Staff Spotlight – Rosemary Clowes
Rosie Clowes kicks off our new staff spotlight series. She joined Hodder + Partners in 2021, initially for her Part I year out, then continued part-time while completing her Part II. Rosie has now rejoined us full-time as a Part II Architectural Assistant.
What’s your favourite part of the design process?
I do love a feasibility study, puzzle piecing spaces together to hit client targets whilst creating a functional building layout and trying massing variations to suit a particular site. It’s good fun, and an exciting stage of a project as there’s also still the anticipation about the design development to come!
What’s one thing people might be surprised to learn about you?
I’m a big fan of Drum and Bass. My sister was a DnB DJ so my teenage years were spent going to bass music events with her, and later with my friends.
Which project or building do you admire the most, and why?
It’s cliché I’m sorry, but I really do admire the RHS Bridgewater building by Hodder+Partners, built before my time here by my senior colleagues. As a long-time RHS member, I think that Bridgewater fully encompasses what these gardens are about – nature, learning, sustainability, and delight in the detail. The low, simple timber form and the feature of the terrace over the lake really integrates the building into the landscape, not overshadowing the gardens but providing a refuge to start and end a wonderful day spent wandering. The impressive timber structure that spans the full building makes for a delightful design that ties together the individual spaces into one, I took inspiration from this for some of my university projects. A career aspiration of mine is to one day work on a building or structure for the RHS, a job that combines architecture and gardening is the absolute dream to me.
What’s your favourite movie or TV show?
Pirates of the Caribbean. I love the first 3 films, but Dead Mans Chest is probably my favourite.