ADF gets the lowdown on the working life of husband-and-wife team Pablo Lambrechts and Lindsey Webster, who co-founded their practice L+ Architects in 2018
What does the role of architect now mean across residential & wider sectors?
Pablo Lambrechts: The role now begins at feasibility and extends from urban strategy to interior detail.
Across high-end residential, mixed-use, educational, hospitality and commercial workplace projects, we are typically engaged early – testing site capacity, daylight penetration, acoustic buffering, structural spans and viability before formal language is defined.
Urban design and masterplanning shape that foundation. Movement hierarchy, public realm structure, biodiversity corridors and sustainable drainage systems are resolved alongside building massing.
My background includes engineering studies, which continue to inform how I approach structure and environmental systems as inseparable from spatial clarity. As a registered Principal Designer, safety and compliance are embedded within the design framework from inception.
At every scale – masterplan, building, interior or landscape – the responsibility is consistent: resolve complexity early and deliver environments that perform over time.
Lindsey Webster: Landscape architecture and interior design are not subsequent layers; they are formative. The quality of daily experience is defined by proportion, light, material tactility and acoustic comfort. Integration from the outset determines success.
Have wellness & biophilic principles affected your work?
Lambrechts: Profoundly – and increasingly as a matter of professional responsibility.
We have stringent standards to prevent physical harm in buildings – structural safety, fire protection, air quality compliance. It would be unthinkable to knowingly design a space that posed measurable physical risk.
Yet mental wellbeing has historically been treated as subjective, despite growing evidence that it too is measurable.
Lighting, acoustics, air quality, thermal stability and spatial density all have quantifiable physiological effects. Blue-enriched light suppresses melatonin and disrupts circadian rhythms (Harvard Health Publishing, 2020). Chronic background noise has been linked to elevated stress and reduced cognitive performance (Evans and Johnson, 2000).
In educational buildings, reverberation times influence comprehension. In office interiors, glare and acoustic fatigue affect productivity. In residential environments, proportion and refuge influence emotional regulation.
Mental wellbeing can be assessed through lux levels, reverberation times, daylight factors, CO2 concentration and spatial legibility. It is not abstract.
Because of my advanced study in acoustics and parametric design, we model performance rather than assume it. Spatial calm must be measurable, not rhetorical.
Wellness design therefore becomes systemic – integrating architecture, interiors and landscape to regulate rather than overload the nervous system.
Webster: Landscape reinforces this regulation. Access to green infrastructure, seasonal planting cycles, water management and microclimate influence psychological balance. Wellness is experienced across thresholds – from public realm to interior refuge.
How much does biophilic design extend beyond plants & how does biomimicry and psychology inform your work?
Webster: In landscape architecture, biomimicry is direct. Sustainable drainage mimics natural water cycles. Planting structures follow ecological succession. Apparent naturalness is carefully structured.
True biophilia reduces friction between perception and environment – internally and externally.
Lambrechts: Biophilic design is often simplified to greenery. It is fundamentally about environmental coherence and human psychology.
The recognised principles include environmental features, natural forms, dynamic light, prospect and refuge, place based relationships and human nature connection.
Biomimicry deepens this thinking. Natural systems resolve load and water movement efficiently and legibly. Through parametric modelling and close collaboration with highly accomplished structural engineers, we refine spans and junctions so that complexity is resolved with precision.
Sometimes structure is expressed; often it is concealed to preserve interior calm. Excessive visual articulation or exposed services increase cognitive load. Controlled detailing and proportion reduce it.
Heritage projects reinforce this discipline. Historic buildings demonstrate human scale, structural honesty and material restraint – lessons equally relevant in contemporary mixed-use developments or hospitality interiors.
Simplicity at this level is engineered.
Does true wellness-led design increase risk?
Lambrechts: It increases responsibility.
Natural ventilation strategies, exposed timber, refined structural spans, acoustically calibrated interiors and integrated landscape require rigorous coordination – particularly regarding moisture movement, fire performance and sound transmission.
Engineering literacy and Principal Designer oversight allow those complexities to be resolved safely and elegantly.
The greater long-term risk lies in delivering environments that neglect measurable wellbeing.
Is there a shift away from open-plan-above-all-else?
Lambrechts: In residential projects, yes. Open plan works well for younger families, but from early adolescence autonomy and acoustic separation become important.
We now design ‘layered’ homes – adaptable partitions, secondary lounges and defined study areas.
In workplace interiors, a similar recalibration is occurring. Open-plan offices are being replaced with varied spatial typologies – quiet zones, collaborative hubs and acoustic refuges.
Webster: Cosiness – in domestic, hospitality and landscape settings – is returning as a psychological strategy. Texture, enclosure and acoustic softness create security.
How do you manage work/life balance?
Webster: Design informs how we live, but structure is essential. I work primarily from home; Pablo works in the studio. That separation creates rhythm.
Lambrechts: Clear professional roles and disciplined boundaries sustain longevity.
As a husband-and-wife team, are there more pros than cons?
Lambrechts: Alignment and trust are strengths; strategic decisions are unified.
Webster: Defined roles prevent professional overlap from becoming domestic tension.
What project are you most proud of?
Lambrechts: Leading the design of the Google HQ King’s Cross remains formative. Achieving BREEAM Outstanding while maintaining spatial generosity demonstrated that environmental performance, interior experience and urban context can coexist.
Webster: Projects where architecture, interior design and landscape architecture operate seamlessly – from masterplan to material detail – are the most rewarding.
What’s one thing that would make your job easier?
Lambrechts: Greater planning certainty at urban and building scale.
Webster: Earlier integrated consultant appointments.
What is your goal for the practice?
Lambrechts: To embed technically rigorous, wellness-led architecture and interior design across residential, mixed-use, educational, hospitality and commercial environments – integrating masterplanning, building design and landscape architecture from inception.
Webster: To continue delivering environments that feel calm, legible and enduring – where performance and experience are inseparable.