Female Founders: Fauzia Khanani of Studio For On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadice
I believe in every industry and especially architecture, women have the potential to approach projects and processes in a different way than male counterparts. The end result may or may not end up being similar but the way in which the goal was reached is likely achieved with more care and consideration from where I stand. In some ways, the process is often more people-focused versus product-focused.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Fauzia Khanani.
Fauzia is the founder of Studio For, an architecture and interior design firm based in New York City. The firm’s work includes a range of custom residential, commercial office, and public spaces spanning from New York to Hong Kong. Fauzia received her Master of Architecture degree from the University of California Berkeley. Her previous career in social science research and public health continue to have a strong influence on the practice and has shaped how we approach design. She has been regularly published not only for the firm’s projects and innovative process but also for her passion in the promotion of diversity for minorities and women within the field of architecture and design.
Outside of practice, Fauzia is a founding member of the AIANY Social Science and Architecture Committee and was nominated to Co-Chair in early 2020. She is also a founding Board.
Member of Design Advocates, a non-profit organization established in March of this year for architects and designers to share resources and collaborate on efforts to serve the public good through pro bono projects, research, and advocacy.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Because my parents are immigrants to the US, we traveled a lot when I was young to see our extended family which also led to us visiting monumental places if the locations coincided with our family trips. I was exposed to pretty amazing architecture on those trips and by my mid-teens, I wanted to be an architect. After high school, I ended up attending a university that didn’t have an architecture program but I found myself engaged in sociological and public health studies and went that route for my degree and ultimately my career until my late 20’s. A few years into my public health career when I knew that food and health care should be basic rights for people, I also came to the conclusion that shelter is also a basic need. This translated to a career shift to architecture as it seemed like the next step in an evolution where design, namely architecture, can be a tool to improve quality of life for all.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
There have been so many along the way but the freshest one just happened a few days ago when I was meeting some potential new clients. We spent about 3 hours together and by chance at the end it somehow came up that the wife in the couple and I lived in the same very small town in New Hampshire when we were children. We went on to chat about it and actually went to the same nursery school and elementary school before my family moved to North Carolina. This story is interesting to me not because of our shared history but mostly because being a business owner has given me the opportunity to meet people from all walks of life and from all over the world and I’ve always found that in the end, we always seem to have some connection to each other and that our paths were meant to cross for some reason or another.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
When I started my first project in upstate NY, I was still living outside of New York State and would fly in for preliminary site visits and meetings with consultants. One of my first trips out was in the middle of winter and having lived in California for 8 years, I was definitely not prepared for the elements and I had never made a site visit to a non-urban environment. So I showed up in a big puffy coat (which I had bought to attend the Obama Inauguration) which was great but my shoe situation wasn’t as tight. Within about 15 minutes of being on this snow covered, wet and freezing property, my measly desert boots were soaked all the way through and my feet were frozen. After a full day of meetings, I made my way back to Albany airport without sensation in my feet. On the plane ride back, I got on wifi and immediately bought a pair of REAL winter boots for rugged sites. While quite hilarious, I learned a huge lesson on that trip: always be prepared for any kind of weather at site visits. I now keep a stash of all kinds of gear in the back of my car including a raincoat, rain pants, waterproof boots, extra gloves, hats for various weather conditions because I also learned that site visits always go on (like a show!) no matter the weather.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
When I think about how my career has progressed and the ability to start my own studio, I can’t talk about it without mentioning my very first clients, Susan and Rico Viray, who are very close friends. I saw them for the first time in over 10 years at their niece’s wedding when I was still living in California and at the rehearsal dinner, Susan mentioned they were property shopping to build a weekend house in upstate NY. Rico then asked “Aren’t you an architect?” I confirmed and he said, “Great, you’re going to design the house for us.” 11 years later with 3 projects under our belt together, I feel I owe so much to them for having faith in me to do something I never even considered. Susan and Rico founded their own company and Susan has also been an invaluable female mentor, resource, and sounding board for me as I have built the studio over the years.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
I think one of the major obstacles for women founders is establishing support for a start up- whether it’s financial or mentorship. As you say, only 20 percent of funded companies are founded by women so the number of female mentors one can turn to for advice and experience is exponentially smaller for women than for men right off the bat. In the world of architecture, women-owned firms/studios are an even smaller percentage compared to the norm. Professional organizations should provide mentoring programs specific to women starting offices. While the government at various levels provides MBE certifications, these institutions should provide seed money for women entrepreneurs to start their own shops and specifically for women of color.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
I believe in every industry and especially architecture, women have the potential to approach projects and processes in a different way than male counterparts. The end result may or may not end up being similar but the way in which the goal was reached is likely achieved with more care and consideration from where I stand. In some ways, the process is often more people-focused versus product-focused.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
One thing I always hear from people is “It’s your company so you should be doing whatever you want and come and go as you please.” I usually just chuckle under my breath when I hear something along the lines of those statements. If anything, it more often than not, feels the exact opposite. Having a company to me is akin to putting a piece of yourself out there or giving birth to something from inside of you (not quite a child but akin) so in fact, it often feels like the exact opposite of what people think or say about the freedom of owning a business. You are so committed to the success of your venture and the team you have brought together that it takes priority over most things in your life. I’ve been trying to find a happy medium and at times there are regressions but overall I’m moving towards a place where there is more of a balance. Having a supportive and capable team is fundamental to making this shift.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
That is a hefty statement and very subjective! I don’t know that I’ve “made the world a better place” but I’ve certainly tried to leverage my professional path as a means to improve the quality of life for others. Within Studio For, I’ve tried to create an environment where everyone, especially designers of color, feel included and can receive mentorship in a safe environment. We also try to make as many decisions as possible collectively in our office which also supports this idea of equity and inclusion. This is also supported outside of the studio by the work I’ve been doing as a member of the Design As Protest Collective, which strives to dismantle the privilege and power structures that use architecture and design as tools of oppression.
On another note, I co-founded a non-profit during the early months of the pandemic called Design Advocates. The organization is a place where architects and designers can share resources and collaborate on efforts to serve the greater public through pro bono design, research and advocacy work with a focus on serving people, organizations, institutions and businesses within marginalized communities. Our initial focus was on helping them to adapt to COVID-19 but it’s grown beyond that focus with projects spanning from NYC to across the country. I’m excited to see where this endeavor goes especially as we get further involved in local planning and policy related to the creation of the built environment.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
My response to this goes back to the reason why I rerouted my career path to architecture- housing should be a human right. Every single person on this planet should be provided with shelter and if I could inspire a global movement towards that end, I would be elated.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this!
Female Founders: Fauzia Khanani of Studio For On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.