John Thompson is an architect and urbanist with a 50 year career devoted to improving the quality of everyday life in neighbourhoods across the UK and in Europe. Trained as an architect at Cambridge University during the 1960s, John is a thoughtful, charismatic and highly motivated urbanist who rejected the prevailing view of the architect as heroic ‘form-maker’ early in his career, and pursued instead an altruistic agenda, working directly with local people to create places that encourage social interaction and help nurture a strong sense of community. To achieve his goal, John has worked tirelessly, developing new ideas and pioneering innovative approaches to placemaking that have challenged professional beliefs and self-serving development practices.
