Meet Rosana

What brought you to Henning Larsen?

I came to Henning Larsen, and my current role, kind of sideways. During 2020, at the height of the pandemic, a former colleague of mine reached out to me regarding an opening for a Business Development Coordinator position at the New York studio. I had been building f-architecture, the Architectural League Prize winning feminist practice I co-founded in 2016, and was in search of a career that could help me sustain this in the most expensive city in the country.

I started partially in-person, partially over Teams, and stayed for what I found once I got here. What I expected to be a day job became something I love. 

What makes Henning Larsen a special place to work?

The people! I know everyone says that, so let me be specific. They're genuinely kind, they're talented, and they inspire me. We collaborate hard and proactively, we celebrate each other's wins, and because business development can be tough and deadline-driven, we also complain together and find little joys in between losses and project delays.  

What motivates you in your work?

This work asks you to be more optimistic about the future than architects usually let themselves appear, and my Henning Larsen buddies are the exact people I want to be optimistic with. Business development is hard, the odds are long, the leads protracted, and a lot of the time you're not winning, which can feel like failing. What makes me stay is the people. They're what carry you through the losses and keep you patient enough to play a long game.

What excites you about the future? 

To be honest I'm a little afraid of it. I have two young children who have reshaped how I see the world. Motherhood has made me more fearful, because there's so much more to lose now, but also louder and more upfront, because with the climate crisis we are facing the stakes have never felt higher. 

I choose excitement deliberately, because it matters. I'm excited by the potential for design to challenge the climate crisis, to make spaces where everyone can exist safely and thrive, and to shape a world through buildings that perform as beautifully as they look. I'm an aesthetics person, I love beautiful things, but beauty without impact falls flat. What excites me is the chance to help make beauty that carries real positive impact.

What do you hope to pass on to the next generation of designers?

I've taught architecture at Columbia's GSAPP and interior design at Parsons. Bringing my critical research practice and my work here at Henning Larsen into the same room has made me better at both. 

What I most want to pass on is the habit of questioning, to think critically about the world and how we shape it. How we design, who we design for, and what power structures are asking us to work a certain way. Without asking why we do what we do, who it's for, and who or what is affected, we're failing at the actual job of shaping the built environment, and the future.