Kate: There are things from my immediate environment, both built and natural. My studio was originally an art deco cinema, built in the 1930s on the side of a cliff on the Fife coast, back when Kinghorn was a popular holiday destination. It overlooks the Forth and out to the North Sea and so I’m only a few steps away from a multitude of textures, materials, and subtle juxtaposition of colours in the sand, rocks and sky. The ever changing weather creates different lighting conditions and sometimes the sea is like glass.

Yes, I have had to fight against this ingrained attitude from architecture in order to freely explore colour and frivolity. I’ve always been drawn in two opposing directions – I love Tadao Ando and FAT architects, the work of Adele Brereton and Nikki Couppee. I’m searching for a mix of materiality and joy; maybe it’s joy in materiality?

An architectural education teaches you to really look at things – composition, materials, how things are put together, what feelings they evoke. I’ve always had an obsession with accidental patterns, or surfaces which have been modified by nature. The collaboration between a natural process, or object, and intentional design. When you work closely with a material and get to know its properties you can begin to understand how to bring an outside element into the process in a controlled way to add depth and intrigue.

For many years the building was used as a dancehall and an amusement arcade. It was derelict when artists Elizabeth Ogilvie and Robert Callender bought it in the 1980s and turned it into a studio and residence. I work alongside Liz and three other artists in a wonderful space with open views out to the sea.

I feel like I’m on a retreat or a residency whenever I’m there. Swimming in the sea every day is exhilarating, and I have everything I need – much needed solitude, adventure, and all the while immersed in nature.

It overheats in summer and is freezing in the winter, when the rain splats down on the roof you can hardly hear yourself think and sometimes you can barely open the door for the wind. But this is part of what makes it special and besides, other days we have all the doors open and you can smell the seaweed and hear kids and seagulls playing in the sun.

One thing I do miss from working as an architect is being part of a team and the creativity which comes from bringing together different people. So this was partly just an excuse to work with creatives who I admire, and spend some time outside my studio! When I first showed you the collection, I knew that you immediately got it. Your first vision of an image combining a beach-scape with a heightened, high end studio look made so much sense to me.

I’ve worked with Susan before and I really love the slightly surreal, very poised images she creates. For this collection I wanted something that was anchored in something a bit more concrete, but still has a sense of hyper-reality or surrealism. Pairing you was, I think, an inspired choice. The initial photos Susan took at the beach were stunning and it all snowballed from there into images that are far cry from anything I could have produced myself.