Meet the Team
Nicholas Yacoub Swami Naidu
Nicholas is the founder and director of Alive Labs, overseeing every aspect from concept to compound. His vision to develop holistic architectural systems and urban landscapes seeks to balance the natural and the manmade.
Nicholas is a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects and sits on a committee for the Architects’ Livery Company. He has delivered past projects for numerous high profile global firms including Foster & Partners, ARUP, and Wilkinson Eyre. Nicholas recently lead the design team of AFK to deliver the concept design for 55 Bishopsgate, a new tower planned for the City of London.
Nicholas is now solely turning his attention to help solve at scale the key challenges brought about by urban development globally.
William Hunt
William is the business development manager of Alive Labs, overseeing the business strategy and financial arms of the company.
He brings a comprehensive understanding of governmental regulation within the context of sustainability, with a triple-bottom line approach towards his practice – social, environmental, and economic.
He is Big 4-trained, with experience across deal advisory, and studied Business and Environmental Studies at graduate level.
He is part of the core structure of Alive Labs, having played an integral role in bringing the company to life in its earliest days.
Simran Kumar
Simran has helped make our vision of a bioreceptive cementitious compound a physical reality.
He is responsible for handcrafting the smart material designed to revolutionise urban spaces with green incentives, and he looks forward to the wider integration of biological systems into the structure of the urban landscape.
His experience ranges from studying Physics at graduate level to setting up his own art practice, www.simrankumar.com, which have equally enabled him to deal with the complex issues associated with developing bioreceptive and carbon-negative architectural systems.
Manasa Suresh
Biologist
BSc(Hons) MSc(Hons) MSc
Manasa has degrees in Botany, Ecology and Conservation, and Environmental Tech at graduate and post-graduate levels. She brings her in-depth understanding of ecological systems to ensure the health and proliferation of our mosses in the studio.
She is responsible for ongoing experiments to understand the best growth conditions for the various species of moss inoculated on our cementitious material. Her experience working with Sphagnum mosses provides the perfect platform to run the biological systems at Alive Labs.
Amir Serfahjue
Operations Lead
Amir provides invaluable operational and systems knowhow to the team, thanks to his experience ranging from facilities management to mechatronic engineering and studying Agriculture. Amir oversees all operational systems, including irrigation and environmental control, growth chamber calibrations, and all tasks techy.
His pragmatic and hands-on approach to problem solving allows him to step into the everyday operations of the Alive Labs studio and ensure optimum efficiency across all levels.
BSc Agriculture
Professor Duckett is an esteemed and celebrated botanist and bryologist. He has been widely recognised for his exceptional contributions to the field, with prestigious accolades such as the Linnean Society medal for Botany and the Richard Spruce Award, as well as honorary memberships in the BBS and presidency of the IAB.
He has earned global recognition for his groundbreaking research on lower-land plants, particularly bryophytes. After retiring, he joined the Natural History Museum as a Research Associate.
Professor Duckett is our primary Bryologist, his expertise and guidance have helped unlock the potential of bryophytes in the context of urban development.
Founder & Architect
BA(Hons) Dip(Arc) PG(dip) ARB RIBA
Co-founder & Business Strategy
BA(Hons)
Jeffrey G Ducket
Lead Bryologist
PhD, Emeritus Professor of Botany at QMUL
Lead Technical Designer
BSc(Hons)