Anna is a Senior Associate at HTA Design LLP. A Chartered Architect on the RIBA Conservation Register with 20 years experience of practice in the UK following a BArch earned and some years working in the US. Anna also earned an art MA from the University of Westminster exhibiting work solo and in group shows. Architectural work includes the design of new-build housing and care homes, alterations to listed buildings small and large, and other buildings with interesting and unsung stories. She sees the sustainability issues we grapple with today allied with good conservation practice and the materiality, building physics and quality of space we admire in the work of our ancestors.

Key achievements since joining HTA are developing a refurbishment strategy and design for Grade II* listed Hanham Hall, near Bristol, securing planning approval for a mixed site of listed refurbishment and new-build residential and commercial in Tottenham and an important research study report into the history and development of Mansion Blocks.

Anna’s significant projects include: Bruce Grove, Tottenham in 2016 comprising a planning application and listed building consent application for a complicated site of 3 parts that included a Grade II listed house, commercial use and new-build mews houses to the rear. Working closely with an enthusiastic client, understanding the listed fabric and its setting on this complex site informed alterations to the building, the refurbished commercial space on the prominent forecourt and the size and scale of the new houses to the rear. For Contract B of the Next Wave project at Bexhill, 2010-2013, Anna was Contract Administrator (JCT ICD 2005). The scheme included conversion of the Grade II listed Edwardian Colonnade to restaurant use and new Rowing Club in an extensive design by HTA Landscape for the Local Authority client.

An interest in why things are the way they are and for the value of research as grounding for future work, as a source of inspiration and to guide interventions inform Anna’s professional approach. Anna has written short articles and reviews in various small journals as well as many research reports on historic buildings and conservation areas. These have been most influential on design projects Anna leads and the conditions where they can have a similar benefit for projects led by others are being sought. A recent study seeking to define the Mansion Block typology is currently under peer review for the Architect’s Research Quarterly and continues to inform project work at HTA, and did much of the research and writing for the key projects in HTA’s history showcased for HTA at 50 celebrated in 2019. As the conditions for research in practice ripen other opportunities to learn and share are expected. Anna is Transgender and being innately private remains guarded about sharing this personal information in the context of both the persisting hostility and potential benefits of being visible to others. A February 2019 article she wrote for the RIBA Journal introduced the subject of Trans in Architecture in that publication, but it is felt unsatisfactory on reflection.

Influences include both Deleuze & Guattari and Le Tarouilly through Peter Eisenman, the Architect Marlon Blackwell, and the experiences of sensations of place. The design intent of our forebears and patterns of wear hold a particular fascination as evidence of use over time, as a connection to past generations and for their survival. Fulfillment comes in applying paint to canvas; Anna brings a painter’s method that perceives through the eyes, translates through the heart to the hand and onto the canvas, to every task. A similar understanding of the value of process guides her design work and management of teams. Listening, iterative exploration and reflection are integral to Anna’s creative process to which she brings a personal appreciation for the delicacy of memory, elegance and wellbeing, the value of lived experience, a concern to avoid harm and the presumption that people cherish the quiet enjoyment of their home.

Anna is a practicing artist outside HTA producing works figurative and abstract on canvas and paper.