Julia Barfield MBE FRSA RIBA is Co-founder of Marks Barfield Architects together with husband and partner David Marks They are also the originators and creative entrepreneurs behind the design and realisation of the London Eye.

She studied at the Architectural Association (AA) and spent her year out in South America working in the barriada’s of Lima in Peru. Worked for Richard Rogers & Partners and Foster Associates for a total of 9 years and was project architect for the Sackler Galleries in the Royal Academy, Piccadilly, responsible for developing the early design strategy. She has been an Awards assessor for the RIBA and the Civic Trust, and was a member of the CABE National Design Review Panel; Guy’s and St Tomas’s Members Council and Vice President of the AA., and is a Governor of Godolphin & Latymer School. She has lectured in schools, universities and conferences, in both London and overseas including Mexico, Rome and Berlin and at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville.

Julia received an MBE in March 2000 for the London Eye, The Prince Philip Designers Prize ,special commendation and became a Fellow of the RSA in 2007. She has designed award-winning projects in the leisure, transport, education and cultural sectors and has recently completed the Think Tank, an office building for new start up businesses.