>Johan Wijesinghe is an architect and researcher specialising in regenerative materials, technical due diligence, and policy. He advises financial institutions, conglomerates, and development companies on feasibility, procurement strategy, and regulatory adoption. Clients include Sumitomo Forestry, LACMA, and Google REWS. He is currently Research and Development Architect at Waugh Thistleton Architects in London, working across programmes in the UK, Europe, and Australia. His technical specialism spans regenerative construction systems, developed through over a decade of material performance testing, supply chain analysis, and direct engagement on first-of-their-kind buildings.
At LEVER Architecture (2020-2024) he worked on fire, acoustic, and seismic testing of mass timber systems and worked with engineers and code authorities to develop performance-based approval pathways, translating research into jurisdictional adoption across multiple US states. He co-developed the USDA-funded Forest-to-Frame procurement platform, contributed carbon modelling to the Energy Trust of Oregon Net Zero Fellowship, and managed procurement strategy across large-format timber projects supported by over $3M in external R&D funding. Projects include Kirkland Urban East (180,000 sf mass timber office, WA), the Oregon Acoustic Research Lab, and the OSU Fire Testing Lab.
He is a founding organiser of Startup Architecture at ETH Zurich's Institute of Technology in Architecture, a symposium convening founders, venture capitalists, and academics on venture as a mode of architectural practice. He directed the inaugural edition in 2024 and is leading the 2025 programme. From 2024 to 2025 he was Guest Faculty and AI Researcher at ETH Zurich, co-teaching Architecture in Large Quantities with Gilles Retsin, investigating how generative AI and prefabricated timber systems can restructure building economics at scale.
He holds an MSc in Computational Design from the Bartlett, University College London (2018-2019, Distinction). His dissertation, Domain Transfer in Pretrained Networks and GANs for Architecture, was supervised by Sean Hanna. Before joining LEVER he worked at Gilles Retsin Architecture in London (2018-2020) on computational and robotic fabrication, including the Real Virtuality exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. At Escher GuneWardena Architecture in Los Angeles (2011-2024) he contributed to historic conservation and cultural commissions including the Pilot House, a cooperative prototype by A. Quincy Jones and Whitney Smith, the Jeweled Isle exhibition at LACMA, and installations for Sharon Lockhart, Hermes, and Washington University's Kemper Art Museum.
He holds a B.Arch from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (2012-2017, Distinction, SCI-Arc Scholarship) and spent a visiting semester in Kazuyo Sejima's studio at the Universitat fur die Angewandte Kunst in Vienna (Spring 2016). Writing has appeared in Underscore Journal Vol. 3, the Bartlett Journal Vol. 10 (editor), and the Venice Architecture Biennale Reporting from the Front (2016), exhibited at Japan House London and the Royal Academy of Art.