Riette Oosthuizen listed in the Planner's Women of Influence 2020
Who are the women working in and around planning who are having an impact - both on individual planners, teams and organisations; and on planning policy and practice? Here's our Women of Influence for 2020
Dr Riette Oosthuizen MRTPI
Planning partner, HTA Design
Riette is a tirelessly committed planner who is not afraid of challenging convention, and bringing fresh thinking to the planning profession to shake it up where shaking up is needed! She runs HTA Design's small planning team, which she set up more than 10 years ago. She has single-handedly grown it from just a team of 1 – herself - to the team of 7 that it is today. The team’s excellence has been recognised by various institutions and the work of the team Riette leads arguably has huge and unprecedented influence in shaping the projects HTA work on, that in turn represent a substantial proportion of change and development happening around London as a whole.
She persists in ensuring that the value of planning within a wider design-orientated organisation is not forgotten, and strives to ensure the contribution of planners is recognised by other disciplines. Riette also serves as an amazing female role model, not only to young planners in her team, but more widely to young women in other disciplines in the practice and beyond, and her personal style encourages those around her to grow in confidence to reach their full potential.
Riette’s influence extends to policy and education as well. She frequently speaks on planning matters at industry events, conferences and round tables, is jointly responsible leading HTA’s Innovation Research programme, and is a member of the London Planning and Development Forum. She is a current member of the RIBA Planning advisory group and the RTPI Policy Practice and Research Committee.
If the huge level of influence she has within the profession wasn’t enough, she has also channels wealth from the property industry into forces for good. She takes on epic cycle rides raising money for charity, raising over £4000 for the children’s charity Coram with her ride from Copenhagen to Berlin in 2018, and raising even more for charity with her cycle to MIPIM last year. Riette is demonstrably a not just a Woman of Influence, but a Planner of Influence in the industry more widely.
