FROM THE SARA NATIONAL BOARD: A Child's Inspiration to Become an Architect
Looking back on my childhood, I realize now that I knew very early in my life that I wanted to be an architect. As a young child, one of my favorite things to do was to play with my dollhouse that my dad had built for my sister and I. It was a scale doll house that fully opened up on hinges to reveal the rooms inside. The detail on the stairs, and the front porch, the actual shingles on the roof, the interior doors with working hardware that opened to reveal hidden spaces were so intriguing to me. We would play with it for hours, discovering all the nooks and staging the spaces. I loved the idea of the dolls experiencing new and interesting spaces.
As I got older (and stronger) I would frequently take it upon myself to re-arrange the furniture in my bedroom and throughout the rest of the house, occasionally to my parents’ frustration(!) to give the space a new feel. I found that my favorite time of day was early evening, when lights would go in inside buildings, and the fading daylight allowed one to easily see inside and get a glimpse of the character of the inside. In high school, I decided to take an architectural drafting course – hand drafting, of course. I was the only female in the class, but the thought of learning how to assemble the drawings that become the “instructions” for creating an actual building was so empowering to me. I enrolled in all of the art courses that my school offered as well as the shop courses that involved using tools to build and fabricate by hand. I loved being able to create something useful, starting with nothing but an idea and some loose materials.
The dollhouse that my dad built and I spent hours playing with in my childhood. An early sign of my love for architecture.
