A new initiative will be launched by RIBA President Jane Duncan and property developer, Deputy Chair of London Festival of Architecture and founder of Uncommon Martyn Evans called The Young Architects and Developer Alliance (YADA).

Jane Duncan has teamed up with Martyn Evans to form a new organisation for young architects and developers worldwide. The organisation will create a dialectical relationship between two disciplines to investigate unexplored problems, discourses, functions and new conditions. YADA will start a series of networking events for under-35s. 

The YADA board comprises of Albena Atanassova, Scott Brownrigg, Alison Collins, Grosvenor, Belawal Hussain, WATG, Gareth Price, Lyndon Goode Architects, Grace Marien Osborn, Berkeley, Jen Ponting, Argent, Rebecca Garland, U+I and Vinesh Pomal, Levitt Bernstein.

''YADA is quite simply about getting young architects and developers talking to each other, and crucially understanding each other better. We’ve all had those frustrating days at work when it’s almost as if you’re talking different languages. What often results is a project with a compromised design, delivered by a demotivated team,'' said the founders of YADA.

YADA will kick off its first event on November 24, 2016 with a launch party. YADA's launch party on Thursday 24th November at 8 Albert Embankment will be the first of a series of social events for young (under 35) developers and architects. The events will be free (registration required) so come along, bring your colleagues, have a drink and chat to a few people – who knows who you might meet! 

Jane Duncan is a British chartered architect and she was elected in August 2014 as president elect of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), receiving 52% of the vote and became the 75th president of the RIBA on 1 September 2015. She is currently RIBA's Equality and Diversity champion.

Martyn Evans runs Uncommon, a property development company. He was, until recently, Creative Director at U+I, the regeneration- focussed property company formed in November 2015 from a merger between specialist mixed-use developer Cathedral Group and listed property company Development Securities PLC.

Before joining the Cathedral board in 2011, Martyn worked in the property, regeneration and urban design sectors as a consultant to CABE, The Design Council and Design for London with a particular focus on regeneration through creative industry and cultural engagement. Martyn is Deputy Chair of the London Festival of Architecture and founder, with RIBA President Jane Duncan, of the Young Architects and Developers Alliance (YADA), a networking and learning programme that brings young architects and developers closer together.

Top image: Jane Duncan, image courtesy of RIBA and Martyn Evans, image courtesy of The AJ

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