Public Practice chief wins AJ100 Contribution to the Profession award

Agrawal won the accolade after topping a poll of AJ100 practice employees. Previous winners include Neil Pinder, Peter Barber, and Grafton Architects founders Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara.

Agrawal co-founded Public Practice with Finn Williams in 2017 and took over as chief executive in June 2021. The social enterprise has so far placed 296 built-environment experts in 78 local authorities around the country. It recently received a £1 million government grant to trial the scheme across every local authority in England.

AJ editor Emily Booth said: ‘Pooja Agrawal has been recognised for her dedication to boosting built environment expertise within the public sector, and for her commitment to improving the quality, equality and sustainability of places.’

Agrawal came to the UK when she was 16 after growing up in Mumbai, an experience that she said ‘made me who I am – at heart an urbanist’.

She qualified as an architect in 2015 after studying at the University of Cambridge and the Bartlett School of Architecture. As well as her work at Public Practice, she worked in the Greater London Authority’s regeneration team for more than four years. Prior to being appointed chief executive at Public Practice, she was assistant director of service strategy at Homes England.

Agrawal is dedicated to the public sector as the route to setting and delivering the placemaking agenda, and describes herself as having ‘the privilege of being in a role where I can make meaningful change on the ground’.

She sees Public Practice’s mission as helping to attract the right people with the right built environment skills into the public sector. The organisation’s motto is ‘Building the skills local authorities need, to shape the places we deserve’.

Agrawal says she is ‘driven by making places that are equitable and vibrant’ rather than by the idea of making buildings. She feels there is much more to be done to raise the quality of everyday, public places – places that belong to the many, not the few, and that are ‘not just a tool for gentrification’.

Agrawal will be the keynote speaker at the AJ100 gala dinner on Wednesday night (21 June) held at City Central, HAC near London’s Old Street.

AJ100 Contribution to the Profession is sponsored by