Julia Barfield

Join us in March for a special lecture in honour of International Women’s Day. 

Julia Barfield is one of the UK’s most influential contemporary architects, her work has changed the relationship between engineering, public space and civic imagination.

With the London Eye, Julia Barfield changed the game. She reshaped expectations of what infrastructure could be. What began as a competition proposal, became one of the most recognisable pieces of contemporary architecture in the world — a structure that combined engineering precision with public delight. It demonstrated that large-scale civic projects could be both technically rigorous and emotionally generous.

“The Eye has done for London what the Eiffel Tower did for Paris.” The Telegraph

The Eye also contributed to a broader shift in London’s confidence about its skyline and public realm. It showed that infrastructure could be visible, participatory and culturally meaningful — not just functional. Since opening, London Eye has welcomed over 70 million people to take a ride over the city.

Now with the proposed West Somerset Tidal Lagoon, she is doing it again, not just for a skyline, but for a coastline. Taking infrastructure into a new imaginative realm: not hidden, not merely functional, but civic, experiential, and visionary. Energy as public space. Engineering as landscape. A piece of climate infrastructure that is also architecture, also place, also joy. Serious in purpose, ambitious in scale, yet generous in how people might encounter it.

Join us for International Women’s Day to hear more about Julia’s life in architecture & her visions for the future. After all leadership in architecture is not only about height or scale, but about vision. Barfield’s work gave permission, first to a profession, then to a city, and now perhaps to an entire environmental future – to be braver, more imaginative and more inclusive in how it shapes the public realm.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS

Julia Barfield

Julia Barfield MBE FRSA RIBA is a British architect and co-founder of Marks Barfield Architects, the practice behind the London Eye, Cambridge Mosque – widely cited as the UK’s first green mosque, and British Airways i360 in Brighton. She studied at the Architectural Association and previously worked with Richard Rogers and Norman Foster. Barfield lectures widely, and teaches at universities including Queen’s University Belfast and University of Bath. Her firm has won more than 60 awards for design and innovation. Passionate about sustainability, Julia helped initiate ‘Architects Declare’ and is at the forefront of regenerative architecture. Julia also chairs RIBA national awards panels.

Eleanor Young

Eleanor Young is the editor of RIBA Journal, leading its editorial strategy with a focus on climate action and “design in the making.” With an MSc in architectural history from UCL’s Bartlett and a background in journalism, Young has worked across architectural media, chaired events and roundtables, and was shortlisted for Memcom Editor of the Year in 2023.

Our talks are open to the public and professionals alike.
The event takes place at Arnolfini, Bristol, BS1 4QA