GEMMA HOULT
Anthropology (BA Hons) (Durham University)
Migration, Mobility & International Development (MSc) (SOAS University of London)
MLA (Distinction) (University of Greenwich)
Gemma is a Landscape Architect with a background in anthropology, development economics, and infrastructure construction. She has worked on socially focused infrastructure programmes and international design projects for studios in the UK, US and Australia.
Gemma is passionate about integrating site specific materiality, ecological narratives and multispecies temporalities through design; and continuously strives to explore the delicate interplay between storytelling, horticulture and ecological resilience.
She is most excited by emergent, interdisciplinary design processes that help embrace the essence of a place. Having been raised in rural Devon, “listening to the land” is a corner stone of her approach.
Gemma’s research work currently explores how walking in tidal landscapes can help to reveal a multispecies approach to timekeeping. She is a Visiting Lecturer at Syracuse University London, and Guest Reviewer with the Bartlett School of Architecture, and Research Network Member for The Humanitarian Landscape Collective.
Miguel has a Masters degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Lisbon, Portugal. After working in Lisbon, his career took him to Somerset, where he embarked in a life changing journey with Urquhart & Hunt landscape design, where he not only grew as a garden designer but re-kindled his love for nature, soil and landscape restoration.
He then worked at Atkins plc to gain a broader understanding of our profession, working in large commercial and infrastructure projects before returning to his true passion in ecological garden design. ‘That’s where meaningful change happens, if our heart is in the right place’ he says.
Miguel loves exploring the wilderness and researching soil health, always on the hunt for new resilient plant species. He works part time with MBLA alongside projects with his partner Petra Ulrik in Dos Landscapes.
A great part of his life is bound to the sea where he finds a lot of his inspiration. He is a loyal windsurfer and surfer, always chasing wind and waves from the rugged Cornish coast to the desert islands of Cape Verde.