welcome. 

born and raised in cape town, south africa, shaped by high school in israel, influenced by the liberal arts education in the usa, and living in brooklyn, nyc, i constantly strive to understand how the built environment shapes thought and action. how much of our environment shapes us? how much can we influence our community? 

i strongly believe our built-environment is an essential part of our education. through our eyes, hands, limbs, heart, mind - human faculties - we are able to create relationships between people, raise children, start businesses, build mechanisms that take humans to space, and so on. it is through these human faculties that we are able to perceive our built-environment. the built-environment must be designed to facilitate an effective connection with how our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual faculties function. when people are able to effectively understand and shape their environment, they can build healthy communities and cities that foster a high quality of life.

my aim is to learn how to work alongside communities - urban and rural, formal and informal - to enable their inhabitants to become proponents of city/regional design. community members have the capacity to help find solutions to city/village problems within their built environment, but dependency has been created and overpowered their ability to do so. the more i study architecture, the more i sense that it can be a tool used in collaboration with community members to facilitate an empowerment process and achieve more effective built environments.