4 minute read
URBAN LOOP
CREATING SPACE
Urban Loop Studio speaks comfort and style into personal architecture ›
Story and Photography by LIESBETH POWERS
Poonam Patel takes on every step of her projects, including the design phase.
an elective course in college sucked Poonam Patel into the world of architecture and design, leaving behind a biology degree and thoughts of being a doctor or lawyer. Patel spent years in the industry, working on a range of projects and teams in the Dallas area before branching out on her own as the owner and sole architect at Urban Loop Studio, a Lake Highlands-based architecture firm.
HOW SHE CREATED URBAN LOOP STUDIO
I was still in college when I bought the domain, so it was inevitable. In the beginning, work was more of a buffet, just gaining experience wherever I could. Eventually I realized I want to work on smaller projects because they’re quicker, and they’re also a little bit more personal as opposed to trying to convince a board of people whose main interest most of the time is the bottom line of cost and budget.
THE WORK
I like to stay focused on residential, because it’s smaller and more personal. My work includes exterior stuff like the foundation, walls, exterior doors, windows, roof, all that. Interior stuff is more like cabinets and showers and kitchens. And then the decor stuff is more like furniture and art, and I do all of that. So it becomes a seamless design, when you have one person doing everything.
WHAT HER PERSPECTIVE BRINGS TO THE INDUSTRY
I’m a female, I’m a minority and petite, so I had to really figure out how to survive. And I had to lose a little bit of my femininity in doing that. I did not feel that I could fully express all of the creativity I had and apply myself to the fullest at other firms. I needed a platform where I could exercise my full potential. To be able to bring feminine aspects to a project, I think, is so valuable because we are detail oriented, and a lot of my clients love that. Especially when it comes to aspects of the home. When clients are spending the most amount of money they’ve ever spent, which is on a house, I think they deserve that.
FAVORITE DESIGN PROJECTS
It’s usually certain aspects. One client gave 100% trust in me, the autonomy to really design some custom stuff for them. And I really appreciate that, when I get to. It could also be a material that I got to use. It could be like this one custom cabinet piece I designed that probably nobody else has in their house, because it’s custom designed. It slides out and can tuck into the island. It can be moved to the dining room and be placed next to the dining table to seat more people. In a way it is as simple as a table on wheels, but at the same time, the solution was through design and meeting the client’s need in a minimalistic way.
FEELING A COMMUNITY CONNECTION
Just driving here, I passed by a project of mine. And I think it’s just really cool because, if I have the choice to be a creator or destroyer, I want to be a creator, right? If I have the choice of being a positive force, neutral or having a negative impact on the world, I’d like to have a positive one. And sometimes, you get so caught up in the todo list and the weeds, and you get so busy that sometimes it’s hard to take a moment and be grateful. So when I drive by a project, it’s an affirmation: you’re a creator, you’re having a positive impact in this world, that you’re providing shelter, you’re providing a place for people to work, a place for people to go to work and make money and feed their families. You are creating a place of safety from the elements of the Texas heat. And to be able to see that and drive by, it’s so gratifying.
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