About me

Welcome, 

I’m Sinéad, and I invite people to engage in creative, collective responses to create homes. buildings and communities that nurture. My work activates and inspires participation through doing, making and reflecting, both individually and in groups

This is my journey of weaving creative threads and why I am passionate about nourishing your creative dreams of a Beautiful Earth. 

We live in extraordinary times: with climate chaos, a housing crisis, and more access to information than ever before. I believe the world needs our creativity to allow our hearts and imaginations to craft brighter futures for ourselves and the coming generations. I believe we all can have a part to play in a better tomorrow, and this can be done one step at a time, one home at a time.

My early roots

I have always been fascinated with creativity and the creative process: where ideas come from and the sense of connection I feel when I create. I grew up in a creative and sciency home and the three big passions that shaped my life were nature, art and physics. 

Nature. Growing up in the countryside in Ireland I loved the freedom we had to explore and gather treasures through the seasons and the abundance of food that miraculously came from our garden. I loved how industrious we were in autumn picking and freezing vegetables, wrapping apples in newspaper for the winter, and making jams and chutneys.  It was easy to understand I was intrinsically part of nature and I was comforted by the awareness that we were nourished by nature’s abundance – literally. I grew up aware of climate change and dreamt of how we could all love our Beautiful Earth. 

Art. Any form of making and self-expression amazed me: drawing, crafts, baking, and dance.  When I was a teenager I would set up complex still-life compositions and sit for hours immersed: observing tiny details and drawing them patiently with a favourite 2B pencil. One composition included a Waterford crystal vase sitting on a mirror: I spent weeks absorbing the intricate detail of the light on the glass and the reflections in the mirror.  I was a stressed-out, shy teenager and these quiet timeless spaces of meditative immersion brought me to a place of centred, peace and calm that helped me deal with the turbulence I felt.

Physics. Mam and Dad were always making things, and Dad was always taking things apart,  so it was innate in me to be fascinated with how things worked and were made. One of my favourite teenage school memories was making a DC motor using magnets in physics class! I still feel the thrill of seeing the little motor humming away! 

After secondary school, I studied architecture with the dream of designing beautiful buildings in harmony with the natural world. It was a joy to use my mind and imagination together: sketching, technical drawing, researching, solving three-dimensional problems and making models. It was hard work, and I loved it! 

After graduation, office life was, however, a different kind of challenge. It was all about learning how to run projects, learning to weave ideas, designs, regulations, and budgetary restrictions within multifaceted design teams and working long, long hours to meet deadlines.

I worked hard, gained knowledge and began to see and offer alternatives to standard designs and material specifications: changes that would benefit the environmental design of buildings. In the main, these ideas were met with resistance and scepticism.

In return, I berated myself for being overly sensitive and not clever, tough, loud or argumentative enough for the work. So I worked harder, regularly clocking 80-90 hours per week, to prove I was good enough. This led to more stress, frustration and cycles of burnout.

Over time, I felt myself harden as I attempted to become a more aggressive version of myself in order to be heard.  I felt out of place in an industry that didn’t seem to share my vision for a better world. I grew despondent as I began to understand the lack of awareness connecting architectural design and its impact on our world. The vision I had for the world felt far removed from reality and I couldn’t see a pathway towards it.  

I was burnt out, suffocating in a high-pressure environment, which was affecting my personal life and leaving me feeling miserable and exhausted. I loved architecture and it broke my heart to realise that I could not survive in the industry as it was. I knew something needed to change but I didn’t know what, or how. Never one to give up, I started to look for solutions. 

Searching for answers

To better understand the problems and learn about new design solutions I did a Masters degree in Architecture: Environmental and energy studies. I began to understand the interconnectivity within the systems of life that weave us all together. 

I left architectural work temporarily and worked with a consultancy on holistic approaches to development, weaving in holistic design thinking and actually creating projects in new ways. 

I travelled extensively for many years, learning healthier ways of living using systems thinking methods such as Permaculture and exploring alternative community design in Indian Ashrams and Indigenous cultures in South America. 

Curious to learn ways of co-creating community, I trained with Architecture Sans Frontieres and learned about participatory design practices and I spent two years learning about intentional and indigenous communities in Europe and Colombia, writing a blog and crowd-funding to finance the project. On returning to Ireland I was an active member of a co-housing project for two years.

In the last few years, I have further deepened my knowledge by taking courses based on Creativity: Creativity & Change, Creativity and Entrepreneurship, and Creativity and Process work; exploring ways in which we can co-create.

Realising

We are living in a time of so many unprecedented challenges associated with having a home of your own. And I realise that it should not be a luxury or something that bleeds you dry financially – it should be a fundamental human right. I want to be part of a process of change within how homes are created, and I want to do that by guiding you to reimagine what is possible.

There is another way

After all my seeking, I found my way back to myself and to the things I loved as a child: my relationship with nature, my curiosity to understand the seen and unseen world and the practice of art.

Now I work with people, facilitating creativity for regenerative change within existing homes, self-build projects and co-designed community projects.

My work is about helping prospective homeowners, self-builders and communities to harness their creativity as a personal resource and bring it into their homes and communities.

These days… 

I lean into the elements that meant so much to me as a child: nature, art and engaging my curiosity. I embrace them in my creative practice to take care of myself. I cherish my dreams of a more beautiful earth, and I let them be a compass for my work.

Ways to work with me

A few fun facts… 

I love the water and would happily spend the day swimming in the sea. I am basically an otter.

As a child, I believed creativity came through me; that it wasn’t mine. So I would give my paintings and drawings away as if they belonged to others. 

I have a supremely corny, Dad-like sense of humour and tend to find humour in totally inappropriate situations. 

I have always wanted to live near mountains and the ocean.  I feel blessed to live with my dog, Selkie, in the shelter of the Mishkish Mountains on the Beara Peninsula facing the wild Atlantic Ocean. 

I love the words to ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon. I cry every time I listen to it.