Theresa Williamson, Ph.D. is a city planner and founding executive director of Catalytic Communities, an NGO that has worked to support Rio de Janeiro’s favelas through asset-based community development since 2000.

CatComm produces RioOnWatch, an award-winning local-to-global favela news platform, and facilitates Rio’s Sustainable Favela Network and Favela Community Land Trust program. Most recently, CatComm has developed and launched the Covid-19 in Favelas Unified Dashboard.

Theresa is an advocate for the recognition of the favelas’ heritage status and their residents’ right to be treated as equal citizens. She received the 2018 American Society of Rio prize for her contributions to the city and the 2012 NAHRO Award for her contributions to the international housing debate.

Born in Munich in 1959, Jürgen now lives and works in Berlin. A co-founder of BAR Architekten, he has taught at Queensland University in Brisbane, FU Berlin, Oxford Brooks University and at the TU Cottbus. He was a lecturer in architecture at the University of Ulster in Belfast (2003-06).

His interest in research and practice is to the extent to which architecture can support the development of social and economic networks.

Since 2016 he has been teaching as a Studio Master together with Antje Buchholz as part of an international master’s course at the Dessau International Architecture Graduate School (DIA), Anhalt University of Applied Sciences in Dessau.

Anthony Engi Meacock is a founding partner of Assemble Studio, a multi-disciplinary collective working across architecture, design and art.

Founded in 2010 to undertake the Cineroleum, their first self-built project, Assemble has since delivered a diverse and award-winning body of work, whilst retaining a democratic, co-operative and self-initiated working method. This approach enables built, social and research-based work at a variety of scales.

Assemble were awarded the 2015 Turner Prize for their long-term collaboration with the Granby 4 Streets Community Land Trust in Liverpool, an ongoing community-led project to rebuild previously the derelict Granby neighbourhood. Assemble’s self-initiated and collaborative design process, and the community-led approach to reclaiming the Granby neighbourhood for its residents, are inspiring examples for New Habit(at)s.

Dougal and Deirdre are directors of LiD Architecture, an architecture practice who have developed methods of participatory design and public engagement to facilitate close engagement with communities and stakeholders.

Through their work with Nimble Spaces in Kilkenny, LiD have developed the ‘Enabling Space Game’ as a tool for design collaboration and spatial articulation. The game facilitates mapping of shared and private space, a process key to adapting and developing future spatial arrangements for anyone wishing to imagine new and community-oriented ways of living.

Emerging from the Nimble Spaces project, LiD are architects of the Inclusive Neighbourhoods project in Callan, Co. Kilkenny. Part social housing, part private, 3 new neighbourhoods have been co-designed here via innovative participatory processes, exploring the potential of shared space within housing clusters.

Rosie is the Creative Director of Callan Workhouse Union, who work with artists, designers, architects and craftspeople to develop projects examining housing, civic infrastructure and the commons, engaging people with the spaces and places where we live.

WU’s ‘Bridge Street project’ and its arts-led approach have led to significant town regeneration in Callan and have received national attention in demonstrating how a synergy between community and cultural groups in partnership with Local Authority can positively affect town centre revitalisation.

Rosie is a member of the team behind Nimble Spaces community-led housing initiative in Callan, which is now in the design and build phase, with three inclusive neighbourhoods (26 new homes) in development by Ó Cualann CoHousing Alliance, Tuath Housing and a new Community Land Trust.

Rosie has a BA in Fine Art, NCAD (2005) and an MA in Visual Arts Practice, IADT (2011). She grew up in Camphill Ballytobin, Kilkenny with her family and so has lived experience of intentional communities.

Ciarán studied architecture in TU Dublin, graduating in 2014, and subsequently worked as project architect with a number of award winning practices, including Gottstein Architects, DUA & Moloney O’Beirne Architects. In 2020, he founded Islander Architects with Laura Carroll.

Islander are passionate about creating well-crafted and joyful architecture. The name ‘Islander’ evokes the spirit of their work; of being resourceful and responding to the uniqueness of each project. Their work covers a wide range of typologies, from one-off houses to community led public spaces, and their process includes creating games to help communities find connections between users, needs & opportunities in an informal setting.

They are actively involved in education and design based community outreach. Ciarán currently teaches as assistant lecturer at TU Dublin School of Architecture, and has also coordinated education workshops for the IAF.

Ailbhe studied architecture in TU Dublin, graduating in 2015, and subsequently worked for a number of award winning architecture practices in Ireland and abroad. In 2020 she founded her own practice, Pebble Architecture + Design, which is focused on the complex dynamics that shape our urban environments.

Her practice is deeply committed to nature and community engagement, recognising the necessity of collaboration to envision resilient, future urban landscapes – the social consequence of her work is just as important as its physical manifestation.

In 2020, Ailbhe received an Arts Council Project Award to realise TEST SITE project – a collaborative art, architecture and ecology project that activates a vacant site in Cork city centre through three core lenses – Biodiversity, Urban Planning and Architectural Heritage.

In 2022 she became a founding member of Cork Community Land Trust, an emerging, cross-disciplinary group investigating alternative methods and structures for the provision of housing and amenities in Ireland.