Michál Cohen
Architect London / United Kingdom
Michál was born and educated in South Africa, setting up Walters & Cohen with Cindy Walters in 1994. Michál has worked on a variety of projects, including the wellness centre in the Bank of England, a gallery in Durban and designs for a community resource centre and HIV clinic in Zimbabwe. She is responsible for many of the practice's education projects, which began in 2003 with designs for an exemplar primary school under the Department for Education's Schools for the Future initiative. Several innovative, award-winning schools have been completed that are based on the principles of this design. Michál has visited and researched school design in Italy, Scandinavia and South Africa to understand best practice in a wider context. She takes a keen interest in government initiatives and policy, as well as how children learn, and her expertise on the subject of design in learning environments is now well established. From 2009 Michál was on CABE's education review panel and is now one of the Design Council Cabe's Built Environment Experts. In 2012 Cindy and Michál were awarded AJ Woman Architect of the Year.