The first time I sat across from a homeowner who’d already spent £14,000 on a contractor’s drawings before realising the layout couldn’t get planning permission, I understood why so much confusion exists around this profession. Not because the homeowner was careless they’d done research, asked around, thought they had the right person. They had a … Read more
One of the most frequently asked questions that I get from my architectural student friends as they approach their final year in school is whether this profession pays off. And the answer, of course, is not as simple as giving one salary number. How much an architect makes varies depending on how far he or … Read more
Walk through any city Edinburgh, Dallas, Toronto, Singapore and you’re moving through a timeline nobody labelled. The office block on the corner, the old courthouse two streets down, the glass-and-steel tower reflecting the sky. Each one belongs to a different chapter of human thought. Most people walk past without reading a single word. That’s the … Read more
I once spent three hours on a rooftop in Lahore arguing with a contractor about a window. Not the size. Not the cost. The direction it faced. He wanted it facing the street easier to install, better curb appeal for resale. I wanted it facing the courtyard, because that’s where the morning light actually came … Read more
Nobody told me gardens were architecture until I killed three of them. Two lawns, one raised bed. Confidently designed, poorly executed, completely ignored the site conditions. Too much shade on one side. Wrong drainage on the other. The third one I just gave up on after the first winter. A friend who works in landscape … Read more
The first winter in our house, we had one thermostat. It sat in the hallway, which nobody actually spent time in, and controlled every room equally. The bedroom was freezing. The kitchen directly above the boiler was unbearable by mid-January. We turned the dial up. The kitchen became worse. The bedroom stayed cold. We turned … Read more
Most people think an architect draws buildings. That’s the image someone bent over a drafting table, pencil moving across a large sheet of paper, conjuring rooms and rooftops out of nothing. And while that image isn’t entirely wrong, it’s a fraction of the full picture. What is architecting, really? It’s the full act of conceiving, … Read more
My grandfather owned a chair he never let anyone sit in. Not because it was fragile it wasn’t. Because it was the Barcelona Chair, and he’d bought it in 1971 from a dealer in Milan who’d told him, with some ceremony, that Ludwig Mies van der Rohe had designed it for royalty. Specifically for King … Read more
There’s a particular kind of frustration that comes from hiring an architect who listens politely, nods at everything you say, and then hands you back something that looks like a slightly modified version of the last project they did. I’ve heard this story more times than I can count clients who came in with a … Read more
There’s a house two streets from where I grew up that always looked wrong. Nothing you could put your finger on exactly. Nice enough from outside, decent furniture inside, but walking into it felt like walking into a showroom that someone had accidentally started living in. The owner repainted twice in three years. New sofa. … Read more