Faculty

Profile

Sarika Bajoria founded Contemplative Designer, an educational and research organization and her design practice Sarika Bajoria Unlimited with the singular vision to bring about a built world where each and every “outer spaces” is a mediator of human flourishing, not just well-being. To achieve this vision, she believes that we as designers have to intentionally build an “inner space” of flourishing within.

Synthesizing 22 years of practicing architecture,16 years of studying and teaching contemplative practice, research in the science of human flourishing, neuroaesthetics, psychology and diverse contemplative traditions, Sarika has developed a pedagogical framework for a contemplative design process aligned with how designers think and work to be embedded within the daily design practice.

She brings this Contemplative Design Technology through workshops and keynotes at design firms, academic institutions and conferences to enable designers to tap into underutilized resources of empathic imagination and meaning and better infuse these essential dimensions into the next generation of built spaces to meet both the fundamental and higher-order human needs of end-users. As a lecturer at the Parsons School of Constructed Environments she brings her extensive professional practice background and contemplative design pedagogy to students in the classroom. Her particular research interest is in studying and evaluating how contemplative design pedagogy and methods can lead to quantifiable and sustainable change in the experience of the design process itself for the designer, flourishing of the designer and aesthetic experience of project outcomes.

At fifteen, moved by a transcendent architectural experience at a temple in her hometown Calcutta, Sarika chose architecture as a vocation when she realized the potential of design to deeply connect people to their environments, to others, to themselves, and to something larger than themselves. She embarked on a journey that took from Calcutta to Luther College where she obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Physics, Mathematics, and Art and then to the University of Pennsylvania where she graduated with a Masters in Architecture. She has been practicing architecture for over two decades in New York City as Principal of her design practice and as a senior leader at firms including Skidmore Owings & Merrill, Perkins & Will and Spacesmith spearheading global commercial, residential, hospitality projects of varied scales.

Sarika has been recognized with several awards including “Building Design + Construction 40 under 40” and “Engineering News Record New York Top 20 under 40”. She served as Founding Director for Architecture for Humanity NY designing pro-bono projects for underserved communities. She currently serves as a Fellow at the Center for Conscious Design.

For more information on Contemplative Designer, educational and research organization : https://www.contemplativedesigner.com

For more information on Sarika Bajoria Unlimited, architecture and design practice: https://sarikabajoria.com

Degrees Held

Masters in Architecture, University of Pennsylvania

Bachelor of Arts, Luther College, Iowa

Majors: Mathematics, Physics and Art  Minor: Computer Science

Research Interests

Studying and evaluating how contemplative design pedagogy and methods embedded within the design process can lead to quantifiable and sustainable change in the experience of the design process itself for the designer, flourishing of the designer and aesthetic experience of project outcomes.