Design for Life: How to Balance Your Creative Practice

February 8, 2019 | by Archipreneur

Biba Dow co-founded Dow Jones Architects in 2000 and was shortlisted this year for Architect of the Year in the Women in Architecture Awards. In our interview, Biba shares how she has cultivated a practice over time that is enriched by cultural projects and opportunities to share knowledge.

Summary

Biba and her husband met as architecture students. They were both on the Master‘s course and felt very quickly that they had a similar way of thinking about things, and they started the conversation that‘s still going on today.

Biba had a clear set of role models of working couples who had architectural or other creative practices. That was really helpful because it was a way of thinking about how one could live a life and do this job and make it work in all aspects of life. The famous ones like Charles and Ray Eames and the Smithsons and Lucienne and Robin Day combined creative practice with living working together. That was her inspiration.

Read the whole founders story inside the Archipreneur Mag. Learn how Biba and Alun founded their own practice, how they found their first clients and how they grew into a successful firm.

Read the whole interview here

Highlights, Insights and Learnings from the Interview:

How Biba started her own practice while working for other firms.
Why and how running her own practice make it easier to balance personal and professional life.
How Biba did go about finding her first clients.
How she establish her practice and what was important to her.
How she has grown a team and shaped the office culture.
Why Biba remains actively engaged as design and project leader.
Biba’s thoughts on the future of architecture and what continues to inspire her?
..and much more!

Inspiring Quotes from the Interview:

“We always sort of told ourselves if it didn’t work, or if we ran
out of work, then he would get another job or eventually we’d both get another job.”
Biba Dow, Co-Founder Dow Jones Architects

“Our view is you can learn from everything. We saw everything as potential way to develop our language and to build up our experiences.”
Biba Dow, Co-Founder Dow Jones Architects

Read the whole interview here