Name
Anna Blamire-Brown.

When did you join Austin-Smith:Lord?
2019.

What is your role within our Creative Collective?
Passivhaus Designer.

What are you working on at the moment?
A number of residential and higher education Passivhaus schemes.

What inspires you most in your work?
Opportunities to design buildings that are elegant and contextual, as well as self-sustaining and regenerative.

Which designers / projects do you most admire and why? 
Carlo Scarpa, for his originality and craftsman-like approach to design.

What is your favourite place / building / landscape and why? 
Glanusk Estate, specifically during the 4 days in late August when it hosts the Green Man festival. A special mention also goes to the Princess of Wales Conservatory at Kew Gardens which is a plant-lover’s heaven.

What is one of the key challenges facing our design professions in the 2020s?
Getting to a point where everything we design gives back to the environment, rather than taking from it.

What’s something that recently made you smile?
Probably a dog video on Instagram.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever heard? 
Becoming Vegan is a really effective way to reduce your personal carbon footprint, and it can open your eyes to delicious new recipes too!

Complete the following – “I couldn’t get through the week without……..”
Making something out of clay. Spending a couple of hours on my potter’s wheel helps me wind down and clear my head at the end of a busy week.