An architect and academic, she is a leading thinker on food and cities. Her award-winning books Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Lives (2008) and Sitopia: How Food Can Save the World (2020) have established the concept of "sitopia" (place of food) internationally.

Director of Kilburn Nightingale Architects in London, she is also a visiting lecturer at numerous renowned universities around the world and a lecturer. After her viral TEDGlobal talk in 2009, she became an acclaimed speaker.