Pride of Place- Pride Road features in this months JLife. Here, Lisa Raynes explains how her Jewish upbringing has influenced her journey as an architect in Manchester.
Lisa Raynes is the founder of Pride Road, a Manchester business dedicated to supporting women in architecture in the North West. JLife’s Evangeline Spachis spoke to the acclaimed architect to discuss building homes, and equal opportunities, for the future.
Lisa can identify how her ethnicity gives her an extra dimension in helping people realise and reassess their commitments: “Coming from a minority group and a strong community that a lot people identify with, it’s been really helpful to discuss these working pressures. For many, you can be a professional architect or a mother, not both. So being able to get out there and show that you do it has been really worthwhile.”
As a working Jewish mother, it’s understandable that Lisa’s background and life experience offers a further understanding of the work she does with clients: “When it comes to designing people’s houses, I have that insight into what people need from a home. For instance, is the house fit for festivals? If I try to invite both sides of my family round for Rosh Hashanah, that’s 20 people to fit around the table!”
Ultimately, far from the office skyscrapers and apartment blocks typically sketched out by architects up and down the country, Lisa’s projects will remain more grounded: “A house is your primary investment and we want to make sure it works for you. It’s more about the quality of life, not the expensive fixtures.”
