What’s your role at Spacemaker?
I’m a Customer Success Manager, an industry expert and since recently, a co-host of Spacemaker Flights, a series of webinars that inspire people to work in new ways with Spacemaker. As a Customer Success Manager I help our users get value from the Spacemaker platform. Our users typically design and develop large building projects, and my role is to help them realize the potential of their projects. Before joining Spacemaker, I worked as an architect for twelve years in Copenhagen, where I’m from, and Oslo where I live now. Since I know the architecture and construction industry well, I work closely with our skilled product developers to help ensure their solutions match our users’ needs.
Where are you working from currently?
When it’s possible, I enjoy working from our Oslo Office and spending time with my team and colleagues. Spacemaker is a diverse crowd, and it’s a luxury to meet and discuss our common ambition to drive change in the way we design our cities.
Over the last 2 years I’ve been working a lot from home. While working from home is cosy – with my three kids and puppy never far away! – I really appreciate the variation. It keeps me energized and creative.
What does your morning routine look like?
I wake up early and take a long walk or run with my puppy Micki, a four-month-old Goldendoodle. I love getting fresh air and the chance to collect my thoughts before the day starts. My schedule is generally quite hectic so, when I have the chance, it’s great to also squeeze in some work before our kids wake up. I also drink a lot of green tea as I’m currently on a caffeine detox.
Which projects are you working on right now?
I have some new customers in Oslo, and right now I’m training them in how to use Spacemaker. They’re fairly new to using digital design tools, and it’s a lot of fun to see how quickly they’re learning it. I’ve always liked getting to know new people, and I’m also curious about how different organizations work. Spacemaker can add value in many different ways. But like with all new technology, it starts with the people and what they’re trying to achieve.
Tell us about how your Spacemaker journey started…
It started with a job advertisement and I understood that Spacemaker could combine more of my interests. First of all my approach to design matched well with Spacemaker’s. As a young architect in Copenhagen, I was trained to develop many design schemes in parallel, build physical models to study and evaluate them. Rather than choosing one direction from the start, we tested and analyzed different directions. Now we have this great technology that can do a lot of this, and much more. This will potentially revolutionize the architecture and building industry because we’re able to make intelligent decisions based on real data, and investigate hundreds of solutions at the same time in only minutes.
How have you experienced professional growth at Spacemaker?
Growth is important in Spacemaker, in general, as our platform is expanding into new markets – this keeps us in a state of constant change. The company focuses on growing talent from the inside, which provides us exciting opportunities to form our own roles or testing ourselves in new roles. To me professional growth is about getting the opportunity to dive into the topics that I care deeply about. I have a lot of autonomy and I’m learning so much, so I’m very happy that all this can happen despite the challenges of the past two years.
My work day is very different from when I was an architect. From being an architect who designs buildings, I’ve become an architect who helps develop the tools architects and developers use – I’m more of a design process coach now. I focus on the desired outcome from the design process and the conditions that will improve the solution to help the user reach their end goal. This connects well with my upbringing and understanding of being a creative. My mom was a painter and my father is a musician. Their art has always relied on their tools – the brush and the piano – and now I’m diving into improving the tools that will shape how architects design tomorrow’s buildings and cities.
Can you tell us about your favorite challenge so far and how you solved it?
I’m part of the team developing Spacemaker Flights. The COVID-19 pandemic challenged us to explore new ways to communicate and collaborate, and this is really one of the good things that have come out of this strange period. Personally, it challenged me to go in front of the camera which is not something I learned in architecture school. I’m really a people person. But I’ve had to reinvent my way of connecting with people whom I would normally meet in real life but who are all now sitting on the other side of the screen, somewhere on planet earth, through the camera lens.
What keeps you inspired outside work, and how does this influence your work at Spacemaker?
I love to spend time with my family and travel. We live a few hundred meters from the sea, so during summer we spend a lot of time swimming; in winter, we go skiing in the mountains. A skiing trip through the white landscape can create this white space in my mind where big questions that I’ve been pondering suddenly seem to fall into place. I grew up in the city, so the nature and ever-changing seasons in Norway are quite exotic to me and are an inspiration to get out there and be a part of nature.
How do you wind down in the evening?
When I come home, the transition from work mode to family mode usually happens naturally. We try to make time for a good dinner together every day. My kids are old enough to cook simple recipes on their own – so sometimes we end up with pancakes for dinner, but it totally works for winding down, and they’re delicious!
Last summer I took up skateboarding with my oldest son and I must say that I had forgotten how much fun it is. After a full day of kids, work and play, I do love my sleep.
What do you enjoy most about your work day?
I enjoy being part of a multidisciplinary team and that we’re still on this quest for answers. At Spacemaker we still have this enormous task and adventure ahead of us – one building and neighborhood at the time, we’re changing the world for the better.
