Thank you for visiting the Polygon Architects website and taking an interest in my work.

Without knowing it at the time, Polygon Architects began its life when my partner and I bought a charming, somewhat outdated Victorian terrace house in Harringay. We lived in the house for about a year, during which time we had our second child — born in the dining room! — and began to understand what we liked, and didn’t like, about the way the house worked.

Between nappy changes and sleepless nights, we worked through our brief and made plans to extend and undertake a top-to-bottom renovation. You can see this project here: Glenwood Road.

At that point in my career, I was working for a large commercial architecture practice. While I felt I had a good understanding of what made “good architecture”, it wasn’t until I lived in my own home, in spaces I had designed and laboured over, that I experienced with real clarity how architecture has the power to improve lives.

The way the new floor plan was configured, the use of materials — in our case, long handmade Italian bricks, rich Douglas fir timber, and beautiful birch joinery framing a generous west-facing bench seat — the increased daylight, the carefully arranged alignments, the generous views to the garden, and the places to store all of life’s stuff: the buggy, the scooter, the cleaning bits. All these parts of a home, carefully considered and designed as a whole, made us feel happy, and brought us a sense of calm and delight every day.

We had our home.

Working on this project, I also discovered my love for each step of the construction process. We lived in the house during the works — despite having no heating or hot water through part of the winter — and I had the privilege of following the build day by day. The work was led by Andy, the main contractor: a brilliant man who taught me a great deal then, and continues to do so now.

Budget was, of course, tight — as budgets so often are — and so, to save on costs, I turned my hand to building parts of the project myself. I am proud to say that I built the garden studio. I bought the necessary tools, watched YouTube videos, carefully planned each stage, and took it step by step.

After many months of working weekends, I had built a small timber-frame, fully insulated, bright and comfortable garden office. I installed the glazing, fitted the glazed door, learned to chisel the hinges and cut in the door hardware. I hung the large mirror on the façade, installed the cedar cladding, and lifted all the soil for the wildflower green roof — with the help of a few willing friends.

Every weekend I would find myself at Screwfix, timber yards and builders’ merchants, learning first-hand about the components of construction. I discovered a love for CNC fabrication and designed and built the birch plywood staircase up to the loft myself — a bold first CNC project. I sanded floors, painted walls and woodwork, and built the pantry shelves and bookcases.

And I loved doing it all. Along the way, I had fallen in love with that house.

Soon after, I knew I needed to change direction as an architect. I no longer wanted to work for developers on large-scale buildings, removed from the personal. I wanted to focus on helping people like me and my family: people trying to make better use of their homes, to deal with individual storage needs, growing families, changing routines, and the everyday realities of life.

I wanted to help transform houses into homes that feel considered, calm and joyful — homes that bring delight into daily life, and that people can fall in love with.

And so, in 2015, I took the leap, founded Polygon Architects, and began this journey.