Penthouse on the Park was a milestone in my career. It was my first major international commission and a project that challenged me to translate my design language across borders. The brief was deceptively simple: bring together two independent apartments into one fluid, light-filled penthouse overlooking the city and mountains. What emerged was a home shaped by openness, refinement, and a deep sensitivity to natural light.

International work has a rhythm all its own. With time zones shifting, languages intersecting, expectations evolving, sometimes even the sun behaves differently. But I’ve learned to approach that dance with grace. Drawing became my anchor. When words fell short, a single sketch carried the idea across language barriers. It reminded me that the language of design is shared. Lines, light, form, these are the elements that unite us.

Transforming two flats into a cohesive, one-storey penthouse was both a structural and spatial puzzle. The project came with technical hurdles: limited service zones due to floor-to-ceiling glazing, structural constraints that prevented major reconfiguration, and differing regional construction standards. These challenges required precision, flexibility, and strategic detailing. In particular, in lighting, joinery, and HVAC integration to achieve both functionality and refinement.

What made the process rewarding was using those constraints as creative fuel: rethinking mechanical layouts, concealing air-handling units within custom joinery, and designing a layered curtain system that gave the client full control over light and privacy while preserving the sweeping views.

Penthouse on the Park ultimately went on to win Gold at the London Design Awards, a recognition that affirmed not only the rigor of the design process but also the clarity and confidence of the final result. It felt like a full-circle moment: a project born from complexity, shaped by collaboration, and carried by intuition was then honored on an international stage.

I’ve lived in New York, Sydney, London, and Miami. Each city has stamped something onto my design DNA. I’ve worked on projects from Moscow to Baku, London to Luanda to Lisbon, New York to Miami, and now St. Tropez. This breadth of experience has given me a uniquely global understanding of suppliers, materials, trades, cultural expectations, and  most importantly differing working styles.

This fluency allowed me to navigate regional craftsmanship traditions and building standards with ease. I could source locally in Sofia while still delivering finishes, custom furnishings, and detailing with an international level of quality. It’s a design hybridity rooted in cultural awareness and practical knowledge.

With international work, I’ve found that the language of design is shared. Lines, light, form — these unite us. My superpower has always been drawing. When language becomes a barrier, a sketch dissolves it instantly. A line is a line — whether you're in the US, UK, Europe, Africa, or Australia. The universality of drawing keeps me grounded and connected, no matter the continent.

I’ve often joked that I’m “numerically bilingual,” equally at home in metric and imperial. That fluency bridges technical standards across borders and speaks to the essence of architecture itself.

Were there any personal or creative breakthroughs along the way? Absolutely! Building my practice taught me as much about unlearning as it did about mastery. After fifteen years in an industry shaped by structure, speed, and traditionally masculine frameworks, Penthouse on the Park helped me reclaim the value of a more intuitive, nuanced way of working.

It reminded me that great design doesn’t come only from what is visible or measurable, but often from the atmosphere, the subtleties, and the unseen connections that shape how a space feels. Today, I walk into every project with that blend of global experience and feminine intuition and my clients feel it!

Another breakthrough was embracing hand-drawing and intuitive sketching as a universal design language. In a multinational team working across borders and languages, drawing became the bridge. It allowed me to communicate spatial vision, flow, light, and mood instantly. Mostly, it reaffirmed that architecture isn’t about words, it’s about lines, form, light, and feeling.

These elements had the biggest impact on the final design:

The floor-to-ceiling glazing throughout, creating a 360° panorama of city and mountains, flooding the interior with natural light and anchoring the spatial concept.

The open-plan living, dining, and kitchen area, merging two flats into one seamless, modern space optimized for socializing and sweeping East to West views.

Custom joinery and furnishings, crafted to conceal services and integrate mechanical systems elegantly, offering the space a sense of effortless luxury and calm.

Curtains and lighting strategy, combining sheers and blackout blinds with integrated lighting to give the client complete control over mood, privacy, and ambience at any time of day.

These decisions gave the penthouse its breath, the light, space, elegance, and refined calm.

The clients were drawn to how seamlessly the space embodied both international sophistication and personal warmth. The flow felt natural, the light felt alive, and the atmosphere felt quietly powerful. The award recognition only reinforced what they already felt. Their new home had a beauty, ease, and resonance that surpassed their expectations.

For me, the project reaffirmed that design is a universal language, one that transcends borders, cultures, and even words. When creativity, intuition, and collaboration converge, the results speak fluently on their own. It proved the power of a truly global perspective and reminded me that good design doesn’t belong to one place, it travels, evolves, and transforms.