About Ceilidh Higgins

Ceilidh has been described as a “purple unicorn” – her rare combination of knowledge and skills across interior design, technology, sustainability and business give her a unique view into the process of work and workplaces.  She has developed her ideas as a thought leader and futurist of work – not only through her experience as an interior architect and designer but through her own experiences of flexible and dispersed work beginning in the mid 2000s.  Long before the pandemic she was speculating on the impacts of changing attitudes to work due to flexibility, wellbeing and technology on the processes of work. 

As well as writing this blog, Ceilidh has been commissioned to write articles for a range of websites including Workplace Insight, the Association of Consulting Architects Australia and Parlour as well as seeing her posts republished widely.  She is a well known international speaker and is available for interview or comment on any of the topics covered in this blog.  Contact Ceilidh through this website if you are interested in discussing potential engagements, articles or interviews.

Ceilidh’s specialty throughout her career has been work – both the places we work and the way we work.  As a talented interior architect, she has worked across workplace strategy and design and commercial building refurbishment, delivering workplace projects from as small as 5 people through to upwards of 1000 people.  Her work brings together her background in architecture with a career long focus in interior design, her experience in project management and business grounded in an understanding and passion for psychology and well being, green buildings, technology and a flair for design.

For more than 15 years, Ceilidh lead the design and delivery of significant office fitout and refurbishment projects for a variety of clients in private companies, government and defence sectors as well as a range of other interior design projects in education, laboratories, healthcare, and transport sectors. A number of projects she has lead have been shortlisted for design awards whilst at the same time meeting client expectations for functionality and budget.

Ceilidh spent many years working for a large multi disciplinary consulting company of over 5,000 staff where she was responsible for delivering internal workplaces as well as work for external clients.  Alongside a high level of service integration, this experience gives her a unique client side view of the interior design project process and expectations, as well as an understanding of the business side of working within a large company.

Ceilidh has been an active participant and networker across the industry –  particularly in the green building and digital technology communities. As an early adopter of Revit for interior design, Ceilidh has become a well know speaker both in Australian and internationally presenting on technology and design (and also frequently as part of the well-known BIMinions). From 2017 – 2022 she was part of the BILT ANZ organizing committee after many years as regular speaker.  During her time at BILT, Ceilidh was key driver behind a number of significant diversity initiatives which had a substantial impact on improving gender diversity in this community amongst both speaker and attendees.

Ceilidh is now a retired registered Architect in NSW Australia and also a GreenStar Accredited Professional.

At the end of 2021 Ceilidh decided to redirect her unique mix of knowledge joining the Workplace Strategy and Change Management team at CBRE.  All opinions expressed on this blog or social media are her own.

Visit Ceilidh on Linkedin or Behance to find out more about her work and see her project portfolio.