Linda is an associate architect working in our Healthcare team. Having worked in practice since 2007, she has rich experience in healthcare and laboratory projects ranging in value from small refurbs to very large, complex projects.
Linda is an advocate for diversity and inclusion, and with a degree in psychology, she is interested in how we can use research to enhance the design of buildings and spaces to improve wellbeing. One of her key achievements is qualifying as an architect as a second career having worked whilst studying and raising her two children.
What are the key challenges that affect your sector or are likely to in the next five years?
Some of the major challenges in the future are likely to come from dementia and obesity. The cost projections are eye watering, for obesity and overweight issues alone, with UK-wide NHS costs projected to reach £9.7billion by 2050. Delivering a net zero NHS carbon footprint by 2040 is an incredible challenge particularly while using the existing building stock. At the same time, hospitals are faced with enormous backlogs of patients whose procedures and treatments have been delayed because of Covid. There is increased pressure on having both staff and buildings to deliver these services. Covid has also brought a heightened focus on designing spaces that will be capable of meeting changing infection control demands. The integration between hospitals, GP practices and social care needs to be improved greatly. Ineffectiveness of these interdependencies can lead to people who are medically well staying in hospital when they need to be cared for in a different setting.
What’s your favourite project you’ve worked on to date?
Whilst at another practice, I worked on the George Eliot Hospital Endoscopy Unit in Nuneaton which involved the creation of a new modular building within a hospital courtyard. It was a very happy combination of contractor, design team, capital estates and clinicians working brilliantly together. It was very satisfying to create an effective patient pathway with uplifting interiors; a small project with a big impact.
If you weren’t in this career, what would you be?
I completed a degree in psychology in my early twenties, and I believe that if I were not an architect, I would be working in the field of environmental psychology which focuses on the transactions between individuals and their environment.
What is your proudest moment?
There are two – the birth of my sons!
Interesting fact that nobody knows about you?
When I was eighteen, I hitched a lift back to Dublin with some friends following an end of exams camping trip. Who stopped for us? Only Bono!
Awards
- Paper accepted by the European Healthcare Congress in September 2020. I presented on research I had undertaken in metabolic syndrome, mental health and architecture.
- Building Better Healthcare Awards – Best Modular Healthcare Facility – Orthopaedic Theatre, Guy’s Hospital, London.
Industry Bodies
- RIBA
- Member of the Executive Committee of Architects for Health
- Women in Property
- International Association of People Environment Studies