Two minutes with…Sharanya Balan

Our Senior Landscape Architect, Sharanya lives in London and is based at our London office but regularly comes to our main office (Wednesdays is our core team day). This week, Sharanya was all set up this week to bring her canine fur ball KiKi but she wasn’t quite awake when Sharanya left for Canterbury, so was left at home. She summarises her day for us…

We spend two minutes with Sharanya as she takes us through her day at the Canterbury studio:

These 2 mins p eces are being created to give potential recruits insight into our working days and what it would be like working within EDLA and the range of projects. This is the first of the series which will be monthly.

8.30 am

Arrive in Canterbury and settle in, have a coffee.

9.30 am

First up, I have a focused Teams meeting with everyone at the studio, and others working remotely, to discuss the day’s deliverables and resources. It is a great opportunity to touch base with others with more coffee! One of the projects I am looking at in the image below is the latest aerial photos taken at Newtown Works, they have uncovered additional turntables below ground and we see the progress of the installation of the underground water storage, the photos in themselves are fascinating (see first 2 photos).

A lady looks at a computer screen with a image of a project on the screen.

A landscape architecture project aerial view

The main header photo is of me and my colleague Jaya reviewing the Ebbsfleet community centre model, Jaya is helping to put together the tender pack.

10 am

The morning progresses with important design team meetings, most of which are online which makes the day more streamlined, reducing my travel. Today it was for our Newtown Works project, based in Ashford. As always, it was a productive conversation in which I can review any issues/queries / progress with our clients and other consultants.

1.00pm

Lunch! A walk down the road to grab a lovely Lebanese wrap from the corner shop. It’s a great way to stretch my legs and catch some sunshine. I usually sit around with some of the others, and we have lunch together.

2:00 pm

The afternoon sees more work and an important catch-up with both Directors for my monthly 121 review. This gives us all an opportunity to discuss anything in a personalised and confidential way, assess recent progress and review my 6 month and 1-year goals. It also helps me to reflect on the past month and what support and training I need over the next few months.

Three people sit at a table ina design studio

4.30pm

Home time, back to London before rush hour. Kiki needs a walk and my kids will be waiting…

 

a dog lies on grass with a scarf tied around his neck

We are always on the lookout for talented people and to please send in your portfolio and CV to office@edla.co.uk titled ‘Recruitment’ if you are based in Canterbury / London, are experienced and have the necessary work status requirements to work in the UK.