Overview
Overview
About Tatiana and MBX Team
Tatiana Berger - Architect, Urban Designer, Educator, Curator and
Design-Health Consultant is Director and Founder of Moving Boundaries
Exploring the intersection of design, architecture, urban and landscape planning,
environmental psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science and sociology for human
and environmental health.
Consulting for practitioners, design firms, non-profits, direct clients in need of expert advice, at any stage in design, including schematic, design development, detailing/construction; support and custom consulting services via Zoom on your schedule at home or in the office.
We also support educators and students. Work one-on-one with Tatiana or with an interdisciplinary team of neuroscientists, psychologists, expert human scientists and designers which we create especially for your project. We support you in research, writing proposals, design briefs, design and practice through all stages of your project, construction, detailing, communication with clients and stakeholders and more.
Tatiana Berger: Uniquely qualified to lead consultant teams at the juncture of neuroscience, cognitive and other human sciences and architecture, interior design, lighting design and urban planning
Biography and Letters of Recommendation
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- Director and Founder of Moving Boundaries Collaborative since 2021. MB Collaborative (our team) includes 54 experts in human sciences and design. They are some of the most distinguished neuroscientists, cognitive scientists, environmental psychologists, sociologists, architects, urban planners and designers in the world.
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- Graduate degree in Architecture from Princeton University in 1995; Undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1992; Princeton University Scholarship Award in 1992
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- 35+ years of professional experience in architecture, interior design, urban design, project management,
construction administration and consulting in five countries: U.S., Portugal, Spain, Austria and Russia
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- Professional practice as Project Architect and Project Manager in the offices of Alvaro Siza Vieira, Architect in Portugal, Baumschlager-Eberle Architects in Austria and Ostozhenka, Architects and Urban Designers in Moscow, Russia
- Led multiple winning design competition teams; In collaboration with offices listed above, Berger is responsible for built work in several countries, including public buildings (libraries and museums of art), residential buildings (multi-family and single-family dwellings), restaurants, community centers and large scale urban structures and parks in Lisbon, Moscow and Beijing. This work is published.
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- Member of the Advisory Council of ANFA (Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture)
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- Sponsor of ANFA (Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture) and EDRA (Environmental Design Research Association) in 2023 and 2024; Director with EDRA of the Moving Boundaries Ambassador Fund to support research and education in human-centered design and scholarships for the 2024 EDRA Conference
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- 15+ years as Professor of Architecture and Associate Professor of Architecture and Urban Design in Boston, MA and San Diego, CA
- Associate Professor of Architecture and Healthy Urbanism in the groundbreaking Certificate Program in Neuroscience for Architecture at New School in San Diego, CA, U.S. 2013 - 2020; Coordinated curriculum in NfA in collaboration with Prof.Kurt Hunker, FAIA (President of ANFA) and invited scientists from UCSD and Salk Institute
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Berger is an architect, designer, planner, consultant, educator and entrepreneur. She has practiced architecture, urban design and landscape design for over 35 years in the U.S., Portugal, Spain, Austria and Russia. Berger holds a Master of Architecture degree from Princeton University and a B.A. in Architecture from UC Berkeley. She studied with Alan Colquhoun and Kenneth Frampton. She collaborated on multiple educational programs and initiatives with Juhani Pallasmaa, Harry Mallgrave, Alberto Perez-Gomez, Vittorio Gallese, Sarah Robinson, Galen Cranz, Sarah Williams Goldhagen, and many others. She worked with Richard Meier in New York, Baumschlager-Eberle in Bregenz, Austria, Ostozhenka in Moscow, Russia and with Álvaro Siza Vieira in Porto, Portugal. Berger's built work, designed in collaboration with architects named above, is found in Porto, Lisbon and Viana do Castelo in Portugal, and also in Austria, the Netherlands, China, Russia and the U.S. The projects were published in international architecture and design journals. Berger has worked with two winners of the Pritzker Prize: Meier and Siza.
She is Director and Founder of Moving Boundaries Collaborative, which provides educational and design consulting services. She heads the Scholarship Program which gives over $50,000 to students each year. MBC is increasingly involved in research, new efforts in outreach/advocacy, publishing, alumni support and philanthropy. Berger is guest lecturer at NAAD in Venice, ETH Zurich, NeuroArq Brazil and NAD Chile and has contributed as design juror at Harvard University and Princeton University. She was Assoc. Professor of Architecture and Urbanism, teaching fulltime at the New School of Architecture & Design in San Diego and Professor of Architecture at the Boston Architectural College for 15+ years. A member of the Advisory Council of ANFA (Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture), she developed a new curriculum in architectural theory and design studio with a focus on ANFA themes, as fulltime faculty in the pioneering Neuroscience for Architecture Certificate Program at New School.
In her role as Liaison for Education and curator of lecture series, symposia, and webinars she led for three years the ANFA Center for Education (ACE), an international forum for educators dedicated to reimagining design education. She is Director of Moving Boundaries international courses and conferences since 2022 and Chair of the future ANFA Chapter in Portugal. Berger speaks four languages. She has lived and worked in 12 cities, including New York, San Francisco, Berkeley, Boston, Bregenz, Moscow and Porto. In her free time, she enjoys classical and electronic music, literature, cinema, hiking, backpacking and retreats in the forests of Northern California, Vermont and New Hampshire. She lives in Portugal and in California, U.S.
Excerpts from Letters of Recommendation
“Berger is an extremely well trained and experienced architect who in her 35 years of professional practice has successfully taken on a wide range of responsibilities in the field...This woman is at once talented, independent, and dedicated...exceptionally worldly and cosmopolitan... Above all cultivated, experienced and sensitive. In addition to her work in architectural practice, she has performed brilliantly as a design educator. No one of her generation could be more deserving of advancement."
- Kenneth Frampton (Architectural Critic and Historian, Professor Emeritus, UK)
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“Tatiana Berger is without question one of the most talented, rigorous and inspiring teachers of her generation. She combines the skills of an experienced practicing architect with those of an educator who pursues ideas and insights in depth...In an architectural world beset by transient fashions and empty formal tricks, Berger insists upon a search for substance. She maintains an intellectual perspective beyond limited agendas now current and combines a cosmopolitan outlook with a sense of history and a commitment to the social role of architecture.
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- William J.R. Curtis (Architectural Critic and Historian, France/UK)
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“Throughout the years Tatiana proved to be a responsible professional and a very valued member of our staff. She showed great qualities as an architect, paying attention to detail, as well as tremendous dedication and aesthetic sensibility... All of this allows me to give her my highest recommendation."
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- Álvaro Siza Vieira (Architect, Winner of the 1992 Pritzker Prize, Portugal)
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“I have been impressed by Tatiana´s encouraging and critical guidance in the design studio. I am also aware of her exceptional design experience in the renowned offices of Álvaro Siza, Richard Meier and Baumschlager-Eberle...Her teaching career is equally varied. I have personally enjoyed my many conversations with Tatiana Berger."
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- Juhani Pallasmaa (Architect and Author, Professor Emeritus, Finland)
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“I am pleased and privileged to offer this endorsement of a good friend and colleague... New School in San Diego, through collaboration with the late John Paul Eberhard, UCSD and the Salk Institute, was the first college anywhere in the world to teach neuroscience within an architecture school setting. In her role as Associate Professor, Tatiana embraced the NfA program and quickly became an integral part of it. She was also a key leader of the highly successful Summer Intersession in Neuroscience for Architecture offered in 2016-18. As a member of the Advisory Council of ANFA, she has been among its most active participants... I have always found Tatiana to be a most positive, collegial and energetic collaborator. Her teaching has impacted countless students and many have become friends."
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- Kurt Hunker (Architect, FAIA, President of ANFA, Professor Emeritus, U.S.)
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“I recommend Tatiana Berger with my highest enthusiasm. I have witnessed the development of the Program in Neuroscience for Architecture at the New School in San Diego, and I can state without reservation that Tatiana's involvement and commitment to excellence helped the program to become successful... Her tremendous creative and organizational talents have been displayed in her vast experience with combining art and science..."
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- Fred 'Rusty' Gage (Scientist, Past President of Salk Institute, Board Member of ANFA, U.S.)
“It is rare that one writes a letter of recommendation for someone with talents in so many areas of importance with respect to education that it is difficult to decide where to begin. Tatiana Berger is such a person. She is an individual of keen intellect, international experience, high design accomplishments, and with a dedication and sensitivity to teaching that can only be matched by her own rigorous standards of hard work. She gathered crucial work experience in the New York offices of Richard Meier, the Austrian office of Baumschlager-Eberle and the Portuguese office of Alvaro Siza, one of the world's most talented designers. Her perspective of design is therefore global or multinational in its grounding, an invaluable asset to bring to the classroom and design studio...
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Professor Berger teaches design as the making of the human landscape for meaningful dwelling. She has enriched her studio work with the advanced research of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture and the Salk Institute of Biological Studies, both based in San Diego. With the deep commitment Tatiana brings to teaching, she stands at the very forefront in applying this new knowledge to the field of design. She is a person of high integrity and I recommend her in the highest terms."
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- Harry Francis Mallgrave (Professor Emeritus, Architect, Scholar, U.S.)
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