James Conway

About me

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

Languages

English
Portuguese (Brazil)

James Conway

Message

xxx-xxx-xxxx

Promoted Needs and Offers

Save post

Events

Yo Mujer, Yo Ecologico, Yo Gaia

Taller Vivencial de Ecologia Profunda para Mujeres Un fin de semana para Reconectarnos con nuestro Poder, la Naturaleza y la Red de la Vida Vivimos en tiempos desafiantes, con crisis en nuestros ecosistemas, economias y sociedades que están afectando a toda la vida del planeta. Para muchas personas esto puede ser angustioso y abrumador; tal vez no sepan como reaccionar. En este taller vamos a explorar como son nuestras respuestas al estado actual en que se encuentra el mundo; de un modo que nos ayude a despertar y acceder a la motivación, creatividad, fuerza y solidaridad necesarias para la transición a una cultura humana sostenible. Juntas haremos un recorrido que nos llevará a espacios en los que podamos reconocer en que maneras, nosotras como mujeres, sentimos los peligros que hay en estas crisis, experimientando sus efectos y visualizando y co-creando nuestro futuro. El sonido nos acompañara en este viaje y jugaremos con nuestras voces y tambores, para expresar nuestros sentires, nuestros deseos y nuestras esperanzas. Estas prácticas pueden reconectarnos con nuestro poder, el poder CON la Tierra, en lugar de Sobre la Tierra, lo cual es algo que las mujeres desde la antigüedad han sabido y entendido. Vivir en plenitud es conectar con nosotras mismas como partes activas de la Red de la Vida. Las mujeres siempre han sido activas en los movimientos sociales y medioambientales: en la Guerra Civil española, las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo en Argentina, en el Reino Unido ha existido un campamento antinuclear con unicamente mujeres por 20 años. Y más recientemente oimos las voces emergentes del Sur como Vandana Shiva y Wangari Maathai en campañas por la soberania alimentaria y los derechos de acceso a los recursos locales para la población local. Estas prácticas que realizaremos, han sido desarrolladas y utilizadas desde hace más de 40 años y están basadas en el trabajo de Joanna Macy, ecofilósofa, activista, estudiosa y profesora de la teoria de sistem

Save post

Events

EDE France 2021 | Écovillage Sainte Camelle

We had to wait 2021, against all odds, to see the very first French EDE. How come it was only the 1st? Why never before? Well, we know why. FHF. This is why making an EDE in France was a tough challenge to take on. And yes, we did it! The group of participants we had for this EDE was so diverse that no clan emerged. It is quite usual that people gather by affinity in small groups but here, the entire group stuck together no matter what. The glue was really strong. Some personalities were more extraverted of course, but with a real care for other’s presence and voice. To the extent to become a real counter-power: if we made any facilitation mistake, if we failed to propose in the most careful way and if it felt like we were imposing anything, we would be immediately in trouble. We knew it came from a childhood school trauma for these people, who were very open about it. It was an amazing journey to navigate the facilitation process with such awareness. This context led to something incredible during week two: a very quiet voice, Pauline, protested against the fact that they had agreed to community agreements on the first day but now, she said, they had to review them by themselves and check if it reflects who they really are. We, as EDE crew members, opened a space in the program for them to take the time to do it. They used Sociometry, a tool taught to them before, to assess the agreements. They counted in percentage who agreed or not for each topic. They even discussed about the structure of the program and finally approved it. It was a very beautiful real-life example of self-empowerment. One of the most iconic moment of this EDE was the Derdian roleplay in which they completely immersed themselves for three hours. The participants playing the indigenous Derdians went in the forest and created another set of social rules to add to the existing 10 social rules, making it even harder for the engineers to understand them. Howeve

Save post

Events

Liderar la Transición

Lo femenino del mundo, de las personas. De Mujeres y Hombres. La Transición que nuestro mundo sueña, necesita de una reformulación clara de los liderazgos. Reinventarse el liderazgo devolviéndolo a su lugar: ser una función de la eficiencia de los procesos colectivos; y dejando de lado los liderazgos basados en la acumulación de privilegios, en la desigualdad y en la dominación. Cuando lo Femenino ocupa el espacio de lo publico, trae consigo la realidad no visible; coloca en lo social los interrogantes necesarios para que lo social deje de estar fraccionado entre Publico/Privado, y pueda ser acogido como el Todo que es. Lo femenino en su esencia, despojado de los condicionamientos impuestos, libre de ser y expresar su potencial en un mundo que busca caminos hacia la inclusión, la escucha, la equivalencia, el empoderamiento de los seres y colectividades que cuidan de la Vida. Traer al espacio de lo Publico , lo invisibilizado: las mujeres, los pueblos olvidados, la propia Tierra, la parte oprimida de la humanidad; es una forma de integrar las necesidades de las personas , del planeta, de la humanidad como identidad . Esta propuesta quiere ser un espacio para abrir las puertas e indagar juntas sobre el papel de estos liderazgos en los procesos de cambio. Como son esos nuevos liderazgos? Como es encarnar estas posiciones en colectividades y organizaciones? Como viven el proceso las mujeres que están desarrollando estos nuevos liderazgos? Y las que no. Como se sienten los hombres ante los liderazgos de las mujeres? Y los que encarnan estos nuevos modelos de liderazgo. Buscar respuestas….temporales tal vez. Ofrecernos espacios para el debate, la indagación, profundizar, explorar. El Programa: (Provisional, sujeto a cambios) Viernes 9 por la tarde: Llegadas, instalarnos, visitar Arterra. 20.00: Cena y Presentaciones. 21.30: Cine y Debate. Sábado 10 : 9.00: Desayuno 10.00- 13.30 Taller: Liderazgo y Poder. 13.45:

Save post

Events

Online Summit Hub

Guardiamo insieme l’Online Summiit