John Nordon

John is the Creative Director for igloo where he applies design thinking to projects that goes beyond the traditional bricks and mortar approach, utilising co-creation and co-design to develop a holistic approach to regeneration.

Working with the talented design teams and stakeholders, John’s approach to design unlocks opportunities with an unrivalled level of design quality, which in turn delivers sustainable and socially responsible outcomes.

John spent the first 15 years of his professional career in London as an architect, working in a variety of practices, including founding the London studio of the Japanese practice Ushida Findlay, establishing his own practice IDE-A, and becoming the Design Intelligence Leader for the Woods Bagot European Studio.

In 2013, John moved “client side” spending five years with Pegasus Life as Design Director. As part of a start-up, he created new products and approaches that challenged and reinvented the retirement housing sector – so much so that his projects were nominated for 28 Housing Design Awards, in which 10 won.

With a heart for fundraising, John was a founding rider, board member and trustee of Cycle to MIPIM, helping to raise over £4 million for charity, in particular the children’s charity Coram.  

Outside of his day-to-day roles, he’s actively been involved in the industry as a trustee of Coram’s Legal Centre from 2014 to 2017, as well as an expert client for the UK Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2016. From 2021-24 he was also a design council expert on housing.

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