Inventor Designer Environmentalist Architect
I believe in rethinking the way we design to challenge the status quo. Everything I do is designed around the use of material resources, innovative ways of making things and human centred design.
Thinking differently allows me to develop simple concepts that express the way they are made. The buildings I design are eco-functional with natural light filtered into tactile spaces and places for nature to move in
My expertise has developed over a lifetime of working with great people. My professional background is in zero carbon architecture and I worked for Hopkins Architects and Bill Dunster Architects, two of the leading practices in this field.
My work with them has allowed me to be part of teams designing masterplans, the World’s greenest university campus right through to zero carbon kit houses, industrial and consumer products.
Designing breathing wall cladding systems has developed into a passion for North American timber. I joined a UK delegation to look at Canadian forests, which took me across the entire country to look at forest types and logging practices.
Recently, I provided mentoring for Canadian green businesses. Making the best use of materials, energy efficiency and collaboration with the best engineering expertise has always been central to my holistic approach to building and product design.
As an architect with a farming and carpentry background the latter two are always subconscious guides. I have a special interest in wood because of the connection to the forests and all the species that grow there.
Steel, concrete and stone are expressed as they are made with marks left from machine tooling, welding and hand working. Recycled materials have their own patina and story to tell and have character.
Some of my favourite spaces are workshops and I have a fascination with tools and how they can be used – they form a critical part of how I develop ideas into prototypes.
What we create and use today must become tomorrow’s solution to be re-used by future generations.
Over the last 10 years I have combined traditional methods of working with virtual design software and digital prototype ‘tooling’.
Some ideas develop quickly and are built in my workshop. Patent and design registration also form part of the development processes I use.
We face a future where resource scarcity and recycling material waste streams will become ever more critical.
Thinking about the way we put together components, products and buildings is essential to help solve this problem.
It doesn’t matter how small the product or how big the building the same principle applies – we must do a lot more with what we have without damaging the ability of future generations to live healthy lives whilst protecting the environment.
