Hannah Corlett is the founder of architectural and urban design firm, HNNA. The projects she works on today, you may get to see 10 years from now, which means she spends a lot of time thinking about the future and how to design for it.

In this episode, Hannah and Chris discuss what that future might look like for everyone and how urban designers and educators play in an integral role in shaping it.

What exactly is urban design? As Hannah puts it, “urban design is the stage that sets the framework for architecture to pop in like pieces of a jigsaw.” Cities don’t necessarily grow organically; there are key design decisions that have to be made beforehand. That’s where urban design plays a major role.

It’s a very forward-thinking industry in that all of its pieces and parts have to fit into the movement of certain cities or buildings.

So how exactly does Hannah think about the future and design’s role in it? Well, to put it simply, she doesn’t really stop. She’s constantly thinking of things even in her sleep, so much so that she’ll wake up from a dream and have new design ideas or solutions.

Recent events with the global pandemic have shifted our entire world indoors, online, and disconnected from our communities. But Hannah sees a unique upside to this.

Breaking from routine, or typical day-to-day activities, has given her even more freedom of thought. She finds herself being more efficient, and even more attentive to the details like sending proposals.

As an educator, she sees this same phenomenon happening in children and her students: questioning the norm and thinking outside of the box.

It’s this combination of thinking ahead while questioning what’s in front of you that Hannah encourages her students and colleagues to do.