Playful Adventures: nimtim architects' Nimi Attanayake on New Connections, Bold Decisions, and Joyful Process
By Julia Gamolina
Nimi Attanayake is director and co-founder of nimtim architects. She is also a member of the Design South East Panel and also a member of Frame Projects, sitting on the LB Review Panels. She is a judge for the AJ Awards, Surface Design Awards and British Home Awards, a steering member for the RIBA Guerrilla Tactics conference programme and an External Examiner at Manchester University for their BA programme.
Nimi brings energy, positivity and sense of adventure to everything she does. She is a passionate advocate and example for diversifying the profession and has mentored many young people from under-represented backgrounds to enter a career in architecture. In her interview with Julia Gamolina, Nimi talks about her values for running a studio and the process of design, advising those just starting their careers to see their differences as strengths.
JG: Tell me about your foundational years — where did you grow up and what did you like to do as a kid?
NA: I grew up in South London to immigrant parents from Sri Lanka. Neither of my parents had been to university. However, I had a couple of uncles that worked within the built environment — one was a building surveyor and the other was a civil engineer. I grew up within a big extended family and enjoyed trying to get involved in various projects. I remember once trying to help my uncles build a garden studio which didn’t end well when a piece of timber ended up falling on my head! Needless to say, this didn’t put me off.
How did you choose where you studied architecture?
I chose Nottingham University mostly because I liked the campus and the small architecture school. It gave me a good foundation of knowledge. However, I changed for my Masters and returned back to London to study at Westminster University under Murray Fraser. I also met my husband and co-founder, Tim, at Westminster when we chose the same design studio under Jeanne Sillet. I changed my unit in second year Masters and chose a studio run by Sean Griffiths and Kester Rattenbury.
Cork House. Photography by Megan Taylor.
How did you decide to start nimtim?
We started nimtim architects following my cancer diagnosis, and recovery. We wanted to create a practice that was relatable, approachable and supportive. We are honest about who we are and celebrate the input of our staff and collaborators. This spirit is reflected in the work we produce. We have a small close-knit team and try to celebrate and encourage each member’s interests and individual skill set.
The practice is now ten years old with a significant portfolio of built work. Our philosophy and approach emerged from making real projects for ordinary families from simple materials and technologies. When we reflect on the projects we have delivered, we see the personalities and values of the people who use them and helped us create them reflected back to us. We are now bringing this same approach and spirit to larger and more complex work.
How has the firm evolved over those ten years?
The practice began with the most modest scale of projects. We learned the power of the smallest interventions to radically change the nature and perception of the things around them — like the use of bold colour, introduction of unusual materials, or minor spatial tweaks that help unlock the spaces around them or create new connections between inside and outside.
We never see the scale or budget of a project as limiting its conceptual potential and bring the same approach to a piece of furniture or the urban design of a city. Our work is about people and the stories and values that they bring to the projects we create together.
Every project begins with intense discussion, research and engagement. We ask questions, play games together, and test current and future scenarios to help us understand its unique requirements. We celebrate diversity and difference through this collaboration.
“When we reflect on the projects we have delivered, we see the personalities and values of the people who use them and helped us create them reflected back to us.”
We foster a spirit of playful adventure with our clients and co-creators, empowering them to make bold decisions and to buy into a shared vision for what the project could be. Can the ceiling of a kitchen extension create the same play of light as a modernist factory roof? Can a child’s bedroom evoke the quiet and solitude of a Benedictine cloister? Our projects emerge from this process — always unique, always responding to the personalities of our clients.
We also believe that the process of making architecture itself can have a similarly transformative effect on families, organisations and communities, as we bring people together and give voice to people who might otherwise struggle to be heard. We try to make the process of creating buildings a joyful one, and a journey everyone will remember with fondness for the life of the project and beyond.
Looking back at it all, what have been the biggest challenges? How did you both manage through perceived disappointments or setbacks?
The biggest challenge was setting up a practice and managing a team in a spirit of openness and transparency. We didn’t have a lot of experience in the full role of an achitect, often not being involved in the financial planning of the business and having limited exposure to clients and running jobs.
Squaring the Corners. Photography by Thierry Bal.
Walled Garden. Photography by Jim Stephenson.
What have you also learned in the last six months?
This year, we’ve thought hard about fees and making sure we are valued for our expertise. We have recently published an article for Architects Journal looking at why salaries and fees have stagnated while the profession’s responsibilities have increased.
What are you most excited about right now?
Recycling and retro-fit needs to become a more common and a viable option to clients. It should also be discussed from the outset of the project and become part of the briefing process. This process should bring clients and stakeholders inside the design process, empowering them to understand the challenges and issues that need to be resolved. This can help set a tone of collaboration and co-creation for the rest of the project and allow all to make unusual decisions — like retro-fit and recycling — a more reasonable approach. Clients need to change their perception of the existing building / house and to recognise the energy already spent, and that which should be retained and maintained to prevent more carbon emissions and damage to our fragile climate.
The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has issued a set of carbon targets for buildings that are “anchored in climate science.” These need to become mandatory for both the design team and the contractors to adhere to. The government should adopt these targets and encourage people to achieve these through accessible incentives and grants.
“I would encourage those starting out to not see their difference as a hurdle in which to overcome but as something to be celebrated and built upon. The profession has a responsibility to reflect the communities that it is serving and all should be included and given a voice.”
Who are you admiring now and why?
We are admiring work by similar emerging practices such as Apparata and their House for Artists, which shows the transformative power of collaborative clients and design teams to deliver impactful projects on tight budgets. These projects are important infrastructure for existing communities as well as showing an awareness of future scenarios which include adaptability and flexibility.
What is the impact you’d like to have on the world? What is your core mission? And, what does success in that look like to you?
Our core mission is to make spaces that reflect the personalities of the people and communities that will use them. To do this, we follow a process that embeds dialogue and collaboration within the creation of each project. We approach each project mindful of its constraints: financial, material and planetary. Within this, we seek space for playfulness and joy.
We believe that architecture is richer, more sustainable and more relevant when it is created with and for the people that will use it. We want to make projects that reflect the values and personalities of the people and communities they are made for.
Some of our goals are to continue to achieve industry recognition as we diversify our practice portfolio, and to foster and nurture a positive, professional and empowered team.
nimtim staff. Photography by Megan Taylor.
Finally, what advice do you have for those starting their career? Would your advice be any different for women?
I didn’t think I fit into the traditional ‘Architecture’ mould as I saw it. I struggled to see my place within the built environment. However, the role of the architect has diversified and changed since I graduated. Architecture is becoming a more diverse profession full of different types of people and it’s so wonderful to see many of those thrive and succeed. I would encourage those starting out to not see their difference as a hurdle in which to overcome but as something to be celebrated and built upon. The profession has a responsibility to reflect the communities that it is serving and all should be included and given a voice. I believe this applies to both men and women from any class or cultural background and heritage.