Maria received her M. Arch. in Urban Design from Harvard University, B.Arch. from University of Sofia, Bulgaria and Technical University of Vienna, Austria. She is a Co-Founder of Terrefuge and Terreform ONE. Maria is currently on the faculty of Parsons the New School for Design.
She won the Zumtobel Group Award for Sustainability and Humanity, the Build Boston Award and the AIA Scholarship Award. She has a number of winning competitions including first place in the CHARLES/MGH Station, Boston and the Izmir Post District International Competition, Turkey. As a founder and director of Compost Art Center, nonprofit artists residency program, Maria has been involved in the design and construction of affordable and dynamic space for artists. In 2004, Maria formed the Design/Build Partnership focused on simple houses of modest scale and budget in the Hamptons, challenging the current standards of grandiosity by utilizing simple sustainable building strategies. Maria has taught at University of Toronto, Wentworth Institute of Technology and Boston Architectural Center and has been a visiting lecturer and critic at Harvard GSD, Columbia University, CUNY, Washington University and Rhode Island School of Design.
