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Q&A with Tamar Warburg—Sasaki’s Sustainability Director

Sasaki is excited to welcome Tamar Warburg, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, to the practice as our new Director of Sustainability and Resilience. Tamar comes to Sasaki with 25 years of experience designing educational and community buildings, including Excel Academy and Match Community Day School while with Studio G Architects, and the Ketura Library with the Green Architecture Studio that she founded in Israel.

Below, Tamar shares some thoughts on her design approach and everyday inspirations:

Q: Why do you do what you do?
A:  We are so fortunate: we have the tremendous opportunity to address climate change through our projects.  It is the great challenge of our time. We at Sasaki have the passion and the skills to help repair our communities and our planet. Otherwise, how would we sleep at night?

Q: What are you most excited about in regards to your new role as Director of Sustainability and Resilience at Sasaki?
A:  I am thrilled to work with each project team to define aspirational resilience and sustainability goals tailored to the specific client and program.

Q: Who or what has had the greatest influence on your approach to sustainable design? In what ways?
A:  Becoming a parent has transformed my approach to design. We owe it to our children to leave a better world for future generations.

Q: Hideo Sasaki once said, “Contribution is the only value.” What do you contribute?
A:  I aspire to ask the right questions.

Q: In retrospect, what advice would you give yourself ten years ago?
A:  Dance every day.

Q: Where is your favorite place in the world?
A:  The Tel Aviv beach at sunset.

Q: Who do you admire?
A:  Wouldn’t it be amazing to have dinner with heroes we admire?  I would invite Henry David Thoreau, Rachel Carson, and Mahatma Gandhi. And Leonard Bernstein for dessert.

Q: What is something people would be surprised to know about you?
A:  I have a team in Israel renovating four schools for solar energy and battery storage, as Resilience Centers in the event of a man-made or natural disaster. I will travel a few times a year to compete the work—although that’s par for the course, at Sasaki!

Q: What would be on your “Greatest Hits” playlist?
A: I love world music with a great beat: Mima’amakim by Idan Raichel, Fruta Fresca by Carlos Vives, and Chaiyya Chaiyya by AR Rahman—because of Shah Rukh Khan dancing on the moving train. And I love the line from ‘You Can Call Me Al’ by Paul Simon:

He sees angels in the architecture
Spinning in infinity
He says, “Amen!” and “Hallelujah!”

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