Ignite Your Heart and Soul with Sara Troy and her guest Michael Karassowitsch, on air from May 6th
(The Architect is) At Two Vast Realms
The architect in practice as a being of the world and spirituality.
I am sharing an approach to making environments, built, planned and intentional, that support human aspiration and springs from the essence of that aspiration to fulfil human life for the individual and as each of our components of the role of being human fills here on earth. There is no separation between the integration of human intelligence, nature’s intelligence, and the intertwined life of anyone, humanity, the planet and beyond. The riches that we might find in that are greater than any that can be deposited in a bank. Finding that and making ourselves able to value that and whole in light of that has two sides: our inner work, which is currently called spirituality, and our outer space, which is called architecture. These are the two original siblings that derive from human consciousness.
I am sharing this because architecture is in the public sphere. On the one hand, to practice it is all about other people, so it must be communicated. On the other, I have driven forward long and hard to develop to the point where I can function at a level that is true according to what I (always already) knew intuitively, and in a way that can serve.
Taking this on in one’s life has started with small steps as we are all already on the path. How do we make it real? I would like people to better utilize their potential in making their life space more supportive of their health and aspirations in light of this. I cannot do it alone.
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I was born and raised in the Greater Vancouver area, studied at BCIT, the University of Oregon, Columbia’s GSAPP, and earned my doctorate at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. I’m licensed to practice architecture in New York State and India.
Shaped by my parents’ WWII experiences and my family’s life under Russian occupation, I spent my teens between Vancouver and Austria, drawn equally to the arts and the sea — even co-founding the Jericho Sailing Centre Association (JSCA). For 30 years, I’ve practiced rajayoga through Heartfulness, weaving spirituality into my life’s movements across North America, Europe, and India.
Early work in Vancouver led me to studies in Oregon and Columbia, and from there to Vienna, working with icons like Hans Hollein and Coop Himmelblau. My spiritual journey began alongside my architectural one. Returning to New York, I joined Ralph Appelbaum Associates, designing museums, then moved through Venice, Hamburg, Nelson, and frequent travels to India.
Twice I tried to settle; twice the call for deeper alignment pulled me onward. An invitation to the Heartfulness Research Institute in Bengaluru became my second life — a conscious choice to merge spiritual practice with architectural purpose. This work evolved into doctoral research under Dr. Elisabeth von Samsonow.
After six years teaching architecture in India, I have returned to Vancouver Island, with a mission: to evolve architecture that lives in harmony with nature, rooted in spiritual practice, biosphere stewardship, and integrated knowledge systems like yoga and v?stu.
Today, through my business ENVHA (Environments for Health and Advancement) and my Substack platform Office for Presencing Architecture (OPA), I offer low-threshold planning services and reflections on architecture’s unfolding future. Re-entering project work feels like living two lives at once — but both now guided by a unified vision.
A free two hour consultation that derives from this podcast. The client may go to my website and use a keyword that is presented at the end of the podcast to get the freebee.
www.linkedin.com/in/karassowitsch
https://vit.academia.edu/MichaelKarassowitsch
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