Spotlight on HKS careers
Future Cities Forum is putting a spotlight on careers at international firm HKS Architects and Designers. The firms is very active across healthcare, education, sport and culture and mixed-use.
HKS says:
'Our firm recognizes that different backgrounds and vantage points can enrich our work and our relationships with clients beyond what conventional skills alone can accomplish. We’re committed to making HKS – and the design industry as a whole – more reflective of our clients and the communities we serve.
'Citizen HKS is our firm’s public interest design program — a global platform for socially responsible engagement. Through Citizen HKS, we focus on improving lives and communities by leveraging design, volunteer service and financial philanthropy to help lift communities in need. We create, connect and contribute to envision a better world.
'With several “best of” employer distinctions from Forbes, Fast Company and Human Rights Campaign, HKS offers a flexible work environment designed to support our teams. Our focus on innovation and Environmental, Social and Governance enables designers to collaborate across geographies and boundaries as they generate solutions that strengthen communities worldwide.
'We want our employees to be limitless thinkers, so we leave room outside of project work for our emerging talent to mine their curiosity. Our regional and firmwide design fellowships team up young professionals with our design and research leaders, offering them mentorship and freedom to explore their ideas. HKS, a worldwide leader in health care design, is also home to one of the industry’s most prestigious health design fellowships, offered to recent graduates committed to improving the experiences of patients and health care workers.
Back in March this year, HKS has launched a new Regenerative Design team, deepening the firm’s commitment to a systems-thinking approach to design that aims to create net-positive impact for people, planet and ecosystems across projects and practices.
HKS describes why this is important:
“Regenerative design reflects a necessary shift in how we think about the built environment—moving beyond reducing harm to creating places that actively restore and strengthen ecological and community systems,” said Tony Montalto, HKS Chief Design Officer. “We have an opportunity to design places that give more than they take. By establishing a dedicated regenerative design team, HKS is expanding our ability to create buildings and environments that help ecosystems recover, strengthen communities and generate lasting value for our clients and the people they serve.”
'The new HKS team brings together expertise in regenerative design, net-positive projects and nature-based solutions. With their HKS colleagues, they will continue the firm’s exploration of a holistic approach to design that considers how buildings, landscapes and communities can respond to climate, restore habitats, generate clean energy, balance water cycles, sequester carbon, support material health and circularity, and expand wellness, equity and access''.
“Regenerative design begins with asking better questions, those ‘what if’ questions that can lead to regenerative outcomes,” said Yasemin Kologlu, Director of Regenerative Design at HKS. “When we take the time to truly understand a place—its climate, ecosystems and communities—we start to see opportunities that traditional approaches or checklists often miss. Our goal is to translate those insights into designs that improve people’s lives while contributing to the long-term positive impact for people and the environments around.”
Rather than a one-size-fits-all formula or checklist, the Regenerative Design team will collaborate closely with HKS project teams to shape strategies tailored to each project’s context and opportunities. Their approach begins with climate-responsive passive design and extends through design and delivery by strategically aligning vision, rigor and positive outcomes through the life of a project.'F
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