Further judges announced for our Future Cities Forum's Winter Awards 2026

Image: Jenny Gardner - courtesy ARC Group

Future Cities Forum is delighted to announce that three more female leaders will join our Winter Awards 2026 panel of judges. They are: Jenny Gardner, Director of Development & Construction at Advanced Research Clusters (ARC), Federica Buricco, Studio Practice Leader Master-Planning and Vice President, HKS Architects, and Liz Sparrow, Architect, Partner and Science Sector Lead at built environment consultancy Ridge and Partners LLP.

Jenny Gardner

Jenny is a director of development and construction for Advanced Research Clusters (ARC) - the alliance of innovation clusters funded by Brookfield in the UK and Europe. In this role, Mrs. Gardner supports the advancement of the strategic master plan at Harwell Campus, a 700-acre site in southern Oxfordshire with a pipeline of 2m+ square feet of innovation-focused private development. Jenny leads on the delivery of a number of key current developments including the 120k square foot CO:LABS building and is actively working with her team on coordinated plans for sustainable and holistic expansion planned for the coming decade.

Prior to joining ARC in 2022, Mrs Gardner was a director of life sciences at Jones Lange Lasalle in London, providing advisory services to owner/developer clients in the sector. Previously, she worked in America for a large life-science focused REIT delivering complex projects in southern California.

Jenny has a strong understanding of the innovation ecosystem and how to create thoughtful real estate solutions that enable organic growth to occur at pace. She is passionate about providing quality human-focused, intentional, and flexible solutions that are fundamental to the future of this vital asset class.

Image: Federica Buricco - courtesy HKS Architects

Federica Buricco

Federica is the Master-planning Studio Practice Leader at HKS Architects and Designers, London office. She is an architect and urban designer with over 18 years of experience in the design and management of large-scale residential, commercial, hotel and mixed-use projects. She has worked in Italy, Switzerland, Dubai and UK.

Her portfolio includes large mixed-use developments in North Italy, high-rise buildings in London and Gothenburg, mixed-use schemes in Spain, and high-end residential projects in Switzerland.

Federica's expertise is within master planning schemes in the Gulf Co-operation Council countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) and MENA region. She has been actively involved in the design of a number of landmark 'giga projects' in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Above: Liz Sparrow - courtesy Ridge

Liz Sparrow

Liz is a Chartered Architect with 15 years’ experience working for Ridge and Partners LLP. Liz’s expertise lies in understanding complex briefs and identifying client’s needs to deliver highly technical and creative projects. She has worked across nearly all sectors bringing a wealth of experience and strong leadership to all her projects. Liz is the Sector Lead for Science at Ridge and was promoted partner in 2025.

Ridge brings a fresh perspective to projects from small refurbishments to billion-pound developments, its clients counting on its mindful insights and knowledge about world-changing technological advances. This has driven a wealth of experience across many settings: wet and dry laboratories; clean rooms; write-up spaces; offices; electrical and mechanical workshops; small-scale manufacturing units and campus masterplans.

The firm combines its teams’ passion for science and performance with its clients’ drive to improve people’s lives. This leads to it supporting global scientific and research work such as Life and Physical Science; AI/genome technology; and quantum and deep technology.