Philip trained at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, the University of Sheffield School of Architecture and the Universitatea de Arhitectura si Urbanism "Ion Mincu" in Bucharest, Romania.
His MArch research thesis concerned the post-dictatorship / post-communism / post-conflict city, looking primarily at the last fifty years of Romania' s architecturaland urban upheaval. The subject was approached with reference to related conditions in Bosnia Herzegovina, the former Soviet Union and pre-2003 Iraq as a broader enquiry in to the condition of urbicide - the deliberate manipulation of the city and buildings for political gain.
Before joining ECA Philip worked in Seattle and London with independent projects undertaken in Edinburgh and south east Wales.