James Conway

My father was an electrical engineer and at the age of 7yrs I was fortunate enough to work with him for two weeks during my summer holidays from school. My job was to draw all of the electrical wiring lines onto their architectural drawings (in the years before CAD). One day during that two week period was to going create ‘The’ focus for the rest of my life, the day that I was allowed to go on a client visit with my dad.
We went to a beautiful 16th Century Elizabethan Barn that had been completely reformed. There was a Ferrari in the driveway and the client’s son was fishing from a bridge over a river that ran through the property. I fell in love with it immediately and asked my father what the client did for a living – he was an architect, and from then on so was I.
By 1994 ‘landscape architecture’ had become an up and coming field of study and I jumped up to the challenge. I had become well versed in the teachings of Permaculture design and founded myself firmly as an Ecocentric opposed to Anthropocentric designer. The professional field in the UK was very limited and eventually I moved to Spain and began a small landscape design studio. I spent most of my time trying to adapt ‘conventional’ designs to more ‘environmentally beneficial’ designs and by the time we installed them – usually got away with it.
In general I worked on a design and build basis until 2007 when I was approached by BioTop España, to produce a competition scale 4000m² sustainable water feature for the Government run ‘El Dhub’ project in Barcelona. My love for the creation of Natural swimming pools was born. While doing so I won an award from the European Fund for Regional Development and expanded my studio to that of a full Environmental Design Studio.
Most of my work from then on was more involved with Local Government, National Environment Schemes, Nature Trail development and organising Section 21 schemes, local community seminars & events. I left Spain having Graduated from the University of Granada with a PG Diploma in Sustainable Municipal Environmental Management for Rural Areas.
We moved to Brasil in 2011, began again and although challenging on a scale that I’d never appreciated before, my jeuvenile image of life, home and logistics have remained with me.
Today I continue to help ‘teams’ of people create places that inspire and several years on, my design studio has become part of a now Global network of environmental specialists, coming together under the title Qatuan.
WORK
Strategic & Tactical Advisor
Landscape Architect
EDUCATION
Environmental Design
Environmental Engineering
Environmental Management
Environmental Sustainability
Municipal Management
Municipal Sustainability
Renewable Energy Research and Investigation
SKILLS
Nonprofit Organizations
Negotiation
Crisis Management
Business Planning
Sustainable Development