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Tools of the Trade: Marie S.A. Sorensen, Architect

I have always been fascinated by the tools people use in their work.  I asked Boston architect Marie S.A. Sorensen AIA NCARB LEED AP to tell us about her tools of the trade and she selected photographic imagery.  This is an occasional series; learn about landscape architect Thomas Balsley's pens and markers.

Photographic imagery is essential to an Architect’s toolbox. I shoot with a lightweight mirror-less Sony NEX-7, a 26-megapixel digital camera with an 18-35 mm interchangeable lens. I take the camera wherever I can when the light and the environment are promising.


Sometimes the photographs I make are themselves works of art, printed and exhibited, and sometimes they are used fractionally to illustrate renderings made in the architecture studio. I try to go places where people are enjoying and experiencing the world. It is often a person’s expression or activity that captures my attention. Observed behaviors and emotions inspire the spatial and sensory qualities of the architecture I design.


I work for institutional, civic and commercial clients. In this context, an Architect’s job is to work in partnership with the client and the contractor to build a complex physical reality in a unique circumstance to maximize benefit, economy and use for the target constituency.

The future building and site and its success are hypothetical until constructed. We make the leap of faith together, having explored and understood everything we can beforehand with models and renderings.

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