John Cooper

John is a leading figure in healthcare design and has been a principal in practice for 37 years. He is actively engaged in reshaping the healthcare environment and improving and re-forming its architecture, combining an expert understanding of health planning with genuine design skills at both a strategic and a detailed level. He set up JCA in 2009 with Hrafnhildur Ólafsdóttir. The practice has designed buildings and masterplans in the UK, Ireland, Switzerland, South Africa, Iceland, Australia, Kashmir and Palestine. This provides John with an international perspective and a wide ranging knowledge of best practice. He has led government report panels and provided peer review on major projects in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia. John co-founded Avanti Architects in 1981 and then joined Anshen Dyer in 2002 (reformed as Anshen + Allen in 2006) as healthcare director and in his seven years at the practice A+A won and designed 12 major projects from complex tertiary hospitals to innovative community facilities and competition winning mental health units. He is a regular speaker at conferences in the UK and overseas and has written for the major architectural journals in the UK. He was chair of Architects for Health (2009-2014) and is still actively engaged in this organisation. He is currently the programme director for the annual European Health Design Congress which is now a leading world healthcare forum.