Profession: Part 2 Architectural Designer
City: LONDON
Country: United Kingdom

What inspired you to want a life in Architecture and the creative industries?:
As a schoolgirl I was drawn to Art and Dt as well as the more academic subjects; I loved them all and wanted to a pursue a career that combined them. At that young age I came across the field of architecture that supposedly convened the expressive arts, the sciences and the humanities. The more I looked into it the more I liked it, especially when I was challenging polarizing comments on society during the 2015 Brexit era. I realised the issues I was seeing was gentrification and I saw that architecture had the potential to create tensions within communities but it also has the potential stitch communities back together and remedy tensions. The idea of making changes to the social infrastructure of cities through spatial interventions is what kept my interest in architecture going.

Who inspired you in finding your path to Architecture/Film and the creative industries?:
Initially a POC ‘structural engineer’ in a film about a burning building that I watched at 9 years old – I still can’t find the name of the film! Like I’ve mentioned before my interest in architecture started young but was confirmed when I was in sixth form during a very politically contentious climate. I was inspired by architectural writers like Shumi Bose, as well as Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Browns thoughts in Learning from Las Vegas. As part of the Open City Accelerate programme I met architects at MAKE and was inspired by their intellectual approach to design, unpacking concepts such as ‘raum’ and ‘genius loci’. During my first year at university I sat through a lecture by Alison Killing; I still cite her as my inspiration for my own mode of practice. I want to work within the intersection of architecture and activism very much like Forensic Architecture and Killing architects.

How you unlock obstacles and overcome bias in your work?:
Well bias is hard to notice because discrimination is very subtle in the UK. Discrimination and exclusion is also systemic and is built within the foundations of the architecture industry. In this sense to combat discrimination one needs to dismantle the structures of power and control. This is difficult because architecture as a European construct was part of a colonial mission, it is deeply intertwined with colonialism, subjugation and imposition. I have built my mode of practice very much around this notion of deconstructing and then reconstructing the institution of architecture. I have been part of many collectives that have similar goals and values, such as the Palestine Collective who are creating a safe spaces to platform Palestine within architectural and academic circle.  Aside from that I have felt mocked and my needs completely disregarded by people who are older and thus have more social agency than me. What is difficult is some of these people have actual given me support in other aspects of life or taught me important skills. I feel to make a change I need to tell my story but I don’t want to come across ungrateful, it is difficult to strike that balance. I have felt that any time I slip or make a mistake my faith and my skin gets the blame. It is not ok to be responsible for a whole nation, I’m human just like anyone else. I haven’t fully worked out how to overcome these barriers.

What improvements do you feel are required to promote effective change in the academic and working environment?:
We need more POC persons within the industry especially at more senior positions so that they can be cognisant of our needs and struggles. We need a more inclusive social culture that does not solely revolve around going to the pub after work. We need POC persons within the industry to be given platforms to tell their stories for the industry to listen and learn. We all need to be reflective and to challenge our own conceptions to ensure we are not intentionally or unintentionally disenfranchising people though our actions. We need to platform the Palestine and Lebanon, and Congo, Sudan Bangladesh… the list goes on. Architecture has a direct hand in the creation of these struggles, at the very least we cannot allow an exclusion of these topics being discussed within architectural spaces.