Where I learned to think about the whole.
Architecture was where I learned to look at a project before looking at its appearance.
The training taught me to ask what a project is for, how people will move through it, how it sits within its surroundings, and how structure, light, orientation and circulation shape the experience long before materials and finishes are chosen.
That way of thinking has stayed with me. Whether the project is 45,000 m² or 250 m², the scale changes, but the question does not: what is the idea, and is it strong enough to guide the decisions that follow?
Where I learned to care about the details.
Interior design brought me much closer to the things people actually touch, see and use.
A concept does not end when the space is drawn. It continues through the junction between two materials, the height of a counter, the proportion of a piece of furniture, the position of a light, or the way signage meets the architecture.
Working across interiors taught me that these details are not separate from the concept. They are where the concept becomes tangible.
It also changed the way I think about scale. At interior scale, design is experienced directly and continuously. People may never notice the reasoning behind a space, but they notice when something feels awkward, confusing or out of place.
Where I learned how design survives reality.
Designing a space and delivering one are two different skills.
Working on experience centres, retail, restaurants and other interior projects from concept through construction taught me to think beyond the drawing: how a material will actually be built, how a detail will be coordinated, what happens when a specification changes, and which decisions need to be protected when a project inevitably evolves.
This is where I learned that good design is not only about having a strong idea. It is also about knowing which parts of that idea matter most, and communicating them clearly enough for the whole team to carry them through.
Where I started looking beyond the work itself.
Design is not a discipline that stays still. The tools change, the way people work changes, and the expectations around what a designer can do keep expanding.
Throughout my career, I have always been interested in learning what comes next. Not simply to keep up with new tools, but to understand whether they can change the way I work for the better.
That has led me from learning new software and workflows to thinking more systematically about how information is organised, how decisions are made, and how different parts of a project connect. Experience gives you patterns; systems give those patterns structure.
AI has opened another layer of that exploration.
While much of the current conversation focuses on what AI can generate, I am more interested in the possibilities around it: how it can help designers understand complexity, structure information, explore possibilities, make better decisions and reduce the friction between different stages of a project.
The goal is not to replace the designer, or to automate everything that can be automated. It is to question the way we work now, find where technology can genuinely add value, and create more space for judgement, curiosity and creativity.
For me, learning does not stop when I become good at something. The next question is always: what else could be possible?