Dr Nicholas Falk, BA (Oxon), MBA (Stanford), PhD (London), Hon FRIBA, Hon MRTPI, founded URBED in London in 1976 to offer practical solutions to urban regeneration and local economic development. Over the last few years he has focused on new communities, the future of the suburbs, historic centres, and the adaptive reuse of old buildings. He is currently completing a book on how cities can change direction to tackle climate change, and social and economic inequalities.
He has undertaken major research into European good practice, and is co-author of Sustainable Urban Neighbourhood: Building the 21st Century Home (Architectural Press, 2009). Other publications include The Regeneration of European Cities and How Local Authorities Can Build Sustainable Urban Neighbourhoods for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, The Cambridgeshire Quality Charter for Growth for Cambridge Horizons, Pillars of the Community for English Heritage, and Capital Gains: a better land assembly model for London for the Greater London Authority.
He worked with Professor Sir Peter Hall on Good Cities, Better Lives: how Europe discovered the lost art of urbanism, and has drawn on European good practice for his Smith Institute pamphlet Funding Housing and Local Growth: how a British Investment Bank can help, and various reports on funding local infrastructure.
He is a Visiting Professor at the School of the Built Environment, University of the West of England, an Academician of the Academy of Urbanism, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.