At Holmes Miller, our people are one of our strongest assets. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be introducing you to some of the team who helped us become one of the UK’s leading architectural practices.

In the first of our Meet the Team series, we’ll be introducing you to Mariyam Afnida, one of our project architects, to dig into her experience and find out a little bit more about her journey to becoming an architect.

What’s your current role at Holmes Miller?

I originally joined Homes Miller, Glasgow in 2012 having moved from the UAE which I consider home. Across the UK and UAE, I have worked on a wide range of interesting projects to broaden my expertise and portfolio – including education, residential, hospitality, commercial, judicial and healthcare sectors.

The draw of the UK – both personally and professionally – was always exciting and I was delighted to accept a position as project architect to join Holmes Miller’s London-based team last year.

What projects are you currently working on?

Currently, I’m working on two landmark projects at Holmes Miller. Firstly, I’m working with Grahams and London South Bank Technical College to build and develop a c10,000sqm, 10-storey building in Lambeth for students to study technology, engineering, dentistry, science, arts and maths in hi-tech classrooms and workshops.

The £27m project (pictured left) is the first new technical college of its kind in the UK and will be key to tackling the country’s skills gap in STEM related fields – which is estimated to cost UK businesses billions of pounds each year in retraining, recruitment and temporary staffing fees. Phase one of the college is set to open in August this year (2022) and as part of that I’m currently overseeing the technical design and delivery of the project.

I’m also working with Whitehill and Bordon Regeneration Company, a joint venture between Dorchester Regeneration and Taylor Wimpey, to regenerate Bordon town centre in Hampshire (pictured below), which is a fantastic and ambitious project to reimagine the role of the town centre post-COVID.

The enormous regeneration scheme involves the design and build of new shops, homes and amenities for local residents. This includes cafes, a new secondary school, gym, town square, office space, a supermarket and cinema, as well as The Shed, a new shopping and artisan centre. As lead designers, Holmes Miller has been tasked with delivering a mixed-use development of residential, commercial and retail accommodation creating a vibrant heart to the new town centre of Bordon. Arranged in 3 blocks of up to 6 stories, the 175 residential units face a new high street and town square with their retail and commercial uses providing activity at ground floor. My role on the team is to lead the technical design and delivery stages of the project.

What’s your biggest achievement/proudest moment to date at Holmes Miller?

One of the things that really helps inspire you as an architect is seeing a project through from initial concept and design to construction and delivery. I was lucky enough to work with Dundee City Council to deliver the Harris Academy (pictured below), which overlooks the Firth of Tay. The academy, redeveloped in close partnership with the council, provides a unique and inspirational 15,000m2 facility for a school community of 1200 pupils and staff.

It embraced best practice endorsed by the Scottish Futures Trust by providing a series of flexible and adaptable teaching spaces. The building also benefitted from enhanced leisure facilities including a swimming pool and sports hall also accessible for use by the local community, and an Enhanced Provision Department, providing specialist support and guidance to pupils.

The challenges that were bought along due to the complexities made it a career-defining project for me and also showed how forward-thinking design can benefit educators, students and the wider community.

What current trends are you seeing across your portfolio and sector specialisms?

One issue that comes up across all our projects – and one that is very close to our hearts at Holmes Miller – is sustainability. Of course, every business or public sector body needs to by law be net zero by 2045 (2050 in the UK) but being sustainable involves far more than just hitting net zero. It provides a perfect opportunity to reimagine the future of architecture to create a better future for society at large.

To help us get ahead of the curve, we launched our Sustainability Charter in 2020, which acts as our vision to craft architecture that creates only positive impact to the community and the environment. We’re also one of the only passivhaus accredited architects in both Scotland and the UK – which is a leading international design standard to reduce energy usage, whilst delivering high standards of comfort, wellbeing and health.

In parallel, the pandemic has forced us to reimagine the future of workplaces. The move to work-from-home culture has pushed some developers to move away from big, open plan spaces to instead favouring smaller hubs for teams to meet along with refurbishment of existing spaces to meet the demands of a floating workforce. Only time will tell if this trend is here to stay but with technological capacity we could see the urban landscape being redefined with emerging patterns in transportation and land uses

What made you want to become an architect?

I grew up in the UAE in the 1990s when the construction sector was booming and the country was transitioning from an oil to tourist-based economy. Almost every day it seemed that there were interesting buildings – mostly high rise – going up all around us. It really gave me a thirst for learning more about the impact that architects can have on the environment around them and help shape an economy fit for the 21st century.

That feeling never really left me and as I grew up I realised how architecture was one of those unique fields that lets you make a direct impact to the environment and society you are in; ultimately convincing me that architecture was the right career path.

What would be your one piece of advice for people looking to get into architecture?

In a highly demanding field like Architecture, from the onset to the end stages of a project, a strong level of commitment is essential for the successful delivery of a project. Luckily I also have a supportive team to help spread the load and provide a different perspective whenever I need one.

It’s where you balance art, engineering and social science – we have to be well-rounded with knowledge in multiple areas from planning to building services, regulations, cost management and everything in between that is built into the field. With an everchanging nature of the society and the need to adapt to this change, architecture is always evolving and you never truly stop learning.

Lastly, what’s your favourite building in the UK?

That’s a really hard question – there’s just so much to choose from, but in the UK, the Shard tops the list for me. It is a truly beautiful and inspiring piece of architecture with a sculptural quality to it that is hard to come by in a skyscraper.

Meet the Team - Mariyam Afnida