Design Influences
"Architecture shapes human life, health, and wellbeing."
Design Influences
Architecture, for me, is not just about designing buildings – it shapes how we live, feel, and interact. Spaces influence our health, behaviour, and wellbeing, often in subtle but powerful ways.
I do architecture because it has a direct impact on people. Good architecture can calm, guide, protect, or inspire. Poor spaces, on the other hand, can create stress, discomfort, or disconnection.
One of our greatest human “superpowers” is our ability to be social – to connect, to form communities, to belong. Architecture plays a critical role in this. It can bring people together or push them apart. It can create opportunities for interaction, shared experience, and support – or it can isolate.
Influences such as Happy by Design highlight how design affects mental wellbeing in measurable ways. Books like The Architecture of Happiness and Homesick show how deeply we are emotionally connected to spaces – how much we seek belonging, identity, and a sense of home.
I am particularly interested in:
how light, proportion, and material shape perception
how spaces encourage or limit social interaction
how architecture supports community and human connection
how architecture is not only functional, but feels right
I practice architecture because I believe spaces carry responsibility.
Not just technically or aesthetically – but humanly.
Good architecture, for me, is achieved when a space does not need explanation, but is intuitively understood, naturally used, and brings people together.
At our architectural studio, we strive to uphold the principles of integrity, transparency, and respect in everything we do. Our vision is to create a world guided by empathy, respect, justice, generosity, courage, fun, and love.
We follow the Vitruvian principles:
Vitruvius, was a Roman author, architect, civil engineer, and military engineer
Firmatis (Durability) - It should stand up robustly and remain in good condition.
Utilitas (Utility) - It should be useful and function well for the people using it.
Venustatis (Beauty) - It should delight people and raise their spirits.
In addition to these timeless principles, we also draw inspiration from the Bauhaus movement, which sought to unite art, design, music, architecture, and technology into a holistic vision.
What inspires us most, however, is the Bauhaus's diverse and creative approach to humane education. However the Bauhaus movement also pioneered new methods for industrialised building production, it is this very aspect that we feel needs critical reflection — as much of today’s construction has become overly economically driven, losing sight of the human being at the heart of design.
There are so many other influences.
David Attenborough, Jane Goodall, Rutger Bregman, Steve Backshall, Maja Göpel, Humanise Org, Chris van Tulleken, Prof. Harald Lesch, Prof. Brian Cox, Chris Packham, Prof. Alice Roberts, Dr George McGavin............
For us, being critical is not just important — it is essential. We believe that with more critical thinking and care, disasters like Grenfell Tower could have been prevented.
