Personal and professional designer identities are two separate concepts in literature, in practice they have never been separated from each other. Since the situation has arisen in the past year that professional activities, such as designing and conducting research, have mainly taken place in a personal environment, a magnifying glass has been placed on what the overlap of these concepts can mean. In fact, this opacity of two notions have made it even more difficult to give these concepts a separate definition in this timeframe.

Using methods such as annotated portfolios and autoethnographic writing made me explore what is central between my professional and personal identity. As much as I wanted to ignore crisis-related topics, covid (politics and policies) are inextricably linked to the origins of this research. The physical environments I have surrounded myself in, became my way of stretching my freedom of movement and a manner to enjoy my time. This exploration has given me an extraordinary point of view of what the limitations were during the period between September 2020 and September 2021.

The amount and volume of the overwhelming buildings in the City of London have been incredibly fascinating. By walking and cycling without a specific goal in mind, I have discovered what this environment has meant to me and thus for this research.

Within my practice I reflect on the absurdity of the enormous buildings around me in comparison with the life in a student room. The difference in volume of these two surroundings are represented in my work by interpreting and translating both of them into squares. The squares in my work are very small compared to a student room, just like my room is very small compared to the towers that are rapidly growing in London.

The origin for the choice of transparent plexiglass probably came about as it has been very much in my sight. It is the same material as the plastic dividers standing between us and others because of covid. Due to covid it was often not possible to enter the large buildings as usual, which has sparked a curiosity of what is happening inside.

What if all these buildings were transparent? What would be visible then? Wouldn't it be fair if these constructions were see-through? After all, my room has been viewed by a large number of people through the square in which I appeared on people's screens.

By giving free rein to my imagination and imagining worlds within worlds that could take place in the physical world that I don't have access to, I playfully started making what I would like this real world to be. At the same time, my research on these large buildings, for example how many of them remain empty, described as necrotecture or “dead residential space” influenced my thinking. Do I still want access to this void or do I prefer to keep playing outside?

The reason I say that I am seriously a playful designer is that I approach serious subjects in a very playful way. As a result, my work is presented in a seemingly light-hearted manner, while still addressing heavy matter.