In the latest profile in our series, this month you can find out more about Kate Richards.
Kate has dual qualifications in both landscape architecture and architecture and has studied and worked in both disciplines throughout the UK.
She is involved in a wide range of projects including further and higher education, regeneration, healthcare and public realm.
Kate is also Chair of Landscape Institute Wales and a Building with Nature Assessor.
What gets you out of bed in the morning? Aside from my young children, or an early alarm to get to the pool for a 6am swimming session, what motivates me is having the opportunity to shape places (and hearts and minds), through sharing ideas with our team and clients.
Tell us about a favourite project you’ve worked on. It’s tricky to pinpoint one project, but one of my favourites has to be Sizergh, which is a fantastic example of sensitively balancing history and modern requirements to enable more people to access nature.
A place that is special to you and why? My local hills are the Clwydians, which stretch from the North Wales coast almost down to Llangollen. I am lucky to be able to walk in these rolling, heather-clad hills, punctuated by Iron Age forts hills, most weekends and enjoy spectacular views over to Eryri. There are plans to create a new National Park, of which the Clywdians will be at the heart, and I think this would be a fantastic opportunity for North East Wales.
I can’t get through the weekend without …. At the risk of sounding obsessed, I would probably say swimming (or contact with water in some form), but also coffee (refer to earlier point about young children and early starts!).
We were really impressed with Land Studio. They are creative, a delight to work with and captured our vision and their own vision perfectly.
Shahina Ahmad, Principal of Eden Girls’ School, Waltham Forest.