The Lighthouse | The Design of Time

March 23, 2025 – 12:00 pm
UK
8:00 am
EST
1:00 pm
CET
5:30 pm
IST
10:30 pm (March 23)
ACT
Online
Event Recordings

Our homes, neighbourhoods, and cities are deeply connected to the rhythms of time, yet they often fail to reflect or adapt to the fluid and evolving nature of human life.

How might a deeper understanding of our relationship with time inspire the creation of places that foster balance, resilience, and purpose? What if we could design environments that grow and evolve alongside us, accommodating the shifting needs of individuals and communities?

Can time itself become an intentional foundation for our aspirations, rather than an obstacle? Join us and our Lighthouse Fellows to explore these questions and reimagine time through the lens of design. Through shared insights, lively debate, and collaborative ideation, we’ll envision a future where time is not a source of stress but a cornerstone for thriving.

We are honoured to be joined by four CCD Lighthouse Fellows: Prof. Moshe Bar, Sarika Bajoria, Trish Hansen, and David Navarette (who will also be hosting the event)

More about The Lighthouse CCD Series

Asking a question is a provocation to observe, to inquire, to test, and ultimately to learn and unlearn. In this spirit we gather to collectively contemplate our trajectory as a society, to reimagine ourselves through our relationship with place.

Lighthouse events convene the CCD community to set a path of inquiry for the field of Conscious Design and the Conscious Cities Movement. The questions raised will be gathered and presented as points of departure for upcoming research, writing, and events at the CCD.

Hosted by

Organised by

Sarika Bajoria founded Contemplative Designer, an educational and research organization and her design practice Sarika Bajoria Unlimited with the singular vision to bring about a built world where each and every “outer spaces” is a mediator of human flourishing, not just well-being. To achieve this vision, she believes that we as designers have to intentionally build an “inner space” of flourishing within.

Synthesizing 22 years of practicing architecture,16 years of studying and teaching contemplative practice, research in the science of human flourishing, neuroaesthetics, psychology and diverse contemplative traditions, Sarika has developed a pedagogical framework for a contemplative design process aligned with how designers think and work to be embedded within the daily design practice.

She brings this Contemplative Design Technology through workshops and keynotes at design firms, academic institutions and conferences to enable designers to tap into underutilized resources of empathic imagination and meaning and better infuse these essential dimensions into the next generation of built spaces to meet both the fundamental and higher-order human needs of end-users. As an Adjunct Professor at Parsons School of Constructed Environments she teaches the contemplative design pedagogy to students in the classroom and conducts research on how these methods can enhance design process and project outcomes.

At fifteen, moved by a transcendent architectural experience at a temple in her hometown Calcutta, Sarika chose architecture as a vocation when she realized the potential of design to deeply connect people to their environments, to others, to themselves, and to something larger than themselves. She embarked on a journey that took from Calcutta to Luther College where she obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Physics, Mathematics, and Art and then to the University of Pennsylvania where she graduated with a Masters in Architecture. She has been practicing architecture for over two decades in New York City as Principal of her design practice and as a senior leader at firms including Skidmore Owings & Merrill, Perkins & Will spearheading global commercial, residential, hospitality projects of varied scales.

Sarika has been recognized with several awards including “Building Design + Construction 40 under 40” and “Engineering News Record New York Top 20 under 40”. She served as Founding Director for Architecture for Humanity NY designing pro-bono projects for underserved communities. She lives in Connecticut where you will often find her chasing her two year old daughter Tara and husband Luke in the yard.

Moshe Bar, PhD is the former Director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Lab at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital and an internationally renowned cognitive neuroscientist. He has a PhD in cognitive neuroscience from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. For his outstanding research and academic achievements, he has received many awards and honors, including the prestigious 21st Century Science Initiative Award from the McDonnell Foundation, and the Hebb Award from The International Neural Networks Society. He headed the Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center at Bar-Ilan University in Israel until recently.

David is Director of Research Initiatives and Accredited Education at Sky Factory, a design and manufacturing company that leverages a fine arts framework, digital technology expertise, and cognitive psychology to create evidence-based design, biophilic illusions of nature. David manages collaborative studies with leading healthcare organizations to explore the impact of neuroaesthetics and spatial cognition in clinical settings.

He has presented Sky Factory’s peer reviewed research at the European Healthcare Design Conference and the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA). He is a member of ANFA’s Center for Education (ACE), The Center for Health Design and the National Association of Science Writers (USA). He earned a Certificate of Research Excellence (CORE) from the Environmental Design Research Association (2017) as part of an interdisciplinary team exploring the neural correlates of nature stimuli in architectural illusions.

David has published essays on Cognitive Biophilia in Human Spaces, Conscious Cities Journal, Radiology Today, SALUS Journal, Work/Design Magazine and Healthcare Estates Journal. He is the lead researcher and co-author of several Continuing Education courses for credit (AIA, USGBC, IDCEC, PXI), including In Search of Deep Beauty: Neuroaesthetics and Wholeness in Design I; The Neurobiology of Biophilia & Spatial Cognition; The Restorative Impact of Perceived Open Space; and Biophilic Illusions: Foundations.

Trish Hansen is the Founding Principal of ReWonder.

Shaped by the oceans and the spirit of seafaring through her father’s Danish & Norwegian ancestry and the wild places of her mother’s Irish & Scottish roots, Trish was born and grew up on the unceded lands of Kaurna People in Tarntanya, of karra yerta; red gums along the creek, sacred places known as Adelaide, South Australia.

As a mother, as community, health leader, arts practitioner, community weaver, creative producer, writer, facilitator and educator, Trish catalyses regenerative futures in myriad, collaborative ways.

Her work spans diverse sectors and industries, partnering with curious and visionary leaders to weave ecological, cultural, and social flourishing into the fabric of their professional practice and industry endeavours.

Trish currently leads a hospital based Arts in Health team service to integrate arts into everyday healthcare through creative therapies, exhibitions, music and performing arts programs – to improve healing and recovery.

Trish writes children’s fiction, using magical realism to translate the voices of Earth’s smallest living beings into eco-futurist adventures and serves of Boards and committees.

At the heart of her practice is a deep commitment to amplifying and integrating the perspectives of local living beings (including humans) and ecosystems into strategic planning, urban design and decision-making, through the voices of children, young people and the imagined spirit of future generations.

 


 

Good Design Australia Ambassador, advocating for the role of design in cultivating regenerative futures.

Founding Chief Executive Officer of Kindred Australia; a not-for-profit that enriches the lives of children and young people, especially those experiencing disadvantage – through arts and culture.

Member of the City of Norwood, Payneham & St Peters Economic Development Committee.