“I was born in Argentina, came to the US in 2000. My mom is Italian. My father is British. I like this place [US] because of its diversity, culture, the work opportunity.
Inspiration can come from anywhere. As a designer, I’m interested in art in any form. Films are huge inspirations. I like Iranian films, by Abbas Kiarostami. He’s very visually stunning. He’s also a photographer and a poet. Any well designed product, I’m interested in.
I’m 40, a designer for an architecture firm in Irvine. We design sustainable buildings, green architecture, mostly for higher education. I went to architect school to get my masters in Urban Studies. We do a lot of buildings for institutions.
LPA, the firm I work at, was one of the leaders in the country that started with this [LEED] system. We got the 1st LEED Gold for Toyota. Also designed the JPL building in Pasadena. We offer a real world platform for grad research students, such as with fuel cells and materials research.
I design mostly for CSU, CC buildings, rec centers. Your generation of students is getting more interested with sustainability. The first thing the older generation asks is, ‘How much is this going to cost me?’ rather than ‘How is this good for the environment?’ At UCN, in their rec center, the students decided to have treadmills off the grid, to produce energy. Generally, southern California is good for solar panels.
I think what we’re seeing here [for environmental design], is that it really should be a multi-faceted approach. The most important is how little energy is used. When you have more natural light, the save in energy is huge. Second most important is water. This means things like low-flush toilets, faucet sensors, collecting rainwater, and reusing water.
A lot of people go through life superficially, not thinking about where things come from. That’s why I was so interested in doing what I’m doing. Sixty to seventy percent of energy goes to buildings. As architects, cutting that [percentage] is huge.”
Excerpt paraphrased and edited for clarity.