Sarika Bajoria
1. Can you tell us more about what you do at Perkins+Will’s New York office?
I am a Senior Project Designer at the Perkins+Will New York office. In collaboration with the Design Principal, I strive to create a transformative design vision of impact for complex projects of multiple scales and typologies. I drive the strategy, design and holistic problem solving during the phases of design evolution of architectural projects. I am passionate about using design as a channel to connect and engage people and communities experientially, emotionally and socially. My approach tries to achieve a careful balance between the “science” and “art” of environmentally and socially conscious design through the investigation of context, climate, culture and economics to create a meaningful settings.
2. Please explain how you integrate multiple disciplines to create positive impact.
For me, architecture and design should encompass a larger territory of expression. Heightened distinctions between the disciplines of architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, ecology, interior design, art and branding can limit the impact of a project and preclude new paradigms of architectural response. By blurring the boundaries between multiple disciplines and integrating different scales of expression throughout a collaborative design process, we can then design with in a more expansive realm of possibilities that creates the potential for invention, transformation and broader impact.
3. What do you think are the most important factors in creating a dynamic user experience?
I believe a design process that frontlines the relationships between people, communities and environments creates a transformative user experience. For me, design is a channel to connect and engage people experientially, because we spend almost ninety percent of our time indoors. In an increasingly digitized and ephemeral world, we can often find ourselves disconnected, distracted and distant. We engage more in virtual spaces rather than physical spaces. Therefore, the role of design in helping us reconnect, engage and be more present to our spaces, others and ourselves at a deeper level is very important.
For me, establishing a customized narrative for a project shapes the design tools through which that is communicated through its spaces. An imaginative choreography of light, movement, materiality, expansion and contraction of spaces, serendipities of space, the blurring of boundaries between the built and the natural world, all together heighten perception and senses.
4. How are commercial, residential, hospitality, retail and office architecture and design distinct from one another?
The function and use of buildings make them distinct in their planning and design. The specific use determines the ideal structure, mechanical systems, core and façade, lease spans, efficiencies, code regulations etc. The separation of public and private realms between these programs further defines the organization of closed and open spaces and level of transparency and opacity.
5. What are the top energy efficiency methods you are putting into practice?
Energy efficient buildings use less energy, cost less to operate, use less natural resources, and produce less harmful environmental impact than conventional buildings. This is achieved through an integrated design process which involves a holistic approach to high performance building design through the different phases of its evolution. We investigate many different passive and active techniques to reduce the energy needs of buildings and increase their ability to capture or generate their own energy. Some of the methods I use in the design process are passive solar design techniques that take advantage of solar heat and light to minimize the need for heating, lighting and air conditioning. This includes building siting, orientation and form and integration of building elements such as exterior walls, windows, materials that collect, store, and distribute solar energy. Daylighting tools involve maximizing natural daylight into a building’s interior illumination while minimizing the heat gain. Key to the design process is thermal storage design tools that includes strategic window placement, window-to-wall ratios, glazing performance, exterior shading strategies on facades, selection of building materials and landscaping.
6. What does the future look like for architecture and design around the world?
While the future of architecture seems to be very spectacular: City skylines from sci-fi, rotating skyscrapers made of new materials, green power plants, natural disaster resilient structures, indoor parks, 3d printed spaces and inflatable structures, I believe it also promises to be very optimistic. In a technologically and social media connected world, the design process will be very multidisciplinary and collaborative effecting broader change and the public will play a greater role in shaping the future of architecture through quick feedback loop. Crowdfunding will change the way public projects are built. Most importantly, the focus is going to greatly shift beyond the “what” which is the building as a beautiful artifact, to questioning the “why” which best serves the users and has the potential for limitless possibilities of transformation into something very meaningful.
Connect with Sarika on LinkedIn
Perkins+Will is an interdisciplinary, research-based architecture and design firm established in 1935 and founded on the belief that design has the power to transform lives and enhance communities. Each of the firm’s 23 offices focuses on local, regional and global work in a variety of practice areas. With hundreds of award-winning projects annually, Perkins+Will is ranked as one of the top global design firms. Perkins+Will is recognized as one of the industry’s preeminent sustainable design firms due to its innovative research, design tools, and expertise. The firm's 1,900 professionals are thought leaders developing 21st century solutions to inspire the creation of spaces in which clients and their communities work, heal, live, and learn. Social responsibility is a fundamental aspect of Perkins+Will’s culture and every year the company donates 1% of its design services to pro bono initiatives. In 2015, Fast Company ranked Perkins+Will among “The World’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Architecture.”
