Barbara Erwine

Barbara Erwine is an architectural consultant, educator, researcher and writer. Combining her early technical background as an analytical chemist with a mid-career switch to architecture (MArch, University of California at Berkeley), her design work celebrates the integration of passive design strategies with architectural place-making. Barbara’s early focus on the use of natural light in buildings expanded to incorporate the wide range of sustainable design strategies as this fledgling field emerged in the early 1980’s.

As a consultant to architecture and engineering teams, she often found herself straddling the divide between the traditional silos of architecture and engineering, translating the design aesthetic into the science of environmental controls and machines. As she worked to bridge this gap with an integrated design process, she recognized that the apparent schism could be resolved with a paradigm shift to understanding the design of sensory space – environments shaped by heat, texture, smells, light, color and sounds. Her investigations into sensory design culminated in her most recent book, “Creating Sensory Spaces: The Architecture of the Invisible.” The “invisible spaces” explored in this book shape the human experience as much or more than the built material forms that are featured in most books on architecture and design. So they are of critical interest to all who care deeply about the humanity of the spaces we design and inhabit.

Her narratives are brought to life through her love of poetry and creative nonfiction. And her passion for sustainable living and place-making is evident in the cohousing community in Seattle (one of the first in the US) which she helped develop and where she currently resides.