John is a principle in the practice of Harding Bond Property Consultants and leads the architecture team with strong client-facing, management, design, presentation, coordination and detailing skills and an understanding of the potential of materials and construction systems, developed on various award winning projects. He has extensive experience in the Arts, Residential, Hotel and Leisure, Education and Commercial sectors. Alongside being a Charted Architect he is also a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects and has been a visiting tutor and critic at Greenwich School of Architecture and Brighton University and a professional mentor to students from Brighton School of Architecture. He freely gives his time each year in support of Shelter via Architect In The House. He is a member of the Hastings Urban design group and is regularly called upon to offer advice to developers, local interest groups and individual residents on planning and design.
After graduating at the Birmingham School of Architecture, he started his architectural career as an Architectural assistant for Glenn Howells Architects in Birmingham, where he was a member of the competitions team for the Courtyard Theatre in Hereford, The Armagh Theatre and Arts Centre in Armagh, Northern Ireland and The Dream Factory Children's Theatre in Warwick. John also assisted on other national and international competitions including the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, the c/Plex Arts Centre in Wolverhampton and the Potsdammer Platz urban design, masterplanning and museum theme in Berlin.
In 1999, John said goodbye to Glenn Howells Architects and joined Burrell Foley Fischer in London and worked as a Project Architect on the award winning Angell Town housing scheme in Brixton, London. He helped to deliver a 150 house scheme that went on to win Housing Design Awards in 2000 and 2002, the Brick Development Agency Building Development Agency Building of the Year award in 2002 and an RIBA award in 2002. Other schemes that John worked on included arts based cinema schemes such as the Broadway Cinema in Nottingham, The Blackfriars Multiplex in Gloucester and a feasibility study to upgrade the facilities of the London Film School. In addition John worked within the design team for the renovation of the Grade I listed premises for The Royal Society.
Following the departure at Burrell Foley Fischer in 2004 he joined Ratcliffe Stott Limited as a Director Designate, where he provided a programming, procurement and coordination role on various schemes for Hand Picked Hotels in addition to other country house hotel, leisure and private clients. He also advised on the delivery of feasibility and concept studies for leisure and residential developer clients, including the masterplan of a small science park in Rye Harbour.
In 2006 he became the Associate at Rummey Design Associates and was responsible for developing the designs of large scale mixed use masterplans for Queenborough and Rushenden, Sittingbourne and the Priory Quarter Scheme in Hastings, which achieved Outline Planning permission for some 500,000 square feet of office accommodation, in addition to leisure, retail and education accommodation in the heart of the town. He also provided a client advisor role for an education client to advise on the development potential of their South London Further Education client advise on the development potential of their South London Further Education campuses.
Shortly after setting up his own practice in 2009, John collaborated with David Archer Architects on the conversation of a Grade II listed former postal museum in bath to provide mixed-use residential and commercial accommodation. Together they also designed a residential and commercial accommodation. Together they also designed a residential project of some 250 apartments in Phuket, Thailand, in collaboration with interior designers in Hong Kong and London. John delivered a diverse range of projects for his developer and domestic clients alike, ranging from the conversation Grade II listen regency buildings to high specification apartments, to the construction of a new country house in the middle of an AONB an onto the creation of a conceptual masterplan for a pedestrianised seafront in Hastings.
