Kevin McCloud

Kevin is best known for Channel 4´s Grand Designs and for his annual coverage of the Stirling Prize each October. He admits to an unhealthy obsession for buildings since childhood: he studied the history of them at Cambridge, has designed everything in and around them, has lit them and written about them. He now champions issues such as context, the historic environment and sustainable construction, often in his feisty column in the Sunday Times in which he takes on planners, architects and developers. He also writes for Grand Designs magazine. His two ambitions are to entertain and to make the built environment better - and consequently ´make people feel better´.

Kevin´s other forays into television include Don´t Look Down for BBC2 in 2002, in which he climbed six tall buildings and Demolition for Channel 4 in 2005, in which he, George Ferguson and Janet Street-Porter started a campaign to improve public space in our towns and cities. 2006 sees a follow-up and 2007 a major Channel 4 series about urban regeneration.
Mainly for getting rid of the capital ´A´ from architecture Kevin was awarded two honorary doctorates in 2005, from Plymouth and Oxford Brookes. He is a recalcitrant patron of several architectural and sustainable charities, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Foresters, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects and a WWF Ambassador.

Isabel Allen

Isabel Allen trained as an architect before joining the Architects´ Journal as Buildings Editor in 1996. She became the editor of the AJ in 1999 and published a book ´Structure as Design´ the following year. She was a member of the Stirling Prize jury between 2003 and 2006.

In 2005 she spearheaded the critically acclaimed relaunch of the AJ and was subsequently named as the Periodical Publishers Association Editor of the Year (Business and Professional Magazines), the British Society of Magazine Editors Editor of the Year (Business and Professional Magazines) and the Emap Communications Editor of the Year. She was also made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

In April 2007 she left the AJ to take up the position of Design Director of Hab.

Chris Hoare

Following a degree in economics, Chris qualified as a Chartered Accountant and later gained an MBA from Cranfield Business School. Chris has lived and worked overseas before returning to the UK in the late ‘80s. He has broad experience in managing manufacturing and service companies, large and small, here in the UK and overseas.

Chris joined Kevin a decade ago and brings to HAB a strong financial and business approach to complement the design and aesthetic strengths of Kevin and Isabel.