Lucy Musgrave OBE RDI is the Founding Director of Publica. She is a nationally recognised advocate for design quality, civic inclusion, and the social value of public space. With a career spanning three decades, she has advised governments, public bodies, and private sector clients on design and integrated masterplanning, policy, and the practical spatial application of place-making strategies.
Lucy's advisory roles reflect the breadth of her influence. She is a Mayor's Design Advocate for the Mayor of London, a member of the NLA’s Sounding Board and a trustee of Grand Plan. She has served on the Homes England Cross-Cutting Committee for Design and Sustainability, the National Infrastructure Commission's Design Group, the Mayor's Public London Charter Sounding Board, the Mayor's Night Time Commission, and the Barbican Arts Centre Board. A founding board member of the social enterprise Public Practice, she has also sat on the UK Government's Urban Sounding Board, the GLA's Public Realm Advisory Group, and the jury of the Mies van der Rohe European Prize for Public Space.
Lucy founded Publica's Community Interest Company to lead research and practice in inclusive design with the Campaign for Inclusive Cities – an ambitious programme addressing gender inequality and exclusion in public space, which has shaped London policy and delivered award-winning projects across the UK and internationally.
She has spoken on these issues at the House of Lords, MIPIM, UKREiiF, the London VAWG International Summit, the Royal College of Art's School of Architecture, and the Connected Places Catapult National Summit.
Lucy's contribution to architecture and urban design has been recognised with some of the field's most prestigious honours. She was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2001, appointed OBE for services to Architecture and the Built Environment in 2019 and named a Royal Designer for Industry (RDI) in 2024 – an honour that recognised Publica's lasting impact on urban design with civic amenity at its core.
Prior to founding Publica, Lucy was the second Director of the Architecture Foundation and co-founded General Public Agency with Clare Cumberlidge. She is co-author of Design and Landscape for People: New Approaches to Renewal (Thames & Hudson).
Outside her professional life, she is raising awareness and funds for leukaemia research through her daily cartwheel campaign, Cartwheel for a Cure, in partnership with Leukaemia UK.
