Places, Ideas, and Products: Citizens Design Bureau's Katy Marks on Working as a Team, Balancing Creative Pursuits, and Bringing People Together
Katy Marks by Tara Darby.
By Julia Gamolina
Katy Marks is an architect, product designer and experienced facilitator. In 2013 she founded Citizens Design Bureau, a studio with expertise in complex buildings and projects with diverse, creative communities at their core. She has carved out a reputation for a design approach that is atmospheric, tactile and rich in color and texture whilst being rigorously practical, flexible and humane.
Prior to establishing Citizens Design Bureau, Katy worked at Haworth Tompkins where she was a project architect on theatre projects. Katy previously lived in South Africa, where she co-founded SOMOHO Arts, Community and Environment project, opened by Kofi Annan. She also designed and co-founded ImpactHub, now a network of over eighty not-for-profit co-working spaces across six continents. She sits on Hackney, Harrow and Hounslow Design Review Panels and is a Design Advocate for the Mayor of London.
In 2023, after 10 years leading her own architectural studio Katy founded a second business, Uno, which specializes in producing a range of beautiful one-cup lingerie and swimwear for asymmetric bodies. She studied architecture at the Glasgow School of Art, Madrid and Cambridge University, and has a Masters in Environmental Design.
JG: You studied architecture in Glasgow, Madrid, and Cambridge! Tell me about the reasons for going to each school and place, and what you learned from each step.
KM: One of my tutors in Glasgow said something to us that really stuck with me: “learn how to copy.” He clarified that copying badly is to take superficial elements of appearance and then try to apply them in a completely different context, but that intelligent copying is to understand the motivation, the logic, the thinking, the techniques and the way they are influenced by the specific function and context. It seems pretty obvious, but as a student, I always felt that so many people at architecture school were obsessed with trying to be original or trying to have the craziest new idea. I was just obsessed with testing ideas, being absorbed in learning something new.
Madrid was totally different from Glasgow. It turns out that architecture is a great subject to study in another language because that meant that in Madrid, I had to draw. I had to make really convincing models. I had to show my process and my work had to speak for itself. That was a brilliant learning curve for me.
Finally in Cambridge, they had just started to offer a Masters degree in environmental design and sustainability in architecture. I was based within the research department of the school of architecture and in my second year ended up spending a lot of time in India for a project, learning at the wonderful school of architecture in Ahmedabad designed by Pritzker Prize winner Balkrishna Doshi. The campus was shared with other arts disciplines, so instead of the usual pen and ink drawings, I created my architectural drawings as collagraph prints. I also spent enormous amounts of time designing and making clothes, as well as singing a lot of music in a band and playing at least one or two gigs per week. Having that balance of academic challenge, as well as meeting and collaborating with incredible people is the exact kind of rhythm that I love.
Beam Hertford theatre. Interiors by Citizens Design Bureau. Photography by Hufton and Crow.
Jacksons Lane Theatre. Photography by Fred Howarth.
Tell me about your experiences working for various offices before starting your practice. What did you learn that you still apply today?
My first job was actually in a co-working company that I started with several friends. I was the only architect. We established the concept of co-working and what has now become the largest not-for-profit network of co-working spaces in the world, Impact Hub. It was born out of a frustration at how difficult it was to be a small start up, trying to do interesting things all by ourselves in our bedrooms and at kitchen tables because workspace in London was so expensive. We brought together the ideas of sharing space, with a time-based business model as well as curating an intentional community of like-minded people, having shared meals, lunchtime talks, sharing skills. We built everything ourselves and it really took off.
I realized however that I was in danger of being sucked into a career of shared office design and didn’t want to pigeonhole myself. I then joined Haworth Tompkins Architects and really enjoyed being an apprentice. At Haworth Tompkins, I became absorbed into the world of theatre, working on the Young Vic, the National Theatre, the Royal Court and the Liverpool Everyman amongst others. I learned how much of a team effort making good architecture is and fell in love with creating buildings that resonate across communities.
How did Citizens Design Bureau come about? What are your priorities for it as we enter 2025?
I’ve always loved the idea of running an architecture and design practice that could be accessible to a broad range of people, so the concept was to offer everything from a full design service for larger clients, to one-off ’surgeries’ for families, local charities, and small businesses who just wanted some advice and ideas. I like to think that our architecture combines collaborative ingenuity and roll-up-your-sleeves practicality, creating spaces that you want to reach out and touch, that make people feel beautiful, uplifted and empowered.
I was also very clear from the outset that I didn’t want my name above the door so that as a company we could be open to change. I’m grateful for that now especially after everything that has happened the last few years. Our work at Citizens Design Bureau is a team effort.
“Architecture is a great subject to study in another language because that meant that in Madrid, I had to draw...I had to show my process and my work had to speak for itself.”
Looking back at it all, what have been the biggest challenges? How did you both manage through perceived disappointments or setbacks?
There are all the usual challenges as a start-up architecture practice — trying to advocate our value in the face of huge competition, economic uncertainty and often huge cuts in investment into publicly funded infrastructure. Add to that the layer of being a mum to two kids. Running a company is very stressful and financially challenging, but having my own has given me a freedom that I just wouldn’t have had working for another practice — our office is directly across the road from our kids’ primary school, for example.
To add yet another layer to the challenge, eight years ago I got ill. I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017. Chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery followed and I am now on an ongoing cocktail of drugs. It’s been tougher than I can really describe —part of me wanted to just close up shop and curl into a ball, but I had worked so hard to build my company up and that felt like giving in.
Anyone who has been through a cancer diagnosis, knows that it’s not always a straight line recovery journey and I’ve had lots of ups and downs with the craziness of COVID mixed in. It has meant effectively having to go through the process of feeling like a start-up multiple times as I have recovered from various health challenges. It’s been difficult but rewarding to realize that we can apply our ideas and bring value in ways that people don’t expect. I’m an ambitious person, but being ill has taught me that I don’t need to compare myself to others or feel I need to prove anything in particular. I do it on my own terms.
Studio 3 Arts Centre straw bale building under construction. Courtesy of Katy Marks.
What have you also learned in the last six months?
Knuckle down when you need to but come up for air and breathe it in. I go into the mountains when I can. A change is as good as a rest. I always have multiple projects on the go, but I’ve learned that I have to explicitly make time just to do the stuff that makes me smile.
Who are you admiring now and why?
Suleika Jaouad and Jon Batiste have life experiences that combine intense creativity, music and cancer, but they both use their creativity and their joy of life to get through it. It’s very much how I feel and I love witnessing the glow of people who bring that kind of energy to the world.
“Whether it’s buildings or products, clothes or music, I want to make places, ideas, products, sounds that raise a smile, that make people huddle a little closer, that make people think and question, and that are simply beautiful to experience.”
What is the impact you’d like to have on the world? What is your core mission? And, what does success in that look like to you?
I’m interested in making places that bring people together. I don’t just think of myself as an architect. I also set up Uno, a business designing and making lingerie for women who have only one breast after breast cancer surgery and don’t want to wear prosthetics. It’s very much about honesty and confidence to be yourself. I’m also still a musician and I get so much joy from playing music, especially with others.
Whether it’s buildings or products, clothes or music, I want to make places, ideas, products, sounds that raise a smile, that make people huddle a little closer, that make people think and question, and that are simply beautiful to experience.
Manchester Jewish Museum. Photography by Joel Chester Fildes.
Manchester Jewish Museum facade detail manifesting intertwined cultures and the ethos that we have more in common than that which divides us. Photography by Joel Chester Fildes.
Finally, what advice do you have for those starting their career? Would your advice be any different for women?
I’m a great believer in the philosophy of balancing work of the head, work of the hands, and work of the heart. I genuinely find that the times I have felt happiest and most fulfilled personally and professionally are when I am intellectually pushing myself, when I’m producing things, and when I’m putting effort and time into relationships — personal, professional, social and political. It’s obviously a challenge to find that balance, but I have found that explicitly articulating this three-way balance to myself makes a difference.
Equally I have a work ethic. Starting out on your career, I would say surround yourself with people who have similar or complementary work ethics to you. Are you someone who is satisfied with “good enough”? Are you a perfectionist? Do you need others to balance out those traits? It’s important to acknowledge where you stand, but also what you need from others. Lots of people nowadays like drawing clear work boundaries but are pretty oblivious to the people who are picking up their slack. Be aware of what you need, but also be a great team member.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.