We strive for a sustainable future, innovation, and urban resilience.

ZERZA is an international architecture, urbanism, and design firm dedicated to facing the challenges of today’s built environment and anticipating those of tomorrow. Maximizing the potential of emerging technologies, including smart building systems and renewable energy concepts, we’re creating healthier living and working environments. We approach sustainability holistically to reimagine cities for a better quality of life for all those who inhabit them.

The practice operates at the intersection of architecture, art, and technology. Research and analysis of each site and its specific historical, cultural, social, economic, and political parameters provide the groundwork for a practice that aims to reframe the way design interacts with and establishes new ties to existing settings and structures. We actively engage in the exchange of ideas and collaborate with artists and thinkers of all disciplines.

THE FUTURE

We live in a time when the digital world is merging with the physical one, blurring virtual and analog. The technologies of the virtual realm present an opportunity for us to reimagine space, society, and culture. Technological revolutions have always defined the modern city; inevitably, digital technology will continue to transform public and private space.

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SUSTAINABILITY

By 2050, 68 percent of the global population will live in urban areas, according to UN projections. Though urbanization comes with significant challenges, it also presents great opportunities. The density that characterizes most cities supports an extraordinarily energy-efficient system of living.

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COLLABORATION

We collaborate with a variety of experts and create productive relationships between architects, landscape architects, urban planners, engineers, manufacturers, artists, writers, and researchers. We work as a multidisciplinary team, engaging in discussions and following new ideas.

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PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT

Additional engagement occurs through organizational memberships and involvement with the greater architectural and art communities, with institutions that provide critical resources for architects and designers and shape the direction of architectural thinking and research.

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Bettina Zerza

FOUNDER AND PRINCIPAL
ARCHITECT – AIA, ZT, M.ARCH

Bettina Zerza is the founder and principal of ZERZA, an international architecture, urbanism, and design firm. The practice is driven by her passion for innovation and her vision for a sustainable future.

Inspired by strategies and practices of contemporary art, she envisions an architecture that responds to the particular requirements and challenges of each site and its specific historical, cultural, social, economic, and political parameters.

With more than twenty years of professional experience, Bettina Zerza provides strategic design direction from concept to realization. She is an advocate of innovative technologies, research, and the use of new materials and methods in construction.

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Team 2007-2024

We are a passionate team dedicated to realizing our clients’ ambition, combining advanced technology and research to redefine the built environment. As a multidisciplinary team, we collaborate with engineers and a variety of experts, sparking discussion and engaging in new ideas.

Anthony Alvidrez, AIA, Christopher Loper, Maria Berrios, Tobias Bernecker, Michael Casey, Patrick Doyle, Seth Embry, Carolina Ihle, Yoonsang Jo, Nina Kolowratnik, Standish Lee, Berardo Matalucci, Chrysokona Mavrou, James Maynard, Christian Kotzamanis, Johannes Pointl, Tyler Putnam, Julia Schafhauser, Natalya Shimanovskaya, Maia Simon, Daniel Stone, Karl Tipler, Ilya Vilnits, Philip Weller.

EXPERTISE

We deliver integrated design solutions to today’s challenges, resulting in buildings that are innovative, sustainable and purposeful. Through conceptual thinking and the process of design, a labor intense, research-led way we encourage deep engagement and careful consideration of materials, innovative technologies, typography and urban interactions.

Bettina Zerza Architecture PLLC is a New York City and New York State certified Women Business Enterprise (WBE).

SERVICES

Architecture

Interior Design

Product Design

Urbanism

Practice Areas

Civic / Culture

Education

Hospitality / Retail

Office / Workplace

Public Space

Residential

Sensors / Data

Sports / Recreation