Nyomi Rowsell
Ambassador - Human Development
Nyomi believes design is for everyone and that skills create employment opportunities and satisfaction to alleviate poverty. At the age of 24 Nyomi cycled 7,500 miles from Cairo to Cape Town to raise money for a humanitarian architecture charity after completing her undergraduate Architecture degree. Her expedition changed her direction in life with more focus on people, Nyomi Rowsellclimate, and social impact.
Nyomi has a Master’s Degree in International Architectural Regeneration and Design and as a passionate creative designer and environmentalist she ended up in Malawi, East Africa. As the rammed earth architect of Sam’s Village with African Vision Malawi, she learnt about natural solutions including; construction, agriculture and energy. Every project was community based and she got to understand the Malawian rural life and culture.
Realising the lack of natural resources and abundance of waste from the city centre, Lilongwe her commitment focus turned towards waste management and using innovative solutions to construction and other sectors.
While working on architecture projects Nyomi founded a social enterprise called International Conservation and Cleanup Management (ICCM) to build the capacity of Malawian representatives that could share awareness about environmental education and give solutions to better waste management. She networked with companies to grow social responsibility and provide several income streams (i.e., recycling collections, events, and products made from waste) which sustain the team.
In the UK, Nyomi has worked as a waste management project officer with the Surrey Environment Partnership team. She has been working as a waste consultant with Buro Happold for 1.5 years. With her experience in rammed earth building, community engagement methodologies, natural resources, sustainable solutions, and waste she is excited to be an Ambassador of the Happold Foundation and guide projects to create upmost impact.