Welcome!
July 1, 2021Happy 2022!
January 2, 2022
Hello Everyone, It’s been awhile since my first blog. If you have not yet read it, I recommend reading it to get to know me a bit more. You can find it under Recent Posts.
There are many topics I’d like to cover on this blog and after much debate, I thought to take it back to the beginning of my Professional Career/Post-Undergraduate degree. After graduating in May 2016, I did not go straight into my full-time job. Instead, I did an eight week Research Fellowship with BKSK Architects. It was an enriching and unforgettable experience, one that I will never forget.
Throughout my college career, I fell in love with incorporating nature or natural elements into my designs. I would use any chance I could to learn about sustainability and passive design. It was an architectural focus I was very passionate about, since I love nature and care about our environment.
My thesis project was a very evident representation of this. To not go too much into the project, because I might write a blog about it, the overall project encompassed a critic of a development in my town of Glen Cove and taking over thousands of square feet to create a new wetlands, expand Garvies Point Preserve, and the addition of a multi-concert hall/amphitheater center. All in all, it was my dream project that included my love for music events, nature and architecture.
With that project in my mind, I applied to the BKSK Research Fellowship with the idea to research Biophilic Design to further understand how nature affects and impacts humanity. I was fortunate enough to be chosen for the fellowship and spent my summer of 2016 reading, analyzing, testing and designing all things Biophilic related with a focus on the Urban Environment. My research culminated with the creation of my book Biophilic Design: Reinterpreting the Urban Environment. In this book, I explain what Biophilia and Biophilic Design is. As well as, created my own term of Urban Biophilic Design. Which, I back with analysis and a case study I did of Manhattan Neighborhoods and a proposed intervention that would bring Urban Biophilic Design into East Harlem. Furthermore, the book includes tools for measuring Urban Biophilic Design.
If you’re interested in learning more about it, I have published the book on my website under Products, or you can click on the book title above to get to it. I’d love to expand this knowledge to others and learn others views on the topic that many don’t think about outside of the Architectural Academic world.
Looking back, my research and findings have helped shape my process on design and, though currently I do not have this in the forefront of my work, I look forward to reintroducing it in future projects and maybe furthering my research. Let me know in the comments below your thoughts on this and if you like this topics.
Keep growing,
Katherine Serrano Sosa
