ANDREA BATARSE
Portrait courtesy of Andrea Batarse.
Architectural Designer, BRW Architects, Dallas, Texas 2020
Master of Architecture (Texas A&M University) 2020
Bachelor of Arts in International Politics and Diplomacy with minors in Spanish + French (Texas A&M University) 2017
Andrea is an architectural designer and entrepreneur holding a Master’s degree in Architecture with a concentration in Historic Preservation, as well as a Bachelor’s degree in International Politics and Diplomacy with a concentration in foreign languages. Her research interests include re-conceptualizing migrant/refugee housing, post-war reconstruction and urban public space. Currently working at an architectural firm in Texas and doing migrant housing design work in my free time. When Andrea is not working, you can find her spending time with family and friends and trying to learn how to make pasta from scratch or both!
Reflections on Growth and Goals
What inspired you to pursue architecture?
My grandfather has this innate ability to become an expert at anything. I spent my summers in El Salvador with him and my grandmother at the restaurant and hotel they built together. He designed and built the whole thing, managed to rebuild it after the civil war, and just recently sold it. Now, he is living with my grandmother in another house he also designed, in the town of his dreams at the mountains, with el viento rico [the best breeze]. He is the biggest dreamer and hardest worker I have ever met.
My parents also played a large role in my life. They both immigrated to the U.S. at different points in their lives, stirring my passion for migration at a young age. They built my Catholic foundation with a Palestinian-Spanish twist, laying the groundwork for a focus on service, community development and love of food.
Inspired by my family, I took up entrepreneurship in college and was involved in migration work. After spending some time with refugee communities abroad, I felt this desire to do something, something tangible and political and fun. Entering into the field of architecture has been a great joy in my life. I am inspired to design spaces that address economic and social vulnerabilities that refugees face in urban environments and provide creative ways that expand access, participation, and interaction between refugees and their local communities. It’s so exciting to promote social justice and provoke thought through innovative, sustainable, zeitgeist architecture that incorporates politics and humor in a fun, interactive way.
What is the most important thing that you learned in the past year?
We all seek to love and be loved. Creating spaces where people can feel loved, especially under such isolating times, is an incredible responsibility we have as designers. It’s challenging to create these spaces in a way that responds to human needs and accounts for cost-efficiency, sustainability and inclusivity. I learned that it’s that challenge, that unknown, and that potential to make people feel more loved that makes architecture so fun and necessary to society. Architecture is political. Let’s use that and transform lives for the better.
Filming of documentary “safe passage” in Paris, France. Photo courtesy of Andrea Batarse.
Packaging from refuge, socially responsible company providing child- refugees education tools. Photo courtesy of Andrea Batarse.
What are some architectural organizations (or specific person/role model) that helped you learn to overcome an obstacle? How did they?
There’s a group of professors at A&M that have changed my life: Dr. Edwin Price, Dr. Stephen Caffey, Dr. Livia Loureiro, Dr. Dinah Hannaford, Dr. Robert Carley, Davi Xavier, Marcel Erminy and finally, Alejandro Borges. These professors are leaders in international development, politics, refugee and migration work, social housing and design. They’re my team that I look to for guidance, continuously encouraging me to grow in knowledge, capacity and commitment to serving our global community. My time at university allowed me to understand the irreplaceable relationship between professor and student: it’s a beautiful bond to share passion within a profession and to be mentored on making decisions. I can’t even put into words how incredibly grateful I am to know these humans that have been with me through every grant process, application, design project, work opportunity, research idea and dream. My hope is that everybody has a good teacher in their life.
Considering the spatial relationship of the border, users can confront the wall by going over, under, or through it. The spatial approach to the wall can yield three transformations: division, manipulation, or removal. By taking the border wall’s bold, oriented form, borderline divides spaces, yet provides horizontal, vertical and diagonal views to develop stronger connections; creates forms within thresholds; and eliminates walls altogether in certain spaces to emanate presence. These architectural transformations allow the user’s experience with the wall to transition from isolation to solitude, transform and liberate. Drawing courtesy of Andrea Batarse.
Images taken in Palestine and the jungle in Calais, France. Photo courtesy of Andrea Batarse.
If you were given the opportunity to repeat the year, what is one thing you’d do differently?
2020 was the year of growth.
There were definitely a lot of struggles, but overcoming those helped me develop as a person. My greatest takeaway from this year was that whether I make a right or wrong decision, which I will make both, I will learn to be better. I wouldn’t change a thing because I wouldn’t be better for it. Owning the struggle is part of the overcoming. If it’s not a pandemic, it’s something else.
las Americas virtual design studio in Mendoza, Argentina - this is our posse! Photo courtesy of Andrea Batarse.
As you reflect on the past year, what did you discover as your biggest strengths?
There is a book about how everything is figure-out-table. I haven’t figured everything out, but I figure I can challenge myself to figure out what I need to do. When I put my mind to it, I can do it. I’ve had to be creative and make it work: living alone, in a new city, during a pandemic going through life and all the drama, I pushed through with help from my friends. My biggest strength has been to keep dreaming and working towards those dreams. The show goes on, and we can all star in it. Might as well make it good.
hotel and restaurant in Ahuachapán, El Salvador - my home. Photo courtesy of Andrea Batarse.
Taken while hosting a public workshop at Färgfabriken museum of contemporary art and architecture. Photo courtesy of Andrea Batarse.
In terms of rising concerns and problems (in the architectural profession) over the past year, what is one change that you wished would happen and it did not? This can be in an educational or work atmosphere.
There are still refugees and migrants living in unlivable spaces. We must do something as a profession to provide dignified and culturally appropriate shelter to everyone who needs it.
St. George's Bermuda while documenting UNESCO World Heritage site: St. Peter's! Photo courtesy of Andrea Batarse.
