Simon is a principal of London-based architects Henley Halebrown. The practice has been shortlisted twice for the RIBA Stirling Prize. First, in 2018 for the Chadwick Hall student housing for the University of Roehampton and this year, in 2022, for Hackney New Primary School & 333 Kingsland Road which is also shortlisted for the Neave Brown Award for Housing. Chadwick Hall was nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award EU Prize in 2019; and in 2020 won the Fritz Höger Silver Award for Brick Architecture. In 2018 Quart Verlag published a monograph on the practice in the De Aedibus International series.
For more than 20 years Simon has advocated for a palpably sustainable architecture, one that people understand, engage with and participate in as occupants. He explores these ideas in his essay ‘Façade Studies’ in The Hybrid Practitioner published by Leuven University Press (2022). Crucially, he strives through the work of the practice to facilitate a sustainable way of life.
Simon studied at the University of Liverpool and the University of Oregon, USA. He combines practice with teaching, writing and research, and is the author of Redefining Brutalism (2017) and The Architecture of Parking (2007) which won the RIBA International Book Award for Construction. Simon is a postgraduate unit master at the Kingston School of Art.