Cordelia Ashworth

Fifteen questions, off-duty.

Role on the line

Lead 3D modeller. I build the city around the scheme: parapets, chimney pots, mansards, the half-glimpsed neighbour at the edge of frame.

Where I grew up

Yaoundé until I was seven, then Paris, the 20th arrondissement, where the Belleville hill bends west.

Training

Architecture at ENSA Paris-Belleville, then a short-course year at the Bartlett. Paris taught me the urban block; London taught me the back-of-house return.

Years on the line

Eight. Four at a Soho VFX house cutting period-drama plates, four on London planning CGI.

The blade I bring

Townscape geometry. If a verified view falls apart, it falls apart at the roofline first. I make sure ours holds.

Architect I would ride out for

Francis Kéré. Honest materials, daylight as a structural decision, and a community on the drawings.

Materials that read true on screen

London stock brick, lime mortar, lead flashing, weathered oak. Anything that has been rained on for a decade.

Software I cannot lose

Rhino for the bones, Blender for the off-piste detail, Photoshop for the last fifteen percent nobody sees but everyone feels.

Earliest architectural memory

My grandmother's compound in Yaoundé, watching the masons set lateritic block courses by string and eye.

The brief I am proudest of

A Camden mansion-block infill that survived three rounds of officer review. Our townscape held up every time.

On the headphones while modelling

Sampa the Great in the morning, Nina Simone after dark, Manu Dibango when the deadline gets sporting.

London view I never tire of

From the third lock at Camden, looking back toward King's Cross. Half industrial, half theatrical, all London.

Coffee or tea

Coffee, black, two cups before lunch. Tea is a peace-treaty drink for after the deadline.

Off the line

Long walks along the Regent's Canal, and a Sunday at the Africa Centre in Southwark whenever the programme is on.

The motto on my desk

"One for the brief, the brief for all." Borrowed from Reginald, refused to give back.