JENNIFER TRUMAN
Matthew Konar Architect
SAY IT LOUD - North Carolina Exhibitor
North Carolina Based Designer
Who or what inspires you professionally?
My inspiration comes primarily from my parents and the values of curiosity, problem solving, and duty they instilled in me from an early age. I am also inspired by the challenge, the compromise and the collaboration to make things better thru design.
JENNIFER TRUMAN
Bio:
The great designer, Jenn Truman is a designer of experiences and places. She works as an Apprentice at Matthew Konar Architect, a Raleigh and Durham based firm focused on food architecture. Passionate about local placemaking and storytelling, Jenn is active in both the profession and the community working with small businesses, restaurants, food producers, urban farmers, and organizations to build out vibrant, productive spaces. She believes architecture brings us together through our shared lived experiences.
How did you first learn about architecture and when did you decide that built environment profession was an area of interest for you?
I first learned of architecture as a small kid, watching too much HGTV and dreaming up house sketches while driving cross country road trips with my family, and then I forgot about it long enough to get through engineer school and then came back.
What do you do?
I build spaces for my community to create more. More food, more gathering, more memories, more connections because those types of productive spaces and experiences can be strengthened by the spaces in which they happen.
What excites you in the work you do?
Doing architecture is being a translator and helping bring other people's ideas and dreams into reality. Every space I've designed is a collaborative creation and I am grateful to have worked with owners who strive to create community.
Who or what inspires you professionally?
My inspiration comes primarily from my parents and the values of curiosity, problem solving, and duty they instilled in me from an early age. I am also inspired by the challenge, the compromise and the collaboration to make things better thru design.
What is your proudest professional accomplishment or achievement?
The first "real" architecture project I worked on was Counter Culture Coffee in Durham. Even though I only played a minor role in detailing the project, I won't forget my pride at seeing the door and counter I'd drawn really built for the first time.
Featured Project Name:
Current Wellness
Featured Project Location:
219 S East St, Raleigh, NC 27601
Featured Project Completion Date:
12/2020
Role in Featured Project:
Project Designer
Featured Project Description:
Current Wellness is an inclusive, physical and mental wellness center in SE Raleigh, with a movement space for functional fitness and yoga; a teaching kitchen for food education; and private coworking offices for mental health counseling, bodywork, and other wellness practitioner. The building rehabilitation opened the space, exposed the structure, brings light in, all to reflect the owner’s model of wellness by making the overlapping programs visible in a calm and welcoming space.
