Get to know; Carinna Gebhard

Conservationist. Space-maker. Campervan Adventurer.

Architecture runs through Carinna’s veins. She always knew she wanted to design buildings and create places for people to explore and says she wouldn’t change her job for the world. She relishes problem-solving and creating new spaces, explaining that “it’s not just making the building beautiful, but about making it work functionally and planning spaces effectively for people to enjoy.”

Whilst Carinna enjoys a broad-ranging project portfolio, she’s really found her calling in the conservation and cultural sectors. She loves being able to bring cultural and heritage buildings back to life, blending the new with the old, so to be working on the Remaking Beamish project, where she’s designing a key set of buildings within the living museum’s new 1950’s town, is a real dream-come-true. She calls herself a “Beamish geek” and is looking forward to taking her children to visit the completed scheme.

Away from work, Carinna can be found spending time with her family, camping out in their campervan, or taking extended road trips driving through Europe, taking in the scenery on their way down to Austria or the Italian Lakes. Back in the UK she spends most weekends from early spring through to late autumn, away, making the most of the outdoors, camping, sailing, paddle boarding and generally just messing around in and around the water.