Hello, I’m Betty!

I am a London-based spatial designer, educator and writer, with a keen interest in the potential of public service, policy and culture to shape urban environments for the better. With a background in architecture, I use design and communication to tell stories and solve problems in the physical and digital realm. I am curious about the intersection between architecture and ecology in the city, and my practice centres around championing underrepresented groups in the public realm.

Currently, I work as an senior design officer in the Greater London Authority’s new Design Unit, where I promote quality and inclusion in the built environment through policy and development management. I am also a founding member of the newly formed collective PATCH, a multidisciplinary group that uses writing as a springboard to create spatial interventions and design ephemeral events, through the lens of being of a diaspora.

Prior to this I worked as an architectural designer at Be First London, where I facilitated the development of responsive urban and architectural visions and strategies to deliver social housing across a range of sites in Barking & Dagenham.

I was also previously co-chair of the Architecture Foundation Young Trustees, where I implemented a varied curatorial programme that celebrated underrepresented and divergent voices within spatial cultures. As co-chair, I led a group of young spatial practitioners, and supported the Architecture Foundation’s governance by being seconded to the main board of trustees. During this time, I worked on a plethora of initiatives including Life Outside Architecture, Civic Rituals and Peer Review.

I am also an alumna of the third cohort of New Architecture Writers, a programme for emerging design writers. As a freelance writer, I am a regular contributor to Dezeen and have also been published in the Architectural Review, Recessed Space and Journal A, and in the Sound Advice publication Now You Know. In 2022 I was named a Rising Star by the RIBA Journal.

I have been a unit tutor and guest critic at the University of Nottingham since 2020, and am a visiting critic at Oxford Brookes, the University of Sheffield, Coventry University and Ravensbourne.