George Ashley-Cound
Energy Architect, Creative Engineer & Founder
About
George Ashley-Cound is a pioneering energy architect and creative engineer with more than three decades of experience transforming the way buildings generate, store, and manage power. Born in Cornwall to an inventor father, George’s career has evolved from precision engineering and world-class production lighting to the design of self-powered commercial and residential buildings that integrate solar energy into architectural form.
Today, as Founder and Creative Director of The Lightworks Group, Solar Arts Co, and Suncatcher Living, George is on a mission to design and build beautifully engineered solar structures. His work turns renewable energy from a functional requirement into an architectural feature, creating buildings that are powerful, elegant, sustainable, and designed for the future.
Biography
George’s professional foundation began with an apprenticeship at British Aerospace, where he gained rigorous technical training in precision engineering and innovative design. This early experience shaped his practical, disciplined approach to solving complex technical challenges with elegance and accuracy.
During the 1980s, George established himself as a leading lighting and stage production designer, creating lighting systems and production concepts for major international concert tours. His work transformed performance spaces into immersive visual experiences and earned him recognition as a creative visionary in the entertainment industry.
In the 1990s, he moved into theatre, hospitality, and venue design, combining atmosphere, aesthetics, and technical performance to create sophisticated environments for luxury clients. This later developed into international power systems engineering for hotels, fashion stores, hospitality venues, and premium retail environments across Europe and beyond.
From 2015 onwards, George turned his focus towards renewable energy and solar architecture. Motivated by a desire to return the power he had consumed throughout his career, he founded a portfolio of companies dedicated to transforming buildings into beautiful, self-powered infrastructure assets.
As Founder and Creative Director of The Lightworks Group, Solar Arts Co, and Suncatcher Living, George leads the design and engineering of solar-integrated commercial buildings, artistic photovoltaic systems, and luxury energy-positive homes. His work brings together building-integrated photovoltaics, battery energy storage, smart energy management, EV-ready infrastructure, and architectural design to create buildings that generate, store, and manage their own power.
Through The Lightworks Group, George focuses on self-powered commercial buildings, hospitality energy solutions, agrivoltaics, smart grid infrastructure, and solar-ready architectural design.
Through Solar Arts Co, he champions the idea that solar energy should not simply be functional, but beautiful. The company transforms solar panels, façades, glass, tiles, and installations into expressive architectural features.
Through Suncatcher Living, he brings this vision into residential design, creating luxury homes designed from the ground up as complete solar-powered systems.
George’s work is recognised and supported by leading professional organisations, including the Institution of Engineering and Technology, the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Royal Institute of British Architects, Solar Energy UK, the Renewable Energy Association, the International Solar Energy Society, the World Green Building Council, the UK Green Building Council, IEEE, and CIBSE.
Today, George’s mission is to redefine the way buildings produce and use energy. He believes the buildings of the future will not simply consume power, but generate it. His vision is a world where solar-integrated architecture becomes the standard: beautiful, intelligent, revenue-generating, and self-sufficient.
Through his companies, George Ashley-Cound continues to design and engineer the sustainable infrastructure of tomorrow — buildings that are not only functional and efficient, but powerful, elegant, and built for the future.