Designing for Change: Architecture That Learns Over Time | Amy Korté | TEDxBoston

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In this forward-looking talk, Amy Korté reframes architecture as a living system—designed not just for today, but for technological change, climate risk, and evolving patterns of life. Drawing on decades leading a midsize firm, she focuses on the everyday spaces that shape cities most: transit hubs, parking structures, and mixed-use infrastructure.

Through real projects, Amy shows how buildings can be designed to adapt over time, using flexibility, layered programs, and emerging tools like AI-driven workflows and augmented reality. Her message is clear: the future of architecture lies not in monuments, but in resilient spaces built to evolve. Amy Korté is an architect and the President of Arrowstreet, where she leads the firm’s multidisciplinary practice delivering complex projects across public and private markets. Her work spans aviation, transportation, and civic infrastructure, as well as mixed use, residential, commercial, and hospitality environments. Across these scales, Amy focuses on aligning design excellence, operational performance, and long term value—anticipating shifts in technology, climate, and social change to help shape what comes next for cities and communities.

Under her leadership, Arrowstreet integrates architecture, interiors, planning, sustainability, and experiential design to create places that perform holistically—from infrastructure and buildings to the human experience within them. Through EDG, Arrowstreet’s nonprofit design arm, the firm extends its impact through pro bono and community based work, reinforcing a belief that design is a catalyst for equity, engagement, and lasting social value.

Amy is deeply engaged in transforming architectural practice itself, exploring how emerging tools such as AI, rapid modeling, and compressed documentation workflows can reduce risk, increase adaptability, and expand creative possibility. She is particularly focused on how firms and teams reskill to remain relevant collaborators in a rapidly changing world.

Driven by work that bridges ambition and responsibility, Amy believes architecture must perform today while remaining flexible enough to evolve for decades to come. Her work reflects a commitment to designing environments that are resilient, meaningful, and capable of supporting human life as it changes over time. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx