Urszula Kosatka

Located on a former rail depot in Paris’s 13th arrondissement, this project addresses the growing demand for affordable housing for families, students, and young professionals. The proposal transforms the industrial site into a permeable mixed-use community, with active ground floors, pedestrian connections, and a central landscaped space that forms a green heart within the dense urban fabric.

This daycare centre was designed to provide adults with a range of mental and physical disabilities with a safe, supportive, and welcoming environment. The design uses an exposed timber structure, natural materials, a glazed winter garden, water, and planting to create calming, accessible spaces that support care, comfort, and daily social interaction.

Designed as an extension to an existing community library, the pavilion creates a quiet reading and study space within the surrounding Florida wetlands. Her proposal organizes bookshelves and workstations around a central core, while a shaded perimeter terrace, reflecting pool, timber surfaces, and extensive glazing strengthen the building’s relationship with light, water, and landscape.

The Cape Coral Performing Arts Center was conceived as an outdoor cultural venue and civic landmark within a newly planned garden city. The design combines a luminous glass auditorium with steel and bamboo elements, while its orientation, café, and surrounding landscape connect the venue to nearby housing; sloped terrain and integrated drainage also respond to the site’s stormwater and resilience requirements.

“Inhabit” is a rapidly deployable shelter system designed for emergency use in Kuala Lumpur, where urban vulnerability and strong transport connections create a realistic deployment context. She developed a compact kit-of-parts system that can be transported, assembled without heavy machinery, adapted for different uses, and installed with minimal ground disturbance through lightweight components and reversible anchoring.

Thesis: Developed a masterplan expansion for a biomedical campus in Cambridge, UK, centred on the design of a research and rehabilitation hub. The proposal brought together laboratories, international conference facilities, and individual and group therapy spaces within an integrated environment supporting research, treatment, collaboration, and knowledge exchange.

Completed a specialist workshop using Revit and Solibri to evaluate building performance against compliance and sustainability requirements. The work included model-based coordination, regulatory checks, and energy-efficiency analysis.

Selected for the Davis UWC Scholars Program in recognition of academic achievement, extracurricular involvement, and a demonstrated commitment to cross-cultural understanding. Additional distinctions included membership in the Honors Program and placement on the Dean’s List.

Advanced studies included Architectural Design Studio, Environmental Technology, Architectural Theory, technical drawing and BIM, housing and public policy, and urban design strategies focused on defensible space and Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED).