James Soane, Director

James Soane, MA (Cantab) Dip Arch (UCL) RIBA

James Soane is a qualified architect, writer and educator who set up Project Orange with his partner Christopher Ash in 1997. Their agile architecture and interior design studio has a broad and original portfolio of work in the UK and overseas. We believe in working collaboratively to generate purposeful and sustainable projects. In the face of the ecological crisis we are actively taking an ethical position that values resilience, innovation and society.

James recently completed a 40,000sqm office in Moscow, the fit out for Nhow Hotel in Fosters 250 City Road scheme and is worked for Peabody at Thamesmead on master planning and the refurbishment of the Moorings Social Club. The practice is designing 45 new passive house homes in rural Suffolk and a mixed-use regeneration scheme in Dalkey, Dublin. He is also on the Lavenham Village Design Group.

He has taught architecture at the Bartlett and Kingston University and was the chair of the RIBA New Courses Committee for six years. He has been an RIBA Awards Judge and an external examiner at Westminster University. James is a founding Director of the London School of Architecture launched in October 2015, where he was director of Critical Practice and Research. He is now a Critical Practice Fellow. He is a frequent contributor to the architectural press and continues to lecture around the UK.

As an author he wrote ‘New Homes’ published by Conran. His most recent book is ‘A Gendered Profession’ published by RIBA where he was a contributing editor. The studio have published four research books, PO Box, a collection of essays by the studio. The most recent is titled ‘HELP’ and considers how architects can respond to the climate emergency. He was a member of the RIBA Ethics Committee in 2019 and was the Presidents Champion for Education.