John Leo Gillen was born and raised in a nightclub, and studied architecture to reimagine it as a post-club space. He is creative director of Temporary Pleasure, an architecture and design practice working from within club culture — across festivals, live music, immersive art and cultural institutions — exhibited by the Barbican and Fundació Mies van der Rohe, with commissions for Boiler Room, Dekmantel and WeCanDance.

Alongside this, he designs immersive environments across art, music, fashion and culture.

Author of a monograph on nightclub architecture (Prestel / Penguin Random House), Rencontres d'Arles Book Award finalist. MA in Ephemeral Architecture and Temporary Space Design.

John Leo Gillen is creative director of Temporary Pleasure, a post-club architecture and design practice working across festivals, music, art and culture — exhibited by the Barbican and Fundació Mies van der Rohe, with commissions for Boiler Room, Dekmantel and WeCanDance. Alongside this, he designs immersive environments across art, music, fashion and culture.