LITMIR.BIZ

      Olivia Nielsen is an Associate Principal at Miyamoto International, a global structural engineering and disaster-risk reduction firm, where she focuses on making housing affordable, sustainable, and resilient for all. From post-disaster Haiti to Papua New Guinea, she has developed and worked on critical housing programmes in over 35 countries for the World Bank, USAID, and Habitat for Humanity, among others. She has over a decade of experience in housing policy, finance, housing public–private partnerships, post-disaster reconstruction, and green construction. Prior to joining Miyamoto, Olivia was a principal at the Affordable Housing Institute, where she developed housing policy and finance solutions in Haiti, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the South Pacific for the World Bank and USAID. Olivia also managed CEMEX’s housing and infrastructure projects in Latin America and the Caribbean, where she focused on leading the cement company’s reconstruction efforts after the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Olivia is originally from Paris, France, has a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from McGill University, a Master’s in Sustainable Management from the United Nations Mandated University, and an Executive Master’s in Management from the London School of Economics. Through her work, she seeks to ensure that all families around the world have access to affordable, sustainable, and resilient homes.

       Nicky Gavron and Alex Denvir

      The Habitable City (Part II) – We must design and build our future housing in a way that promotes density over sprawl and locks away carbon with greener, cleaner, and more circular methods.

The former Deputy Mayor of London, Nicky Gavron AM, has served on the assembly’s Housing, Environment, and Planning committees since 2008. She is a member of the London Sustainable Development Commission. An elected politician since 1986, Nicky has been at the forefront of developing integrated land-use, housing, transport, and environmental policy at every level of government. Throughout the 1990s she led the Labour group on the London Planning Advisory Committee (LPAC), becoming the chair in 1994. In this role she commissioned research and formulated strategies to create a more sustainable London, including on congestion charging and affordable housing. In the late 1990s she held positions on national committees and commissions. In 2000, she became London’s first statutory Deputy Mayor, working closely with Mayor Livingstone to set up the Greater London Authority’s working processes and policy frameworks. She led on the first London Plan, which set out the vision and long-term policies to make London an exemplary sustainable world city.