Laura Jane Clark is an architect with a passion for innovative home design, renovations and interiors. Whilst in university training to become a qualified architect, Laura chose to spend her summer holidays at home in North Wales working on building sites getting her hands dirty and learning the basics of construction. She has kept this love of building and respect for the whole industry throughout her career and works closely with her building team on detailing and ideas and can often be found with an angle grinder and welder in hand building her own prototypes and designs.
After working with Guy Greenfield Architects for seven years, Laura set up her own studio, Lamp Architects, in 2009. By cutting her teeth on small scale residential projects, her innovative design vision coupled with a real sense of practicality meant that she was quickly designing new one-off homes and renovating entire properties for her clients. Alongside her architectural career, Laura had her heart set on buying and developing some long abandoned underground public toilets in Crystal Palace, South East London. After several years of negotiating with the council, developing her proposals and obtaining planning permission, Laura became the proud owner of this derelict space. Working with a shoestring budget, labouring and working with the joiners and builders on site throughout, within six months the transformation from the dank, dark underground toilets to a beautiful, light and contemporary one bedroom home was completed.
Laura's Crystal Palace underground toilet renovation was featured on the first episode of the inaugural series of Channel 4's "Amazing Spaces" with George Clarke in 2012. She subsequently went on to feature in the "Amazing Spaces Christmas Special" and was asked to be a judge on the Channel 4 series "Shed of the Year" that ran from 2014-2017 alongside fellow judges, George Clarke, Max McMurdo and Will Hardie. Laura appeared in two episodes of the Ugly House to Lovely House television series, showcasing her flare for transforming unloved houses into elegant contemporary homes before moving to the BBC, to star in Your Home Made Perfect. This ongoing, hit show features home design and architecture in virtual reality, with the first two series bought by Netflix for worldwide distribution. Laura has also featured as a guest on Channel 4's "Stef's Packed Lunch," "The One Show" and "Breakfast" on the BBC and radio appearances including Woman's Hour and You and Yours.
As well as renovating her own home, a derelict Georgian house outside Glasgow, her passion for architecture and the democratisation of design has led Laura to start writing a book, due to be published this September. By sharing her knowledge, inspiration and practical tips, this unique insight into Laura's home design method seeks to inform and empower homeowners who are making their first tentative steps into their own build, giving them confidence to get exactly what they want from their own home.
