It all began after a 6 month research trip abroad (case studies of which appear in my first book – Contemporary Vernacular Design) where I interviewed residents and architects of culturally significant, beautiful and low energy housing schemes in Chile, Bolivia, Papua New Guinea and China.
I couch-surfed my way around or worked on organic farms. I learnt so much, it was invaluable and life-changing.
(This was shortly after getting engaged – my future husband didn’t take it personally :-))
But…. I came back to find the recession hadn’t ended and I was easy to lose because in the 6 months I’d been away, my projects had been understandably given to others. But I had a lovely redundancy experience with lots of support from colleagues and higher-ups.
I freelanced for a little while, but disliked the uncertainty of workload.
So, I set up my own practice with little more than a few postcards in local shop windows and a very simple website.
I wouldn’t have planned to start out with no clients in a recession, but it did force me to fully commit. Not being visible wasn’t an option – I needed clients to know about me! So I just had to ignore my shyness and be brave.
There have been huge challenges but I’ve created a practice that supports me and my team, that enables us to work with wonderful people on projects that light us up. Personally, it has enabled me to work around my little son while being the breadwinner and my husband re-trains.