“Deborah is a passionate & expert advocate for quality sustainable design, production, placemaking and business operation. An environmental futurist, she has 30 years of landscape, architecture, and design expertise.”
RECENT PROJECTS
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![A birch tree cast its decorative shadow on the pavement.]()
BIRCHLIGHT
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![Landscape architect Deborah Nagan, in her roof-top garden.]()
DEB NAGAN IN HER ROOFTOP GARDEN
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![Sketch of award-nominated FAB building, Warwick University.]()
THE FAB BUILDING
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![Deborah Nagan's illustration of the Palace View Terrace.]()
PALACE VIEW TERRACE
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![Deborah Nagan's illustration of the Riffa Views, Bharain.]()
RIFFA VIEWS, BAHRAIN
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![Deborah Nagan's placemaking design project Granby Place.]()
GRANBY PLACE, LONDON
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![Deborah Nagan's design project, Fritillus Garden, Luxembourg]()
THE FRITILLUS GARDEN, LUXEMBOURG
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![Warwick University – FAB building, Stirling Prize nominated.]()
WARWICK UNIVERSITY, THE FAB BUILDING
PRACTICE
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Landscape & architectural schemes through to artwork.
Whether expressed as landscape or architecture, design as a marriage of problem solving and creative expression has been the focus of Deb’s career.
The scale has always ranged from detailed to urban-scale, through painting, furniture, stage sets, interiors, architecture, landscape & masterplans.
Projects are a synthesis of sustainable, environmental and fundamentally human. Deb Nagan Studio continues to be part of major project teams and career highlight is the inclusion of the Warwick University FAB Building on the 2023 Stirling Prize Shortlist (with Fielden Clegg Bradley Studio and Buro Happold), and she is currently engaged with Hugh Broughton Architects on a de-carbonisation / Heritage project to the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew.
Projects outcomes are joyful, beautiful, colourful, unusual, practical and timeless. Deb is a founding partner of Nagan Johnson Architects.
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With such a wide range of projects to her name, Deb is regularly asked to contribute her thoughts as an ‘Expert Generalist’ at conferences and talks, to Government and Councils and, through many Design and Quality Reviews, to emerging projects as a critical friend. She is a Design Council Expert, a member of the Westminster, Oxford, Network Rail, HS2 and Barbican Design Review Panels. As a Mayor’s Design Advisor she has contributed to projects and research on the night-time economy, High Street regeneration, Safe Space for Women, Girls and Gender-diverse people. She is a member of the Belonging Forum. These experiences contribute to her though leadership in the creation of ‘Happy Places’ where great design and best sustainable practices make for happier users.
See CONTACT for consultancy and speaking engagements.
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Deb is a long-standing Trustee of Bankside Open Spaces Trust, a past Trustee and Standing Committee Chair of the Landscape Institute and a Trustee of the new, Emma Cons Gardens Trust. The latter is part of her ongoing commitment to creating quality new space and public art in Waterloo and London. She has been a member of the Chelsea Fringe festival committee and was a Non-Executive Director of Terra Instinct advising on biodiversity net gain policy and implementation.
BIOGRAPHY
Deborah is a passionate & expert advocate for quality sustainable design, production, placemaking and business operation. An environmental futurist, she has 30 years of landscape, architecture, and design expertise.
Deborah is a Landscape Architect and partner in architects Nagan Johnson Architects. She now runs a bespoke consultancy, Deb Nagan Studio, advising on design, landscape and sustainability in many projects across infrastructure, built environment, cities and art projects. She has 30 years of design experience specialising in strategy for combined sustainability, landscape-led masterplanning and placemaking. She oversees projects with well-being at their heart and is adept at turning project constraints into positive sustainable and economic outcomes. Her favourite topic is ‘Happy Places’.
As a Mayor's Design Advocate, Deborah has advised on High Street renewal and Gender & Safety in the Public Realm. As a Design Council Expert she sits on the Network Rail panel, Barbican Panel as well as taking up other advisory roles, including NMDC Pathfinder panels and national housebuilding & regeneration.
Deborah was a Non-Executive Director of Terra Instinct, specialising in Biodiversity and she holds Board and pro-bono posts for a number of charitable organisations such as BOST and the Emma Cons Garden Trust. In 2023 her landscape for the Faculty of Arts building (the FAB) contributed to its nomination for the RIBA Stirling Prize for best building. She also paints and is mildly obsessed by rowing.