Senior Assosicate | Architect

With a keen interest in sustainability, Sarah is a driven and enthusiastic architect who encourages creative collaboration. Her ability to effectively manage teams and consultants enables her to guide large scale projects to successful outcomes. Prior to joining the Scott Carver team, she worked across the United States of America on a variety of project scales and typologies including residential, multi-residential, mixed-use, hospitality, government and heritage projects. 

Q. What value are you capturing by working in a creative environment with a diversity of designer backgrounds, and how have you contributed to a truly integrated approach to design?

A. I consider it a privilege to work amongst a truly diverse team of designers, technicians, urbanists, and humanitarians from around the globe, who are eager to solve problems, explore ideas, and add value to the project teams they work on. Together, our varied cultural and practice backgrounds bring an immense amount of knowledge and skill to the table making for rich and thoughtful outcomes. It is my great pleasure to encourage and set fire to the strengths of these individuals as we work together tapping into our collective architecture, landscape, interior, and urban design knowledge banks – all under one roof.

Q. In your opinion, what do you believe to be the most significant contribution design can make to the prosperity and liveliness of communities?

A. Well-considered public domain spaces. Our built environment is evolving to keep up with the pace of technology, which has enabled people to break free of designated spaces for specific activities. Public spaces should be defined by the user, and be flexible enough to service all people both day and night. This egalitarian view will begin to tap into the “unused” spaces within our cities and find ways to share information, shelter and amenities as our density increases, answering to the health and well-being of all dwellers, not just those who can afford such luxuries. The goal: a thriving and self-aware community that makes the absolute most of its regional qualities.

Q. You have recently completed several large projects with diverse teams. Tell us about what you have learnt, and how that is helping with your current clients?

A: One word – communication. Communication with the client to clearly understand their constraints and ambitions. In the early stages of a project I prefer to develop a respectful relationship with the client and establish a clear brief. This enables me to better understand how the client communicates and what they need from me to make decisions, as well as how they see our team’s involvement. This has been especially rewarding with clients from overseas, as it is very important to respect cultural boundaries and be an ambassador when sharing insights to local history, markets, public domain, and other valued aspects of our city the client may or may not be familiar with. Communication with local stakeholders is key, especially when dealing with projects in other countries, where council, code and construction capabilities are varied. Early conversations to establish expectations are a must. This allows us to orchestrate and align the client goals with the local requirements and make the client aware of specific consultants and contributions that may not have been on their radar at the start of the project.

Effective communication with consultants to provide functional yet seamless structure and services – this is incredibly important for hotels and resorts for these components to not negatively impact the end-user experience. We collaborate with consultants to achieve outcomes that meet the design intent for not only today, but years down the line, making thoughtful use of the client’s investment. Also, critical to a successful outcome is communication with the internal project team. The larger the project, the more moving parts there are, and it is of utmost importance that every member of the team understands their role, what they will contribute and when the deadlines are. I use every tool in the book to effectively communicate and encourage team members to take responsibility and become aware of how their decisions impact others on the project team. We also love what we do and thoroughly enjoy creating. A well-oiled machine in-house provides an avenue to respond quickly, create well-considered designs that respond contextually and meet program deadlines.