John is a leading figure in healthcare design and has been a principal in practice for 35 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 Olafsdottir. The practice has worked in the UK, Ireland, South Africa, Iceland and Australia and is currently working in Switzerland 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 UK and Australia. John co-founded Avanti Architects in 1981, pioneering social architecture and designing a wide range of residential, community and regeneration projects. In 1995 he led the design team for the ACaD Centre and on the strength of this project Avanti developed rapidly as a major healthcare practice under his leadership. After 20 years at Avanti, John joined Anshen Dyer (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 for oncology, paediatrics and maternity 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.

As the national deputy director of estates for NHS England, Fiona is tasked with leading the strategies, policies and national programmes to decarbonise the NHS estate, improve operational resilience and patient experience, and develop the 100,000 strong estates and facilities workforce; driving innovation, engagement and delivery, and providing healthcare organisations with the critical support they need to implement their plans. Fiona has 17 years’ experience of working in estates and facilities management and is passionate about reducing health and social inequalities, establishing an estate that supports the transition to sustainable models of care throughout the NHS. She is focused on driving the delivery of a healthy, resilient healthcare estate; tackling organisational leadership, investment in the built environment, and developing the skills and capacity of the current and future NHS workforce. In 2018, she was made an honorary professor at University College London (UCL) for her contribution in supporting the development of students in her field.

Alice Green is an architect, interior designer and associate principal at Arcadis and has specialised in health for over 17 years. Alice incorporates a holistic approach to design with a focus on service user wellbeing and finding innovative ways to create cohesive healthcare environments. Alice also sits on the Board of Directors of Architects for Health, a non-profit organisation that advocates for best practice in healthcare design.

Laura Waters is Co-Director of the National Arts in Hospitals Network UK, the membership network for arts managers working in UK hospitals. In this role, Laura leads on national arts in health projects and promotes arts in hospitals throughout the UK and internationally. With a dual background in Environmental Psychology and Music Performance, Laura combines these two areas of expertise in her work as Head of Arts for the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton, providing high quality artistic and cultural experiences for staff and patients across five hospital sites. As a member of the University of Bristol Sensing Spaces of Healthcare project, Laura champions these guidelines to incorporate latest research on the senses into modern hospital design.

Ruth Charity has worked for over 25 years curating and commissioning contemporary art, for the past 15 years focusing on work for public spaces, particularly in the field of arts and health. Her background is in visual arts curation – working for the British Council’s Visual Arts Department (1989–92) touring exhibitions overseas, as a curator at The Photographers’ Gallery, London (1992–97), Curator of the Mead Gallery at Warwick Arts Centre (1997), and Assistant Director of Artpoint, the public art commissioning agency for the South of England (1997–2005). Ruth has always been interested in commissioning new work by artists in response to particular contexts, in supporting artists in taking their work in new directions, and involving and engaging the public in the development of new work. In 2007 she founded artlink, the arts programme for Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Past projects include a five-storey wall painting by Michael Craig-Martin for the Children’s Hospital atrium; a £250,000 integrated art programme for a new cancer centre at the Churchill Hospital; an extensive photographic project by Jan von Holleben to provide distraction on routes from children’s wards to theatres; and a Wellcome-funded collaboration by artist Susan Morris and a chronobiologist to create a series of large tapestries reflecting sleep/wakefulness patterns. Additional freelance work has included the curation of a programme of work by photographer Gina Glover for the Oxford Fertility Centre; a series of commissions for new library and student facilities at Oxford Brookes University; and work on a public art strategy for the Midland Metropolitan Hospital in Birmingham (for Willis Newson). Ruth has written on contemporary art in catalogues and journals. In 2005 she edited the publication 'ReViews: Artists and Public Space' (Black Dog Publishing), an extensive review of Artpoint’s projects, focusing on the artist’s experience within public art practice.

Stephanie is a Principal at BVN, working at the intersection of architecture, health planning, and complex systems design across Australia, Asia, and the UK. She is passionate about exploring how large -scale healthcare environments can move beyond institut ional models to become more adaptable, legible, and responsive to human behaviours and sensory experience. Stephanie approaches hospitals not simply as buildings of function, but as evolving networks of people, processes, and technologies. She focuses on s implifying complexity, enhancing clinical workflows, and creating spaces that are intuitive and supportive for both staff and patients. She values stakeholder engagement as an active design tool - challenging assumptions, surfacing insights , and exploring opportunities to create healthcare environments that are resilient, flexible, future -ready, and bring joy to those who inhabit them.

James is associate director and healthcare lead at P+HS Architects with over 20 years’ experience in healthcare design and delivery. He has led complex acute and diagnostic projects across multiple NHS trusts, including critical care expansions, hybrid theatres, emergency departments and cancer facilities . His work draws on lessons learned across live hospital programmes, with a focus on patient flow, infection control, technical compliance, and ensuring the built environment actively supports safe, efficient clinical operations.

Dr Meda completed microbiology specialist registrar training from KSS deanery St George's Hospital and Frimley Park hospital where she was the first microbiology registrar to train, London, following several years in training in Paediatrics. She transitioned into infection prevention role in the NHS in 2009. She is currently employed at Frimley Health NHS Foundation, a large trust in the southeast of England, as a consultant microbiologist and infection control doctor. Manjula’s special interest lies in the built environment, especially around water and wastewater safety in healthcare. She has introduced water-free concepts in patient care in the UK. She currently holds the position of chair of the Healthcare Infection Society (HIS). She is actively involved in research and been part of many national clinical trials and working collaboratively with other organisations. In this role, she has led the development of a HIS water and wastewater safety course and the formation of the BEIPI (Built Environment Infection Prevention Initiative), bringing together all those involved in building hospitals from architects to IPC teams with the aim to build safer hospitals. She is passionate about bringing innovation and transformation required in current and future healthcare buildings to reduce risk of AMR transmission from the built environment.

Rachelle is a Director in the Healthcare Advisory Team at Currie & Brown, with 30 years of experience delivering major healthcare projects in the UK and internationally. She specialises in large‑scale master planning, reconfiguration programmes and the redesign of healthcare pathways, driving improvement through extensive stakeholder collaboration. Rachelle leads complex healthcare estate programmes to successful, timely and cost‑effective completion. Rachelle is part of the BEIPI committee, committed to raising awareness of infection control within the built environment.

Bob is a director of Medical Architecture with over 35 years’ experience as an architect with more than 30 years in healthcare design. He has played a key role in the delivery of various large-scale mental health and acute health projects, including Clock View Hospital in Liverpool, which combines architecture and landscape to create a therapeutic environment for recovery. The building received the coveted Design for Sustainable Development Award at the 2023 European Healthcare Design Awards. Recently, Bob oversaw the design of Kimmeridge Court, a specialist eating disorders unit at St Ann’s Hospital in Dorset, a building that received the Clinician‘s Choice Award at the 2023 Building Better Healthcare Awards, and the Seastone CAMHS Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit, also in Dorset.

Jaime is a director at Fleet Architects and chair of Architects for Health, and a proven project designer, competition winner and studio leader. During his professional career he has been responsible for multiple projects with values ranging between £8 and £120 million and was one of three associate directors responsible for the management of a 65-person firm under a managing director. He is an experienced all-round designer with specialist skills in healthcare and has sat on the executive board of Architects for Health (AfH) since 2006. He has significant experience as the lead architect in major PFI schemes, including the preparation of a reference project for a $2 billion teaching hospital in Adelaide, Australia. He has been a visiting tutor at various universities since 2002, including Nottingham, Cardiff and London Metropolitan. Since 2012, Jaime Bishop and Richard Henson have been teaching third-year degree level students at London South Bank University and established their studio, the Transpontine Laboratory, based at the university, in 2014. Jaime was educated at the Royal College of Art, Bath University and the TU Delft Highrise Scholarship. He has been ARB registered and a member of RIBA since 2006. He is a recognised figure in the healthcare sector with connections throughout the industry. Jaime has detailed knowledge of traditional and private finance initiative (PFI) contracts, fee negotiation and project cost control. Jaime has sat on the board of the City and Hackney NHS Clinical Commissioning Group and social enterprise East London Integrated Care. He has also served as an elected governor at the Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

A registered clinician and hospital operational manager, Iona has a proven track record of delivering large-scale healthcare facilities. She has strong experience in operational readiness, ensuring hospitals can deliver healthcare safely and effectively from day one. From the delivery of major regional cardiac centres to the development of the first healthcare buildings from the New Hospital Programme, she is a confident and experienced team leader. Iona is passionate about delivering efficiency in healthcare operations through effective design and collaboration.

Matthew is head of healthcare at TODD Architects. He is a highly experienced and well-respected architect who is dedicated to the creation of quality healthcare environments. Matthew is responsible for leading TODD’s healthcare strategy across all studios in the UK and Ireland to deliver a growing portfolio of transformational healthcare projects.

Habban Ali is a chartered architect (MRIAI) with a focus on the healthcare sector and education sector. Based in Ireland, he is an associate architect at Reddy Architecture + Urbanism, contributing to complex public-sector projects, including acute healthcare and mental health facilities. He has experience across planning, technical design and multidisciplinary co-ordination within highly regulated clinical environments. Habban holds post-graduate qualifications, including an Executive MSc in Healthcare Facilities from the Bartlett, UCL. His research examined cybernetic field hospitals and adaptive digital infrastructures for post-crisis acute care, developing system-level frameworks for resilient and scalable emergency response. His work bridges practice and research, advancing healthcare resilience through modular construction, digital integration and long-term adaptability under climate and crisis pressures

Linda is a RIBA Chartered Architect with over 18 years' experience in architect's practices, specialising in healthcare design. She has extensive expertise in the briefing, design and delivery of complex healthcare projects, creating clinically effective and operationally efficient environments. As Healthcare Sector Lead at DAY Architectural, Linda contributes to the strategic development of the healthcare sector, ensuring projects consistently deliver high-quality outcomes for clients and communities. She is a member of the Executive Committee for Architects for Health and Pillar Lead for Fostering Future Talent, championing inclusion, diversity and the development of future designers. Coming from a multidisciplinary background with a Masters in Human Resources and a degree in Psychology, Linda adopts a research-led, user-focused approach, to design inclusive environments that enhance wellbeing and everyday experience. Her experience within a Tier 1 contracting environment on the NHP Hospital 2.0 Alliance bid has also given Linda a valuable insight into healthcare delivery from both client and contractor perspectives.

Habban Ali is a chartered architect (MRIAI) with a focus on the healthcare sector and education sector. Based in Ireland, he is an associate architect at Reddy Architecture + Urbanism, contributing to complex public-sector projects, including acute healthcare and mental health facilities. He has experience across planning, technical design and multidisciplinary co-ordination within highly regulated clinical environments. Habban holds post-graduate qualifications, including an Executive MSc in Healthcare Facilities from the Bartlett, UCL. His research examined cybernetic field hospitals and adaptive digital infrastructures for post-crisis acute care, developing system-level frameworks for resilient and scalable emergency response. His work bridges practice and research, advancing healthcare resilience through modular construction, digital integration and long-term adaptability under climate and crisis pressures

Healthcare Facilities MSc, University College London. Recipient, 2025 Ann Noble Award.