Andy Hodgkinson at RIAS Seminar: Using Architecture Policy to Generate Public Value

Tomorrow, Andy Hodgkinson, Design Director at GRAS, joins the panel at a RIAS seminar on how architecture generates public value.

The seminar launches new research commissioned by RIAS. Aseel Almahfoodh, a Master’s student in Comparative Public Policy at the University of Edinburgh, has examined how Scotland uses its architecture sector as a policy tool, set against Bilbao and Vienna. The work looks at governance structures, funding mechanisms and policy instruments, and how each shapes what architecture can deliver.

Andy responds alongside Ian Gilzean of Architecture and Design Scotland, Ross Aitchison of Collective Architecture and Stuart Hay of RIAS.

Andy graduated with First-Class Honours from Edinburgh College of Art in 2001. He began his career at RMJM, working on the Scottish Parliament with EMBT during its final three years of construction. The building went on to win the Stirling Prize. He has since worked on international projects in the Philippines, India, Egypt and Denmark, and across Scotland, from Edinburgh and Islay to the Highlands, including the refurbishment of the Glasgow Subway. He joined GRAS in 2017 as a Senior Architect and became Design Director in 2025. His work at the practice includes the competition-winning proposal to reimagine Princes Street Gardens, off-grid bothies within a Highland rewilding programme, a design studio and showroom in Denmark and ongoing work at SaxaVord, the UK’s first licensed vertical launch spaceport. Trained at art school, Andy works across conservation and new build. His interest is architecture that holds creative exploration and built reality together and a contemporary architectural culture in Scotland that is open to everyone.

The invitation followed our part in the 2025 Scottish design mission to Copenhagen.

Wednesday 23 September, 2pm to 3:15pm. Doors 1:30pm.
A&DS:SpACE, Level 0, Edinburgh Futures Institute. Access from Middle Meadow Walk.
Presented by A&DS and RIAS. Free tickets on Eventbrite