Understanding how places
shape our lives.
I give talks, lead educational programs, and create content about how architecture and everyday environments affect us. I connect research with stories and examples to help people understand these effects and make more thoughtful decisions about the places we create.
For architects and urbanists, leadership and HR teams, students and educators, and the general public.
Available in English and Slovak, in person and online.
More than 100 talks, presentations, discussions, interviews, and published contributions across conferences, education, books, and media.
Selected speaking experience: PULSE Conference · New European Bauhaus Festival · WORKTECH · Forbes Business Fest · TEDx
Talks that connect research with everyday experience
How can a place help us focus, recover from stress, connect with others, or feel that we belong? My talks explore these questions through psychology, neuroscience, and examples from architecture and everyday life.
I adapt the perspective, structure, examples, and practical implications to the audience and event. I also develop new subjects around the questions you want to explore and contribute a psychological perspective to expert discussions.
Biophilic design: How nature affects us
Research on nature, stress, and well-being helps explain why our surroundings matter. I connect the theories behind our responses to nature with practical principles for architecture and design.
What makes a building worth keeping?
How do beauty, emotional accessibility, and attachment influence whether people value a building and care for it over time? I explore the human experience behind the long-term sustainability of the places we create.
Why would people choose to work in the office?
An office needs to support the people who use it. I explore how focus, comfort, collaboration, privacy, and choice can inform workplaces that people find useful and enjoyable.
Other subjects include personalization, sensory experience, softness in architecture, restorative environments, healthy neighborhoods, and how psychology and neuroscience can inform design. These examples are starting points for a conversation about your audience and interests.
Definitely one of the best of the entire conference: direct, inspiring, based on data and knowledge, and at the same time optimistic.
Bring the knowledge into your own practice
I develop sessions and educational programs for organizations and professional groups that want to understand how space affects people and what this means for their work. We connect the subject to your goals, the questions your team is facing, and the decisions you need to make.
Discussion and application
Sessions can combine teaching with Q&A around your own challenges and exercises that help participants apply the ideas. A sequence of sessions gives us room to explore connected subjects and develop understanding over time.
Expertise suited to the subject
When a program calls for a broader perspective, I can bring together collaborators in organizational psychology, change management, neuroscience, leadership and culture, architecture, urban planning, and identity.
My experience includes helping establish an internal educational program at HB Reavis, teaching architecture students, and developing and delivering sessions for the PlaceX program.
“Thank you for your inspiring lecture at Rozkvit. I’m researching design for people with ASD and was truly impressed by your expertise. Your work motivates me to keep exploring this field.”
PlaceX: Connecting workplace design with human needs
A yearlong educational program for European workplace designers and consultants, developed for Studio Alliance in collaboration with Aubergine Brothers.
Applying the learning
The program includes work on participants’ own projects, with final presentations designed to show how they apply the knowledge to workplace design and consulting.
My contribution
I helped shape the curriculum and created and led selected interactive lectures, delivered in person and online. My sessions connected workplace design with organizational goals, psychological needs, and research on how environments affect us.
- • How space affects organizations and performance.
- • The mind, memory, stimulation, and sensory processing.
- • Focus and personalization.
- • Collaboration and social connection.
- • Biophilic design.
Ester Danelova led and coordinated the program. Architect Barbora Sigmund taught sessions on WELL and environmental quality, including air quality, acoustics, and movement.
Educational content for your audience
I help organizations develop articles, videos, podcasts, and social content about how places affect people. We begin with what your audience needs to understand and develop a subject, perspective, and format that serve that purpose.
Research, writing, and conversation
My contribution can include developing the concept, researching and writing the content, interviewing experts, presenting on camera, or contributing to a podcast. I translate complex subjects into clear explanations while preserving the substance of the ideas.
Collaboration through production
For projects that need filming, recording, editing, or other production support, I can bring in collaborators from my network of content and media professionals.
The Venetian Letter
Psychology, neuroscience, architecture, and human experience
I co-founded The Venetian Letter with Natalia Olszewska to explore how knowledge about people can inform better architecture and cities. From 2020 to 2025, we published around 70 interviews, articles, research briefs, and book reviews.
My work included developing the publication, interviewing experts, writing and editing, and running the website and newsletter. The collection is now preserved as an archive for readers interested in more humane environments.
Explore The Venetian Letter archive →“Venetian Letter truly advanced our field by raising awareness about human-centered design and cultivating community among global champions.”
Shape the contribution around your audience
Tell me who you want to reach, what matters to them, and what you hope the engagement will make possible. We can develop the direction together.
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Understand the context
We discuss your audience, aims, questions, timing, and the setting for the engagement.
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Choose the focus and format
We agree on the subject and contribution, from a conference talk or expert discussion to an interactive program or a piece of educational content.
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Agree on the work
We define the scope, preparation, responsibilities, schedule, and fee.
Available in English and Slovak, in person and online.
Discuss an engagementTell me what you’re working on
Planning a new place, rethinking an existing one, or organizing a talk or educational program? Tell me a little about it and what you hope to achieve.
You do not need a finished brief to get in touch.