2023 Women in Construction: Florencia Kratsman, FXCollaborative Architects LLP

In the past year, what project or accomplishment are you most proud of? During the last seven years, I worked on Google’s Bayview Campus, which opened in May 2022. I had the pleasure of visiting the completed project and experiencing the spaces so carefully designed by the team. Working on an ambitious project with such a fantastic group of individuals was a privilege. The project is an all-electric, net water-positive campus with the largest geothermal installation in North America, focusing on sustainability, biophilia, and human-centric design. As a mom worried about the planet we are leaving to the next generation, this project is an example and a precedent that demonstrates what is possible for the construction community. I am proud of having been part of it.

What was a pivotal point in your career? I am an architect by education, but during the first ten years of my career, I worked mostly in interiors. It has been transformative to see how architecture and urban design teams could use my skills to inform the shapes, layouts, visioning, and programming of buildings and cities. 

This provided me with an understanding of my capability to create human-centric design at any scale, without silos or limitations, and the value that it can bring to both core and shell and master planning projects. Designing projects from the inside out and focusing on the human experience has been particularly important after the pandemic, since we now have a chance to re-invent holistic, healthy places to live and work that embrace a connection with nature.