Studio JZ was established by John Zhang in 2017 as a boutique practice focusing on bespoke projects in China and the UK.
John is an ARB qualified Architect with over 15 years of experience in the design profession, across a range of sectors and scales. John studied architecture at Cambridge University and the Royal College of Art, winning the Conran Foundation Design Award and the Will Alsop Award for Urbanism for his Master’s design thesis.
Prior to establishing Studio JZ, John was an Associate at DSDHA, leading on diverse architectural projects across a range of sectors. John was responsible for a number of award winning buildings, including Olympic Village Housing for London 2012, a bespoke workshop and boutique for jewellery designer Alex Monroe, a luxury residential building in Marylebone and a flagship fashion store on Oxford Street.
Studio JZ is actively engaged in practice based research through John's role as a Lecturer at the University of Westminster, where he is the studio master of a 3rd Year BA Architectural Design Studio in conjunction with the Central Academy of Fine Arts in China, exploring novel ideas of housing design to address global questions. The work of the studio is being published later this year as a book. John also holds a PhD from the Royal College of Art, on the changing conditions of contemporary Chinese architectural practice, particularly as they pertain to the urban and rural renewal in a rapidly post-industrial China. This research has been featured in published magazines and is currently being developed into a book.
