Shop Shelter – Reclaiming Doorways as Sanctuaries

This project addressed a pressing issue: Southend High Street is lined with empty shopfronts, while many individuals sleep exposed, with no place to go. The challenge was to find a way to provide shelter within the existing urban landscape, creating something practical, humane, and truly necessary. Shop Shelter transformed shop doorways, which are already used by rough sleepers as makeshift refuges, into retractable and thermally insulated enclosures that offer privacy, protection, and dignity. Made from recycled materials, these shelters come equipped with solar powered phone charging and are designed for easy deployment. They aim not just for survival but also to rethink how cities engage with homelessness. This initiative is more than a temporary solution; it represents design as care, demonstrating that public spaces can be reimagined and that no one should feel invisible in the place they call home.

Waves – Restoring Flow to Southend High Street

For this project, we were challenged to reimagine Southend High Street—to transform a space that had lost its identity into something that felt alive again. I wanted to design an intervention that didn’t just fill empty space but instead restored movement, connection, and rhythm to the street, inspired by the very thing that defines Southend: the sea.

Waves became a flowing, immersive landscape—curving pathways, reflective blue surfaces, and shifting light that echoed the movement of water. The high street was no longer a static stretch of shops but a space that invited people to walk, pause, and experience. Biophilic planting, shaded rest points, and interactive lighting created a design that responded to its visitors, subtly changing with the day, like waves rising and retreating. More than just a redesign, this was about restoring energy, playfulness, and identity to a street that had stood still for too long.

Lido – Reclaiming Water, Reviving Community

Lido – Reclaiming Water, Reviving Community For this project, we were tasked with redefining an urban space and breathing new life into something forgotten. I chose to reimagine Southend’s relationship with water not merely as a backdrop but as a living immersive part of the city itself. The result was Lido, a vision for a modern revitalized open air swimming area where the sea and the urban landscape merged in a way that felt both natural and essential. This project was not just about bringing back a lido; it was about restoring a sense of ritual and play, creating a communal meeting point shaped by water and movement. Inspired by the fluidity of the tide, the design incorporated curved organic pools, sun warmed seating terraces, and tidal walkways, crafting a space that felt as though it had always been there waiting to be rediscovered. More than just a place to swim, Lido was envisioned as a space for connection a reminder that water is not merely to be observed but truly experienced.