Writing

I write about the transformative power of home, as four walls and country

My writing draws on growing up in apartheid South Africa and making a life in London.
Over the years, I’ve seen human lives through taking houses apart and putting them
back together again. I’m interested in the things we carry from one place to another, rituals,
inherited objects, and complicated histories.

Alongside essays and cultural commentary, I write about the emotional and practical realities of making a home, what renovation reveals about us, why certain places make us feel safe, and how good design can help us feel more fully ourselves.

I write about

Home, identity and belonging
Memory, inheritance and family history
Interiors
The psychology of home
Race, culture and the experience of living between places
Renovation, design and domestic life
The objects, rituals and rooms that tell us who we are

Current project

I am working on my first book, which brings together memoir, cultural observation and the psychology of home.

Moving between South Africa and London, and between many homes: rented flats, renovation sites and the home I eventually built from the ground up, the book asks what it really means to belong somewhere,
and whether we can consciously make a place that feels like our own.

About me

I’m a London-based writer, designer and creative director working across various design disciplines, I have spent much of my working life thinking about the relationship between people and place.

I’m also the host of the How To Renovate podcast and founder of South Place Studio.

Commissions and collaborations

I’m available for essays, features, columns, interviews, talks and creative collaborations concerning home, design, identity, memory and belonging.