Charlotte Thornton, interior designer at jmarchitects on uplifting colour palettes, bringing people together & sustainable design.

jmarchitects is an award winning architectural practice with extensive experience in education, community, health, social housing, commercial, private residential, retail, and sports and leisure projects.

Priding itself on regularly undertaking "complex projects" of up to £100m in value, jmarchitects has offices in Manchester, London, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Being our neighbours here in the North West - and soon to be our neighbours in Glasgow too - we were keen to catch up with the team to learn more about their current projects, plus their take on the wider industry in a post-pandemic landscape.

A brand new fixture for the practice is its in-house interiors team, led by Senior Interior Designer, Charlotte Thornton. Here, we get the low down on what's currently happening down at jmarchitects.

You’re a senior interior designer at jmarchitects – what does your role entail?

"My role is to look after the interior design team, create and maintain relationships with clients and most importantly oversee the creation of inspirational interior spaces all the way through the design process from concept to delivery on site."

How does the interior design team operate at jmarchitects?

"We are a small but efficient team with a strong connection, during the concept phase of the design process we launch into bouncing ideas off each other coming up with design narratives and researching the sector and context. We have the advantage of working within an architectural practice, so we often get the architects involved in what we are doing for a holistic approach to our design process."

jmarchitects has offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow and London, as well as Manchester – do the offices operate in silo, or is there crossover?

"We all support each other across the group, especially since the pandemic, working via Teams and digital platforms has become easier and more common - it has greatly improved our workflow and encouraged the cross pollination of ideas across the UK offices."

Do all of the offices have interior design teams?

"No, we're starting it in Manchester, but the idea is we will support the architects from across the UK and if the work load requires it we might end up having some designers work from the other offices.

"In Scotland, they have slightly different regulations, especially on the education side of things, with sustainability being a huge focus - Scotland is very progressive. They seem to be leading the way on sustainability in Scotland. But England is catching up rapidly."

What are you working on at the moment?

"We are currently working on a care home for residents living with dementia as well as several commercial office projects."

Our work lives have changed beyond recognition since the start of the pandemic. How has that impacted the way that you design schemes now?

"It's not all about bums on seats now. It's considering, why would you come to the workplace? And people tend to go there now for collaboration. That's mainly what we're looking at at the moment, I suppose. More meeting spaces, more open, collaborative spaces, and trying to create more of a facilitated hybrid work experience as well. Because if you've got some of your workforce working at home and some of them are in the office, it's making sure that that's still a seamless collaborative process and making sure that people who are working from home are still valued in the workplace."

And how do you do that?

"By making sure the technology is there and if you've got plenty of meeting rooms, making sure that they're set up specifically for the technology that they need and making sure there's private working spaces as well. So if people are on a video call, they're not disturbing everyone else in the office.

"I suppose there were problems before the pandemic that have been addressed because of the pandemic."

How is sustainability impacting your material choices?

"It is a primary consideration when we investigate products or talk to suppliers over a certain project we will ask about longevity, and the life cycle of a product. If it's a refurb project, for example, asking if they can recycle any of the old products just to make sure that we're not contributing any more to landfill than we should be."

How easy is it to find out a supplier's sustainability credentials?

"I think more education is needed, to be honest, because you can see all of these credentials and sometimes it gets a bit overwhelming. You're like, what does that actually mean?

“There are so many certifications and policies relating to different aspects of sustainability, it is brilliant that suppliers are being so innovative and conscientious with sustainability and accreditations. When faced with so many logos, abbreviations and regulations it can be a lot to take in, even when you know what you what they are and what you need, across the industry it could be good to see this streamlined – but this may be easier said than done!”

Lunch and learns are often more helpful than if we were just trawling through all of a supplier's sustainability certificates

Is there a material you’re particularly fond of at the moment?

"I have been quite impressed with the recent developments of laminates, including fingerprint and anti-bacterial surface technology which is ideal for healthcare, education and commercial projects in the current climate. Also, the different types of product applications that are available, including wall panelling and wet room solutions that offer something quite different to anything I have seen before.

"Also, Paperstone technology, I am so impressed with the story behind it and the versatility of the material, it really expands what we can do with sustainable products in interior design and furniture design."

What software do you use to conceptualise schemes?

"To bring our schemes to life we use Revit to model and create technical drawings, and Enscape to produce renderings to help our clients visualise the space. Clients love a 3D walkthrough!"

What are the key trends/movements you’re seeing in the sectors you work in?

"Since the pandemic the focus has really been getting people back together, creating spaces that facilitate collaboration and socialising - just enjoying being with other people."

What are your top colour trend predictions for 2023?

"The colours that we choose seem to have a link to our emotions in terms of what is going on at the time in the world and economy. With the media talking about cost of living crisis, recession and housing markets, I feel trends may rebel and look to uplifting colours to improve our mood, warm vibrant colours that are also found in nature like oranges, yellows and vibrant greens. I don’t think green will be knocked off its top spot for a while yet!"

And what’s coming next at jmarchitects?

"For interiors things are getting quite exciting with new large commercial projects with sustainable goals - watch this space!"