Janis Vilcins

Janis is an Architect and a Certified Passivhaus Designer with nearly a decade of experience in private architectural practices, delivering projects in the residential, education, and arts sectors.

His experience spans all project stages, with particular expertise in delivering schemes to completion on-site, often in complex and constrained environments. This experience has made him an effective project manager equipped to make strategic decisions at key project milestones.

Janis is passionate about maximising the environmental sustainability potential of buildings, and his expertise lies in integrating sustainable design principles at crucial stages of projects in a holistic manner.

Guildford Borough Council

As a Project Manager for the Council’s affordable housing delivery, Janis was primarily responsible for managing and overseeing the delivery of the Council’s small sites programme. This work mainly involved preparing the project tender information necessary to appoint a contractor to build the schemes.

He also played a key role in launching a new major regeneration masterplan scheme, which aimed to explore opportunities for improving one of the most deprived areas of the borough, comprising approximately 800 homes.

In addition, Janis facilitated the development of a new set of housing standards for Council-led housing projects. These standards were designed to embed design quality and improve the efficiency of the delivery process for new homes.

The role offered a valuable combination of high-level strategic thinking and day-to-day technical project delivery tasks, giving Janis a comprehensive overview of both the challenges and opportunities involved in council-led housing schemes.