Suzi Wong: the power of investing in you

I was in practice for about four and a half years and, even though I really enjoyed my job and the projects I was working on, I just found that it wasn’t very personal. It was always in my mind that I wanted to do something a bit different but in the same industry.

So one day I was out with my husband at a local art gallery. We saw this pencil drawing of a bird cutting away a rock that was weighing it down. And it really resonated with me. I saw it as an analogy for my own life. It was the spark that made me think: “I want to cut off the last rock too. I want to be free and do my own thing.” And the rest is history.

Absolutely. It’s so liberating. I know people talk about ‘being your own boss’ quite flippantly, but it’s very freeing. And don’t get me wrong, although it is amazing having that freedom, there’s a lot of worry attached. Especially being an architect and dealing with physical construction. But the positive absolutely outweighs the negative. Having that non-structured routine, not having to do the 9 to 5, having that flexibility. It is very freeing.

It’s extremely important. I’m passionate about promoting female involvement in architecture generally. It’s a very male dominated industry. I probably have around two female contacts in a list of 100. But I want younger women to know that this is an industry you can get involved in and succeed in.

In terms of standing out among your competitors, you obviously want to win work. If you’re just the same as everyone else it means you’re competing on a level platform, but we’re a small, new company and their experience probably trumps mine. So offering something different from the industry norm in terms of modernity, innovation, non-traditional materials, and being quite young and tech-savvy, all that helps me stand out from the crowd and helps with what we’re trying to do.

I’d say it’s been gathering experience. Starting from scratch is really tough. In architecture when you work for another company, the designs aren’t yours. So you can’t use them to promote yourself and market your experience. Now it’s been about a year and a half and we’re just at a stage where projects are just completing, and now we have the finished article and professional photographs that we can show to really prove what we can do. The hardest part initially is really selling yourself and backing it up as a new business.

Wanting to succeed, always. And making myself proud and making my friends and family proud too. It took me ten years to fully qualify, it’s a long slog. So after all that time and money, it’d be soul destroying to not then pursue what I set out to. Just fulfilling my childhood ambition as well is amazing. I can wake up and say I achieved what I sent out to. That motivates me.

Persevere. Don’t be afraid. Like I said it’s a long slog. I predominantly teach undergrad, and I tell them if it’s not something that you feel passionate about, don’t force it, but don’t give up on your degree either. There are always other avenues that you might find you want to pursue instead. So still persevere and get your degree.

But if you are really passionate about it and you live and breathe it, keep going. The satisfaction you get going from just a few scribbles on a page to seeing people inhabit or use a building you’ve designed, it’s indescribable.

Don’t think you can do everything. Don’t try to do everything. That was probably my one mistake at the beginning. I thought ‘you know, I can do accounts. I can design my own logo.’ But don’t be afraid to invest in yourself. Tap into resources that you’re going to need.

For Grey Rose, hopefully all our designs in the future will get better and better in terms of their carbon output. And who knows where it’ll go from there? Maybe we’ll get so busy we need to grow and hire more staff and create some award-winning buildings. Hopefully that’s the future!