Jason Prior

Landscape architect Jason Prior is at the top of his profession.

Principal of regeneration firm EDAW, Jason led the team that designed the masterplan for the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games. He also spearheaded the rebuilding of Manchester city centre after the 1996 IRA bombings as well as the regeneration of Sheffield.

He is currently working on the design of the Olympic Park after the Olympic Games are concluded as well as projects in Qatar, Belfast, Moscow and Libya.

“I think all the work we’re involved in has a civil and civic purpose. We deal with things that have an enormous impact in terms of environmental issues and ......about how they occupy space, how they enjoy space, what they want from it,” he says.

“My greatest enjoyment is when it delivers on behalf of communities or where we do a certain piece of work that makes certain the environment is conserved or enhanced.

“If you’re interested in the world and where people live, interested in the environment, in delivering the major mechanisms by which we will achieve a sustainable world, to get to the hard core ‘let’s just do it’ around the major issues, this profession gives you multiple avenues by which to approach it.

“Whether you want to design beautiful places or drive the science that underpins those, landscape architecture is an extraordinary blend of science and art, proposition and thought.”