What’s your favourite journey? A journey that you never planned for – something impromptu. When you go on an unplanned journey, you find the unexpected and discover new things. What really matters are the experiences along the way. With an unplanned journey, since you didn’t anticipate it, you have no expectations and that’s where you are able to really be present with experiences and live a full life.

What’s your favourite book and why? In Praise of Shadows – by Jun’ichiro Tanizaki. For me, reading the book was a meditative experience in finding and seeing beauty in simplicity, and ordinary and casual everyday life and objects. My favourite quote from the book is: “find beauty not in the thing itself but in the patterns of shadows, the darkness, that one thing against another creates.”

What would you be doing if you weren’t in your current position? I’d be working as a kelp farmer – growing food that helps the environment, while being connected to the ocean and nature while having abundance of my favourite food at hand.

What gets you inspired? For me, inspiration comes from colours, rhythm, and patterns that occur in nature and everyday life, for example in light and shadows.

What advice would you give young women who are interested in entering the architecture field? As women, there’s a tendency to hide our true self and be the person we think the world wants us to be. Have grit and be yourself! Don’t be afraid to show who you are. This authenticity will get reflected in our designs and our work, and the industry needs more of it and us.