BDP has hired two directors to deliver on its business growth strategy for 2023-2024.

Lisa Rapson joins the multidisciplinary design practice as Civil Engineering Director, leading the profession from the London studio. Lisa will deliver a new approach, enhancing and building on the natural opportunities presented by BDP’s association with Nippon Koei and its own urbanism team. Her direction and experience will be vital in finding the synergies between civil engineering, urban design, and city-scale master planning on global projects.

Lisa joins BDP from Robert Bird Group, where she grew the civil engineering team from eight people to more than 30 engineers. She has more than 25 years’ experience specialising in the provision of civil engineering and project management services for multi-disciplinary, multi-phased mixed-use regeneration developments and highways and infrastructure projects including at Battersea Park, Canada Water and Diyaar Al Muharraq in Bahrain.


Golnaz Ighany has also joined BDP as Architect-Sustainability Director. She is responsible for coordinating and driving design processes to deliver highly sustainable and regenerative architecture projects across the global practice. She plays a key role in accelerating the goal of achieving Whole Life Net Zero Carbon in all sectors. Her experience will help BDP to create thriving environments that enhance the overall health and wellbeing of ecosystems, communities, and individuals, rather than simply minimising the impact of its designs.

In her previous role at Stanton Williams, she led the studio's sustainability and environmental design strategies; helping the practice to become one of the first architecture firms in the world to set Science Based Targets. Prior to that, she spent eight years at Foster + Partners, where she worked on award-winning, high-profile international projects, including the Bloomberg Headquarter in London and Apple Campus in Cupertino (California).