Gregory Cowan works as a freelance academic, and is currently developing programmes for The Architects Coach, based on more than thirty years of international experience in practice, undergraduate and postgraduate education, and continuing professional development education for architects. He supervises doctoral research and teaches at the University of Wales Trinity St David, Institute of Inner City Learning. An Australian Londoner, he lives in a small Kennington flat, and sometimes on his canal narrowboat, and performs carnival music. He has worked in architecture practice and office space analysis in Germany and UK, and has completed specialist courses on subjects including Italian stone in Verona, Swiss ceramics in Laufen and Austrian building electronics in Graz. During the recent pandemic, he completed a six month Diploma in Transformational Life Coaching and a 50 day course on positive intelligence. His PhD research investigated the roles of diverse street occupations in inner city station areas in London and Frankfurt. His thesis at the University of Westminster in London is “Occupying Streets: Street Design in Railway Station Areas in London and Frankfurt” (2015). In short, his research analyses diverse placemaking aspects of streets, balancing motorised transport uses with pedestrian conviviality interests in design and planning, distinctiveness and the urban noir.
The Pride Road Franchise grew out of Founder Lisa Raynes’ refusal to accept that there was only one way for a woman to have an architecture career and a family life. She built her practice in the domestic sector, and then invested to turn her business into one that other ambitious architects wanting work/life balance can buy into. She’s had a seat on the RIBA Council (2015-18), been Chair of Women in Property NW and founded Manchester Curious, an urban architecture outreach festival. A key focus of the Pride Road Franchise business in a box is the fully-automated customer relation management system, this system helps lead a flow of new clients to our franchisees.