architect & interdisciplinary designer
I am a licensed Architect and designer who is inspired by interdisciplinary work, the natural world, and technologies of making. With diverse experience in architecture, biotechnology, and the arts, I have an understanding of design and fabrication processes at a variety of scales.
I received my architectural degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 2008, and hold professional licenses in Wisconsin & Illinois. For more information, download my full resume here.
My design process is primarily strategic, not cosmetic. Inspiration comes from analyzing how things work, from the smallest material or organism to the big-picture contextual relationships that influence their existence. I believe that creative problem solving will produce inherently elegant solutions, and this design-thinking methodology can be applied to a wide variety of projects and industries.
I seek to understand the fabric of ecological, technological, and sociopolitical systems that formal place-making sits within, and to explore how built interventions could reshape them more sustainably. At our current time in history, reuse of physical infrastructure is not only financially prudent but ecologically necessary. Living organisms, processes, and materials can be looked to as a guide, form being intrinsic to functioning in their environment. These elements can be applied directly or mimetically to objects, buildings, and large-scale systems. Ecologically integrated design has the opportunity to reframe ourselves and our interventions as integral to natures biome, not in opposition to it.
Get in touch at sarah.sutherlin@gmail.com
