Eike Selby

Eike Selby is Head of Design and joined CGLA in 2018. Eike is responsible for driving the direction of all CGLA design projects and leads the design team ensuring they are at the forefront of design creativity. Taking projects through from concept design, planning to construction detailing and on-site supervision.

Over the last 2 years Eike has also been involved with the University of Westminster teaching conceptual design to Environmental Architecture students and has collaborated with a number of Landscape Artists on academic articles and art installations.

As a Landscape Architect with over 25 years of international experience on some of the world’s most prestigious projects, Eike imparts his many years of industry experience across all sectors of landscape design.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Amongst a host of projects that have won awards and that have been featured in numerous international publications, Eike is most proud of his time in the Middle East where he was the Consultant Project Manager for all public realm and infrastructure landscaping works on the iconic Palm Jumeirah, Dubai, where he led a team of Engineers, Horticulturalists, Landscape Architects and Civil Inspectors to oversee the design and construction of the landscaping for the entire island. This included elements such as swimming pools, water features, promenades, courtyards, plazas, and public open spaces.

Having had a successful career over the past 25 years, Eike believes that his greatest and most rewarding achievement is being able to build a cohesive and dynamic design team that are drawn from a wide variety of backgrounds, training and disciplines. Being able to mentor and guide the team to challenge perceptions and break conventional norms to create truly unique spaces.

As a Landscape Architect, Eike understands each project is driven by a multitude of unique driving factors that can be powerful influencers in informing a design aesthetic and therefore it is important not to be overly stylistic. He states “I don’t have a particular style, nor do I subscribe to the notion of needing to be stylistic. I feel that having a particular style already predetermines the aesthetic outcome of any given project at the risk of ignoring and not responding to the unique characteristics that are intrinsic in every site”

EARLY CAREER

In his earlier career, Eike graduated from the University of Greenwich with a Batchelor of Arts degree in Landscape Architecture followed two years later with a Diploma in Landscape Architecture. After University, Eike spent 4 years working in private practice in Kent then relocated to the Middle East where he spent 13 years with major international companies designing, supervising and project managing some of the world’s most iconic developments across the MENA region. During this time Eike attained a Master’s degree in Construction Project Management from Herriott-Watt University.

Upon returning  to the UK, Eike became Managing Partner of the world-renowned Martha Schwartz Partners, responsible for the London, New York and Shanghai offices, where his international career continued with iconic, internationally recognised projects in the Middle East, Asia and Europe. 

APPROACH

Supported by his multi-disciplinary team, his pragmatic yet abstract conceptual approach with an emphasis on the blending of art and landscape design is instilled within the design process and infused in every project.

Eike believes that “there is a lot of fluidity now between art, architecture, landscape architecture and science – a lot more cross-pollination in the disciplines which makes us all the more adaptable and flexible”.

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