Name
Mesha, or ‘Meesh’ to most.

When did you join Austin-Smith:Lord?
August 2015.

What is your role within our Creative Collective?
Architect. I am also a RIBA Future Architects Mentor and a CPD Coordinator.

What are you working on at the moment?
A real mixed bag at this very moment; jumping between Inverness Life Sciences and Innovation Centre, Glasgow District Regen Frameworks, been working up a walk-through video of a one-off house development and have a Logistics Hub currently in planning.

What inspires you most in your work?
My peers – we’re not called the “Creative Collective” for nothin!

What aspects of your work are you most proud of?
Problem solving – the satisfaction of finding a solution that has the end user at the forefront of the design… oh and then seeing it in use, functioning as intended. Bliss.

What is your favourite place / building / landscape and why?
I’m a sucker for a good sunrise/sunset. I think its the restorative effect, and how they somehow make time slow down. A great time for reflection.

What is your favourite Austin-Smith:Lord project and why?
Either Liverpool Central Library or John Ryland’s Library. I love it when old and new collide (or should I say, when it’s done well!).

What are they key issues facing our design professions in the 2020s?
Other than the obvious issues surrounding sustainability and the need to target net zero, I think competitive bidding is becoming far more aggressive, with a growing pressure to do more for less.

What’s something you’re planning on doing in the next year that you’ve never done?
Skiing and getting married (not at the same time!)

What’s the best advice you’ve ever heard?
“Nothing worth having comes easy” – Dad, repeatedly Est. 1991.

Complete the following –  “I couldn’t get through the week without……..”
My mini dachshund, Sydney. She is my little sidekick.