The research began with a child.

This work did not start in a laboratory. It started with my son, and with trying to understand how the buildings he spent his days in were affecting him — what those spaces were quietly asking of his nervous system. In the attempt to understand him, I began to understand other children.

I am a research architect, an author and a mother, and those are not separate people. The same close attention runs through the studies, the books and the quieter reflective writing.

As Director of Research & Digital Innovation at Education Design International, I lead a programme of work in salutogenic design: architecture that actively promotes health rather than merely avoiding harm. Alongside Prakash Nair, I have co-authored A New Language of School Design and Building Minds — work that has shaped how the field thinks about learning environments and wellbeing.

My essays appear on the EDI site; a separate, quieter body of writing appears in my books.