Sarah Mineko Ichioka is an urbanist, strategist, curator and writer. She leads Desire Lines, a strategic consultancy for environmental, cultural, and social-impact initiatives and organizations. Her latest book, Flourish: Design Paradigms for Our Planetary Emergency, co-authored with Michael Pawlyn, proposes a bold set of regenerative design principles for addressing our compound environmental and social crises.
Sarah has been recognized as a World Cities Summit Young Leader, one of the Global Public Interest Design 100, a British Council / Clore Duffield Cultural Leadership International Fellow, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects. A sought-after public speaker, she regularly delivers keynote lectures and panels on regenerative culture, design and development at high-profile events around the world.
In previous roles Sarah has explored the intersections of cities, society and ecology within leading international institutions of culture, policy and research, including as Director of The Architecture Foundation (UK) and Co-Director of the London Festival of Architecture (both from 2008-2014).
Sarah’s critical writing has been published by Triennale di Milano (Electa), La Biennale di Venezia, Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture (Hatje Cantz), Serpentine Gallery (Koenig), the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism (Actar), Barbican (Prestel), Mies van der Rohe Award (Actar), and the Urban Age (Phaidon). Her work has been featured in outlets including the Financial Times, Dezeen, CNN.com, Channel News Asia, Monocle, publicspace.org, Folha de S.Paulo, BBC London, Wallpaper* and Bloomberg CityLab.
Sarah has served as an adviser or judge for many diverse projects, including the XXII and XXIII editions of the Triennale di Milano, the Resilient by Design Bay Area Challenge, Water as Leverage for Resilient Cities Asia, the European Prize for Urban Public Space, and the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative.
Raised in California and based in Singapore, Sarah holds degrees from Yale University and the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Ubah Rumah is an art residency and archive inspired by stories of our region.
