TV architect inspired by her childhood in Wales
THE memory that the architect Laura Jane Clark recalls most vividly from her childhood in Wales is the castles.
Laura, who is back on TV tonight with the third series of Your Home Made Perfect, grew up in Prestatyn and she loved exploring the old castles near her childhood home.
“I always wanted to be a doctor, so when I was little I didn’t really think about being an architect, but I used to love exploring the old castles in north Wales,” Laura recalls.
“My grandparents lived in Rhuddlan, and Rhuddlan Castle is a wonderful old derelict ruin. I used to go over to see my grandparents as we were really close, and I’d absolutely adore going to the castle and messing around, it was just fantastic.
“I used to love Conwy Castle as well, which is a little bit grander, and I always remember looking around and thinking what it would have been like to be a knight back in the day – I was never a princess kind of girl.”
Laura was born in Scotland but moved to Wales when she was three. Her grandfather was a big influence in her life and made sure she knew what was important.
“The last thing he said to me was ‘don’t be supporting Scotland over Wales in the rugby’ because it was the Six Nations at the time.
“So I promised him I would never support Scotland over Wales and I never have done. Scotland for everything else but Wales in the rugby.”
Her career choice changed when Laura was 17 after seeing an architecture exhibition in Glasgow.
“My mind was blown and I just knew this is what I wanted to do, all my A-levels were to be a surgeon, so I added art to my A-levels and cracked on.
“I got into the Glasgow School of Art by the skin of my teeth. I loved the university and being there, but because I hadn’t come from an architectural background or had any friends that were architects, I was just completely a fish out of water – I had no idea what anyone was talking about.
“I eventually got there and qualified and I got a job in Guy Greenfield Architects in London.”
It was encouragement from Guy Greenfield to find her own small development to work on that inspired Laura to find the project that made her name.
“I found some old underground toilets in Crystal Palace, I saw them as a great opportunity to turn these into a flat, and that was basically my first move doing stuff for myself,” she recalls.
Laura started working on the old toilets in 2011, having managed to buy them off the local council for £20,000. She spent £65,000 converting them into something not only habitable but very stylish.
The project made the papers around the world, but not only that, it gave Laura a foundation for developing detailing, site visits, and working closely with the construction team.
“I think working on-site is really important for anyone wanting to become an architect, especially female architecture trainees,” she said.
“I’d always worked on building sites in between university terms and in the holidays because I wanted to be the kind of architect that knew what was going on on-site.
“I worked in north Wales most summers and worked as labourer on sites around north Wales, which was really eye-opening.
“So when I set up by myself, I knew I wanted to build and be part of the building process.”
When Laura started up on her own she joined Architect Your Home, which she says is essentially a marketing company set up by two architects that allows people to work freelance under its umbrella.
“That is how I started and then I set up on my own a couple of years later,” she said.
“I never had any big amounts of money to speak of to set up my own company, so I did it pretty organically and I was doing loft conversions and small extensions right from the word go.”
It was the underground toilet conversion that catapulted Laura on to television as it featured on George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces. She then worked with George on Shed of the Year and Ugly House to Lovely House, while away from television she grew her own practice, Lamp Architects, based in Scotland.
The firm specialises in innovative house designs and small-scale redevelopment, as well as micro-regeneration of long-abandoned and brownfield sites.
But it is the former that has seen a big increase in the past year.
“In terms of finding places to work inside the home, most people I’ve done design consultations for in the last year have asked for some form of home office, whether that’s a small space or a home office,” she said.
“I don’t think this trend is going to reverse in any way shape or form, so I think looking for places to fit some kind of space, it can be a multifunctional area, or multifunctional desk space.
“It doesn’t have to be a dedicated room, one thing that’s really nice to do is have big sliding doors to your workspace so when they are open, you can still feel part of the house, but then close them if you have a call or a Zoom chat.”
With any big project, Laura says the most important advice is to plan, plan and plan.
“My suggestion would be to take a step back from thinking about your four walls and look more holistically at the project,” she said.
“Where does the morning sun come in and where do you gravitate to during the weekend and the evenings? Start to make your layout work for you and your unique home, rather than get bogged down in which wall should go where.”
Laura is excited about the new series. In the previous run, she competed with Robert Jamison, but he was unable to commit to the latest series, so this time Laura will be up against five other architects.
“Doing Your Home Made Perfect has just been incredible and certainly given architecture and design for the home a real platform for normal-sized jobs and budgets that we’ve not really seen before,” she said. “The show really showcases design and small-scale architecture and interiors that we’ve just not seen before.”
■ Your Home Made Perfect starts tonight at 8pm on BBC Two.