Philip Halliday

Philip is a native of East Belfast, born in 1955. He joined Gordon McKnight Architects, a leading practice in church design, in 1976 before completing a BSc Hons Degree and Post Graduate Diploma in Advanced Architectural Studies at Queens University Belfast. He joined the Northern Ireland Housing Executive as a project architect from 1981, where he successfully completed RIBA Part III.

In early 1988, Philip joined the Department of Finance to lead an in-house design team on a variety of large Government building projects including a major fit-out for offices for over 1,000 civil servants in the Castle Court complex in Belfast and then several major reinstatement and extension projects for NI Courts Service at Londonderry, Armagh and Newry Courts.  In 1998 he developed and produced the feasibility study that successfully redirected the strategic planning for the new Central Courts Complex opposite the Royal Courts of Justice in Belfast.  

In 2001, Philip transferred to the Education Advisory Service based in Bangor as project architect for nursery, primary and secondary school projects.  This included responsibility for the Department’s SEN delivery and over the last 23 years has successfully completed many special school projects across the province including St. Gerard’s SEN and Resource Centre relocation in Belfast, the North-South collaboration on Middletown Centre for Autism, Co. Armagh, and Arvalee SEN School, Omagh, part of the Strule Shared Educational Campus where Philip has played a key role.  His experience and enthusiasm for collaborative team working has helped the Department in developing their SEN Handbook design guidance.