Clare Nash - Design your life: An architect’s guide to achieving a work/life balance

DOI: 10.4324/9781003231301-1

I wont pretend otherwise running a business is hard. However, if you are entrepreneurial in spirit and prepared to think yourself out of problems creatively, it is very rewarding. I dont know of a single business owner in any field who hasnt had setbacks sometimes enormous ones. The important thing is that they picked themselves back up again and made their business better. Its easy to believe when looking at Instagram or reading business leader profiles that theyve had an easy road to success, but the stories that lie behind those pictures are quite different. I have personally found it very challenging in a good way, as well as a lot of fun overall, despite my own setbacks.

Below, is a list of benefits of running your own business in a way that suits you. As an architect, when earning low fees and without a separate source of income, these benefits are only short-term. Its possible to live for some time on low fees, just about paying your bills and enjoying your freedom, but sooner or later you will resent how hard you have to work and how much responsibility you take on behalf of clients.

• Family: this is a big one. It applies to anyone with caring commitments. Having my own business has enabled me to work around a tiny baby, not have to commute and pay enormous amounts on childcare, not have to put up with less exciting work just due to working part-time in an office. Mainly, it has allowed me to feel a big part of my sons life without having to give up my identity to do so.
• Set your own path: I explain in how I have always been very interested in eco-design. It felt extremely frustrating not to be able to push sustainable practice as much as I would have liked in practice. As a business owner, I can prioritise research and development in this specialist area, which is very fulfilling.
• Other interests and business ventures: at start-up stage, I had a sideline in German translating for a local clothing company. It helped to pay my bills and gave me the advantage of doing something I enjoyed without the pressure of making it into a full-time job.FIGURE 1.1 Drawing of a working/pleasure trip I took to Brandenburg, GermanyFIGURE 1.2 Benefits of flexible working means still being able to work on projects such as this stables and barn conversion, even with a family
• Working holidays: when I am writing, I regularly escape for a few days to the sea to write. I also visit gardens, sit alone in a beautiful space and write or sketch out business vision ideas. I have previously worked from the Eurostar, an Austrian brewery, a Parisian caf and even a boat!
• Better use of time: the Covid-19 pandemic has made the benefits of working from home familiar to many more people, but I have always enjoyed the benefits of using natural breaks to make bread, chop vegetables for dinner or go for a walk. Without any guilt. In winter, I appreciate the opportunity to enjoy bike rides or running in daylight. I was fortunate while working in Oxford that my office had a shower and was on the doorstep of great outdoor space, so I enjoyed regular daylight runs in winter, but not all offices have this. Since my husband joined the firm, we enjoy lake swimming together in the middle of the day (while our son is at nursery).
• Other projects: like other business ventures, above, one of the best things about flexible working is being able to fit in other projects around being an architect. After receiving the commission from RIBA Publishing to write my book, Contemporary Vernacular Design: How British Housing Can Rediscover its Soul, I set about organising case study visits, complete with designer, developer and resident interviews. Keeping my business going would have been impossible if I had needed to be in an office every day, as would holding down a job in a traditional architects practice. My employers would have needed to be very enlightened and tolerant of me disappearing around the UK and Europe for up to 10 days at a time, multiple times, over a two-year period.