Phineas Harper

Phineas Harper is an innovative leader in developing sustainable cultural programmes that engage broad audiences with architecture and design. A regular contributor to the Guardian on ecological design and urbanism, their career spans criticism, curation, education, youth engagement, publishing, and sculpture. As Chief Executive of Open City until 2024, Phineas led far-reaching and impactful change across the organization, steering the charity through the challenges of the pandemic while transforming and growing its programmes. In their four-year term as Director, they built, grew, and launched award-winning new educational and cultural initiatives, oversaw major digital infrastructure upgrades, and secured the charity’s largest-ever public grant and corporate sponsorships. They successfully rebuilt Open City’s reserves to record levels while delivering above-inflation pay rises and recruiting a more diverse staff team and board. Phineas’ career is marked by a long-standing commitment to making architecture and design more engaging and accessible to younger and under-represented audiences. For example, they co-founded the New Architecture Writers programme, which has helped transform the landscape of design criticism in the UK to be more diverse.