Studio KOHLER Presents:
By Design
Listen to the Studio KOHLER Presents: By Design podcast
Kohler’s Perspective of the Year provides a frame to understand architecture and design within the broader context of emerging trends, and to spark a conversation with the A&D community.
Studio KOHLER Presents: By Design brings this conversation into a podcast format. Our first season explores Dimensions of Wellbeing, KOHLER’s 2021 Perspective of the Year.
Episode 1: HOK Houston’s Komal Kotwal on Inclusive Office Design
Komal Kotwal, Sustainable Design Leader for Health, Wellbeing and Equity at HOK in Houston, Texas, joins us to discuss what it means to design workplaces with inclusion in mind. We dive into Komal’s experience in designing inclusive office spaces, particularly her efforts to design for neurodiverse workforces. We then explore how wellbeing is balanced with productivity and flexibility at work and consider what a post-pandemic office might look like.
Speakers: Komal Kotwal, HOK Houston and Erin Lilly, KOHLER
Komal Kotwal
Komal is HOK's sustainable design leader for health, wellbeing, and equity and a project manager based in HOK’s Houston studio. She has led sustainable design efforts for more than two million square feet of space, including a net-zero project and one million square feet of LEED and WELL Platinum projects.
Komal is passionate about the intersection of health, equity, and climate change. She is a trusted advisor to clients, helping develop more intentional design strategies and key metrics for human sustainability and community resiliency. She uses intentional design strategies to enhance human behavior and promote physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing.
Komal has served on the AIA Houston Board of Directors, the Texas USGBC Regional Council and the USGBC’s Greenbuild Program Committee. A strong advocate for equity and inclusivity, Komal has served on HOK’s Diversity Advisory Council and is a member of HOK’s Management Board.
Erin Lilly
Erin leads global decorative products and colors, materials, and finishes design in the KOHLER studios. She’s committed to immersive, user-centric spatial design and leverages her passion for trend forecasting and innovation to drive leading-edge design solutions. Prior to joining KOHLER, Erin worked in several consultancies that catered to the luxury hospitality, retail, and furniture industries.
Episode 2: tonychi studio’s William Paley on Invisible Design and Wellbeing
William Paley, Creative Director for tonychi studio in New York City, joins us to discuss the relationship between invisible design and wellbeing. The conversation starts with a dive into William’s unique and fascinating background. Erin and William then discuss the relationship between wellness, unwellness, and architecture, and how tonychi studio approaches both hospitality and residential projects.
Speakers: William Paley, tonychi studio, & Erin Lilly, Kohler
William Paley
Creative director of tonychi studio, William Paley is an interdisciplinary designer and artist who channels his radical, eclectic inspiration into a fluid, elegant aesthetic output. His open-minded approach, strong architectural background, and intimate knowledge of refined craftsmanship have underpinned the design direction of tonychi studio, where he began his career twenty-five years ago. Working globally and in close collaboration with developers, operators, builders, artisans, and artists, William balances wit and elegance to create harmony in his designs.
Episode 3: Behind the Wellness Kitchen with Vera Iconica Archiecture’s Veronica Schreibeis Smith
Veronica Schreibeis Smith – Founding Principal of Vera Iconica Architecture and Chair of the Wellness Architecture Initiative at the Global Wellness Institute – joins us to talk about designing buildings that promote health and wellbeing. We start with Vera Iconica’s Wellness Kitchen, and the ways in which kitchen design can promote healthier eating habits. Erin and Veronica then discuss well-washing, and Veronica shares the top three architectural factors influencing our wellbeing.
Speakers: Veronica Schreibeis Smith, Erin Lilly, Kohler
Veronica Schreibeis Smith, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP
CEO & Founding Principal of Vera Iconica Architecture
Veronica Schreibeis Smith, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, is CEO and Founding Principal of Vera Iconica, a design brand focused on composing a conscious life providing services in Architecture, Interior Design, Wellness Kitchen™ Design, and Real Estate Developments. The company is a global pioneer in wellness architecture, the art and science behind designing built environments that enhance human and planetary wellbeing. Awards include 2020's Leading Woman in Wellness, Kitchen & Bath Business Prasiworth Pick for 2019 and featured in the Global Wellness Summit's Top Ten Wellness Trends in 2018 and 2021.
Veronica has practiced architecture on four continents, and continues to work, speak, and lead think tanks internationally. Her work has been featured worldwide in the Wall Street Journal, CLADGlobal Magazine, MindBodyGreen, and Good+Well. She chairs the Wellness Architecture Initiative for the Global Wellness Institute, and is founder of the non-profit organization Wellness Architecture + Design.
Episode 4: Reflecting on Dimensions of Wellbeing with Casey Flanagan
Casey Flanagan – Kohler’s Director of Brand Strategy and Consumer Insights – joins Erin for a look back at season 1 of Studio KOHLER Presents: By Design. They discuss the value of shared understanding, the “zeitgistiness” of Wellness Architecture, and the widespread benefits of designing for differences.
Speakers: Casey Flanagan, Erin Lilly, Kohler
Casey Flanagan, Kohler Co. Director, Brand Strategy and Consumer Insights
Casey Flanagan serves as Director – Brand Strategy and Consumer Insights for Kohler Co. In this role, he is responsible for identifying and sharing research-based insights as well translating them into actionable brand, communication and content strategies.
With over two decades of experience building brands big and small, his work has been featured in publications as wide-ranging as Communication Arts and Harvard Business Review. As a speaker, professor, researcher and strategist, Casey is a student of consumers and culture, fascinated by the dynamics that move people and markets.