to revive the historic Crystal Palace Bowl venue (a former Stirling Prize nominee), launching a record-breaking community crowdfunder and securing funding from the Mayor of London. He studied English at the University of Newcastle and has written on product design, urbanism and community activism.
Jonathan keeps all the society’s day-to-day activities running as our Operations Manager. With a career that started in mathematics then law and moved on to publishing, he still edits a number of titles for the legal profession. His most recent role before joining C20 was at the Guild of Food Writers where he was the whole staff supporting the management committee on all the Guild’s activities.
Get in touch
020 7250 3857
coordinator@c20society.org.uk
Coco Whittaker Head of Casework
Coco works full-time and has recently completed a part-time MSt in Building History at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, specialising in vernacular and 20th-century architecture and writing a thesis on early 20th-century pithead baths in Durham and Northumberland. Her BA was also at Cambridge Uni in History of Art and Architecture.
Gus works part-time as a Caseworker at the society. He holds a Master of Architecture (MArch) from the University of Edinburgh, and a BA(Hons) in Architecture from Manchester School of Architecture. Prior to C20, he worked as a sub-editor and chef.
Gus’s casework regions include:
England
Bedfordshire
Berkshire
Buckinghamshire
Cambridgeshire
Channel Islands
Durham
Essex
Herefordshire
Hertfordshire
Norfolk
Northumberland
Oxfordshire
Rutland
Suffolk
Tyne and Wear
All Churches cases All Scottish cases
London Boroughs:
Barnet
Bexley
Brent
Ealing
Hammersmith & Fulham
Harrow
Hereford
Hillingdon
Kensington & Chelsea
Wandsworth
Westminster
Get in touch
020 7250 3857
gus@c20society.org.uk
Honorary Officers and Trustees of the Society
Hugh Pearman Trustee and Chairman
Hugh is a distinguished journalist, editor and author. He was architecture and design critic of The Sunday Times for 30 years (1986-2016), editor of the RIBA Journal for 14 years (2006-20), and has written extensively for other media. His latest book, ‘About Architecture: An Essential Guide in 55 Buildings’ was published by Yale University Press in May 2023.
In addition, Hugh served on Arts Council England’s architecture advisory group, was one of the instigators of The RIBA Stirling Prize for Architecture in 1996 and chaired the “Art for Architecture” initiative at the Royal Society of Arts from 2000-04. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2001 and was awarded an MBE for services to architecture in 2019. He became C20 Chairman in August 2023.
As well as being C20 Society’s President since July 2021,Catherine is currently a Contributing Editor to the Architectural Review and was its Editor between 2010 and 2015. She has written for numerous publications, including the Observer, Guardian, Architects’ Journal, Icon and Dezeen. She studied architecture at the University of Edinburgh and was in private practice for a time before defecting into journalism. She also holds a Masters degree in Architectural History and Theory from the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. In 2016 she was awarded an MBE for services to architectural journalism.
Hiba Alobaydi is a British-Iraqi historian, researcher and curator specialising in architecture and design. She is currently the Editor of The Architectural Historian, a biannual magazine published by the Society of Architectural Historians Great Britain.
With over a decade’s experience in the industry, Hiba has contributed to numerous institutions and publications including Architecture Ireland, London Festival of Architecture, and Dezeen. Hiba was previously Managing Editor at Archello, Assistant Editor at world-renowned architecture and engineering firm Foster + Partners, Features Editor at the UK’s premier commercial architecture magazine OnOffice and formed an integral part of the Design Museum’s first publishing team as their resident Editorial Assistant. She has also collaborated with renowned international publishing houses Taschen and Phaidon.
Adam is an experienced producer, fundraiser and strategist in the cultural sector, where he has championed widening access for children and young people. Returning to university to study architectural history, he now also works as a socially engaged researcher and historian. He currently combines a policy role at Arts Council England alongside PhD study at the University of Warwick, where his research is focused on towns in postwar Britain.
He has previously held leadership roles for Gloucester Culture Trust, Eden Court Highlands, Company Three and the Lyric Hammersmith, and has undertaken various voluntary roles, including Trusteeship for theatre/games-makers Coney. He hopes to bring particular experience and energy to support C20’s ambitions concerning strategic planning, income generation and youth engagement.
Mark Eastment Trustee and Convenor of Publications Sub-Committee
Mark is Editorial Director at Yale University Press, London for Art and Architecture, which includes overall management of the Pevsner revisions and distribution and production of the Survey of London series. His main interests are decorative and mid-century British art. He has a good understanding of the current publishing scene, which should help the Society’s forward publishing programme, maintaining its continued academic excellence while perhaps trying to improve its overall profitability. He also carries out work for Ashmolean Publishing Group, Bodleian Publishing Group, Paul Mellon Publishing Group and Decorative Arts Society.
Emma England Trustee
Emma is Head of International Membership Experience at RIBA, with over twenty years’ experience working with architects and championing good design. Having studied History of Architecture, she worked at the Richard Rogers Partnership and then moved to the RIBA as Director for the Yorkshire Region, later working on the delivery of the RIBA Stirling Prize and launching the new RIBA Reinvention Award.
She brings significant expertise in engagement strategies, membership campaigns, awards and partnerships working with diverse stakeholder groups in the built environment for profile raising and recruitment and retention, alongside commercial experience of securing sponsorship, winning bids and securing contracts to fund major projects.
Ellen worked as a solicitor, specialising in major infrastructure, transport and energy projects. Since retirement, she has pursued a lifelong, but amateur, interest in architectural history, with an increasing focus on twentieth century architecture. Having volunteered for the Society, assisting the Caseworker team, she became Honorary Secretary in mid-2022.
Jeremy Gostick Trustee and Chair of Audit & Risk sub-Committee
Jeremy trained as an accountant and has spent his career at the National Audit Office, engaged predominantly in work to assess the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which various government departments implement government policy – in particular the NHS, Ministry of Defence and government estate.
Jeremy is Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee, with a focus on securing our long term financial future.
Phineas Harper Trustee
Phineas Harper is an innovative leader in developing sustainable cultural programmes that engage broad audiences with architecture and design. A regular contributor to The Guardian, their career spans criticism, curation, education, youth engagement, journalism and sculpture. As Chief Executive of Open City until 2024, Phineas’ led far-reaching and impactful change across the organisation steering the charity through the challenges of the pandemic while transforming and growing its programmes. Phineas’ career is marked by a long-standing commitment to making architecture and heritage more engaging and accessible to younger and more diverse audiences.
In 2019 Phineas co-curated the Oslo Architecture Triennale on the theme of degrowth, and curated the 19th Architecture Prize of the Land Steiermark in Austria. Currently a columnist at Dezeen, alongside writing, their work spans kinetic sculpture, film and print making, and has be exhibited at the Royal Academy in London, the Architecture Biennale in Venice and the London School of Economics.
Sarah has been a registered architect since 1994. After working in architectural practice and teaching history of architecture, she joined CABE, where she was Head of Design Review. Sarah is currently a townscape and heritage consultant, working on major developments in London.
Andrew Jackson Trustee
Andrew studied at Liverpool School of Architecture and the University of Liverpool’s Department of Civic Design and has a particular interest in urbanism. He has worked with a number of museums and galleries, including as ‘urbanist in residence’ in Sheffield, and is a Trustee of Sheffield Design Awards. He was Chair of the C20 Yorkshire group from 2014 until 2019, and the Society’s Regional Groups Coordinator between 2019 and 2023. Andrew is also a Trustee and Director of Civic Voice, which oversees the civic movement in England and the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Civic Societies in Westminster. He is currently researching the Preston-based Welsh architect, Francis Roberts.
Colin is a marketing consultant with over 30 years of experience. He was Chief Strategy Officer for Ogilvy, a major international ad agency, for many years and led global marketing (reporting to the CEO) for McDonald’s. He grew up in Scotland, has lived in the US and currently splits his time between Chicago and London. Colin’s father was a Town Planner and instilled a love of architecture and preservation.
Colin is active in DoCoMoMo US and has toured and read widely to study the modern movement. He brings business, branding and American non-profit experience as well as passion for protection to C20.
Peter Parkes Trustee
Peter is a Group Product Manager at Miro, a teams-based visual workspace platform. Prior to joining Miro, he co-founded Qualdesk, building software for design and product teams to help them be more productive.
His career to date has spanned strategy consulting, product marketing and corporate communications, with a focus on mass-market consumer technology products, both now at Miro and previously at Skype and Expedia and for clients at Made by Many. He has an MA in Economics from the University of Cambridge, specialising in the intersection of economics and psychology, writing about economic modelling of human behaviour and decision-making processes.
Carolyn Parmeter Trustee and Honorary Treasurer
Carolyn has been Honorary Treasurer since 2013. She had a previous stint as a Trustee and Honorary Membership Secretary in the early 2000s. She has a tax background and is a Senior Civil Servant working in policy at HMRC. Outside work she was a volunteer guide at the National Trust’s 2 Willow Road for over 10 years and for a shorter time at The Homewood.
Dr Alan Powers Trustee
Alan is an architectural historian specialising in British architecture. A founder member of the Thirties Society in 1979, he has filled a number of roles since that time, as caseworker, Honorary Secretary and Chairman. He is joint editor of the Society’s journal, Twentieth Century Architecture, which he founded in 1994, and of the monograph series Twentieth Century Architects. He usually organises the spring and autumn lecture series in London and has led many events.
Otto Saumarez Smith Trustee and Chair of Casework Committee
Otto Saumarez Smith is Assistant Professor in Architectural History at the University of Warwick. He was Shuffrey Junior Research Fellow at Lincoln College Oxford, and received a PhD from the University of Cambridge. His book Boom Cities, Architect Planners and the Politics of Radical Urban Renewal in 1960s Britain is published with Oxford University Press. He co-edited the Volume 11 of the Twentieth Century Society’s Journal on Oxford and Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and an editor of the Society of Architectural History of Great Britain’s journal Architectural History. He has published on subjects such leisure centres, inner city policy, shopping centres, as well as architectural practices including Gillespie Kidd & Coia, Chamberlin Powell & Bon, Sheppard Robson, Building Design Partnership, Howell, Killick, Partridge and Amis, and Powell and Moya.
Cela was employed by the Society for 10 years as office co-ordinator, and then developed the role of C20 Volunteering Co-ordinator. She was the Society’s Honorary events Secretary until July 2021. She is also an elected member of the management team of a successful sports and leisure club, responsible for HR. In 2023 she took on the role of Honorary Events Secretary.
Website and publications
James Hunter Art Director, C20 Magazine
Alexa Baracaia Deputy Editor, C20 Magazine
Studio Hunter & Stephen Coates, & Ebow, the digital agency Web design
James Sui Web developer
Volunteers
Position Vacant Volunteer Press Officer
Joe Mathieson Building of the Month Editor
Thaddeus Zupančič Instagram volunteer
Graham Orbell Casework volunteers
David Thomas Administrative volunteers
Polly Schlesinger Julie Kenwright Sarah Lewis Barry Needoff Simon Wartnaby Mark Davies Events volunteers
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