Shifting Values Through Wellness Architecture with Veronica Schreibeis Smith | Friends of Build Magazine #71

Friends of Build Magazine

Today Ted speaks with Veronica Schreibeis Smith of Vera Iconica Architecture, out of Jackson, Wyoming. Veronica spent years traveling the world and studying history and architecture before starting her business in Wyoming, where her family has been for generations.

Veronica coined the term Wellness Architecture, and she is a leading voice in the movement to push the envelope on design and design theory. By listening to her clients and asking the right questions, she transforms spaces in homes to become aligned with nature–and the future. This episode is all about the intersection of function vs. well-being in home design.

TOPICS DISCUSSED

• [1:50] How Veronica got started
• [3:00] Choosing travel
• [9:30] What is wellness architecture
• [14:30] What kind of clients do you work with?
• [24:40] Function vs. Wellness
• [28:50] Conventional materials are toxic
• [29:00] Is it hard to use natural materials?
• [31:15] Deepak Chopra
• [37:25] What makes your job difficult?
• [45:40] Frank Lloyd Wright
• [56:40] Did you imagine you’d be doing an architect when you were younger?

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KEY QUOTES FROM EPISODE

• Humans are a part of nature. And so if you make the right choices for humans, you end up making the right decision for the environment.
• As world population increases, what human's value shifts.
• But the more experiences you have, you become more and it really serves to fuel your creativity and the solutions you can come up with because you can combine all these unique experiences or see how humans, designer, of past, present, how they have resolved something in the future and you can come up with unique solutions that solve whatever requirements the project had.