Irina Verona

Irina Verona is an architect, educator, and editor based in New York City. She currently teaches architectural design studios and seminars in the Barnard + Columbia Colleges Architecture Program, where she has taught since 2008. Current and recent courses include Environments for Inclusion, Curating Architecture, and Architectural Design 1 and 2. This past spring, she was the recipient of the inaugural Barnard Class of 1960 Adjunct Faculty Research Fund, for her project, "The Inclusive Education Classroom: A Spatial History."

Verona is the principal of Verona Carpenter Architects (VCA), an architecture and interiors practice in Manhattan with expertise in designing for education, workplace, and culture. Led by Irina Verona and her partner Jennifer Carpenter, the firm designs with humanity and for resilience, and with the community of users always in mind. Recent awards include first prize for the Learning Spaces Competition at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette, Interior Design Magazine NYCx 2020 Best of Year in Health + Wellness for the Williamsburg Bathhouse and Interior Design Magazine NYCx 2020 Honoree for Adidas Headquarters.

Verona Carpenter's focus is designing for neurodiversity. Through research and design projects, the firm explores the creation of sensory environments geared towards end-user agency and choice and towards a greater inclusion of physical and neurological differences. Recent lectures include “Designing for All Learners” at Jefferson University Symposium of Neurodiversity and “Creating Neuro-Inclusive Learning Spaces” for the Society of College and University Planners and for the New York State Association of Independent Schools. This fall, Verona Carpenter's project "The Neurodiverse City" was one of two winners of the 2021 Design Trust for Public Space Restorative City RFP. In collaboration with WIP and community partners IncludeNYC and Center for Independence of the Disabled, the project will develop ways to make public spaces more accessible to the multifaceted neurodiverse population of the city.

Verona is a founding editor of Praxis: a journal of writing and building, a journal that focuses on the relationship between theory and practice in the architecture of the Americas. Founded in 1999, the journal addressed contemporary design issues in both depth and breadth and engendered an architectural discourse uniquely rooted in a dialogue between writing and building.

She received her B.A. from Princeton University and her M. Arch. from Columbia University. She is also the recipient of a Fulbright fellowship in Barcelona, Spain.