Craige Burden

Urban Designer, Barton Wilmore

Ten years ago Craige Burden was among the first group of students to embark on a joint honours degree in architecture and planning at the University of the West of England in Bristol. "If I'd just studied architecture, it wouldn't have been as easy for me to understand the planning aspects of my work," he says.

Since graduating in 2001, Burden has worked on everything from strategic frameworks on large-scale projects to town centre developments and community involvement workshops. As an urban designer for consultants Barton Willmore, he has plenty of opportunities to design buildings and advise on how national and local planning policy affects proposals.

He is currently working on options for regeneration in the Longbridge area of Birmingham, where the collapse of car company MG Rover led to massive job losses. He finds the early stages of a project and thinking about the possibilities for a development site the most enjoyable part of his work. He is now adding to his skills by studying urban design at Oxford Brookes University.

Burden, who moved to his current firm so that he could have the opportunity to work on larger schemes, has big ambitions. Ultimately, he says, he would love to masterplan a really high-profile project such as the London Olympic Village or, wearing his architect's hat, design a flagship building like the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.