As an Architect and Urban Designer, I have always been drawn to complexity. There is something fascinating about peeling back the layers of a city, understanding how they interact, and watching them come together to form a vibrant, living space. I enjoy working on large scale urban regeneration schemes — they’re ambitious, complicated, and have the potential to transform spaces into places that bring joy and value to people.
My ability to work across all scales and in unravelling design intricacies through constant dialogue with clients, experts and stakeholders has been instrumental in all the projects I have been a part of. For example, in the mixed-use regeneration of Smithfield in Birmingham, which transforms a brownfield site to become an extension of the city centre, with new homes, retail, workspace, markets, and leisure. Other projects like our work on the City Structure Plan and City Centre Action Plan for Thimphu in Bhutan, helped articulate the vision and strategies for the whole city, while providing detailed design guidance for the redevelopment of its city’s core.
Each project brings together a range of disciplines — engineering, economics, landscape, flood resilience, mass timber construction technologies, and more. We learn from each other and work together to deliver exciting, resilient strategies for each city’s future. Demonstrating that problem solving always works hand in hand with the narrative and story of the place. This experience has fed a desire to make cities enjoyable places to live, work, play and move around in — places where people can just be.