ABOUT kati

HOW I got HERE

I completely changed the course of my Cornell dissertation because of something I noticed while running 2,000 miles across the U.S. as part of a cancer fundraising effort. I visited a number of pediatrics facilities across the country, and noticed young adults receiving cancer treatment in facilities designed for infants and little kids. Nobody had consulted a developmental psychologist. Nobody had asked what a 21-year-old needs from a space when their body is failing them.

That observation became a research question. The research question became a PhD. The PhD became the rest of my career.

After Cornell, I spent nearly a decade as a researcher at three of the top design firms in the world: HDR, Perkins&Will, and DLR Group. I led post-occupancy evaluations, built massive occupant research studies, published peer-reviewed work, and sat inside the design process long enough to understand exactly where the science stops getting used.

That gap is what I study. And it's what I talk about.

I founded Built Experience Lab in 2026 to do this work independently: consulting with architecture and design firms on evidence-based strategy, and speaking to the corporate leaders, healthcare executives, HR professionals, and educators who shape the environments where people actually spend their lives.

The science of how space affects human cognition, mood, and health is consistent, well-documented, and largely unknown outside academic literature. My job is to change that.