Jaya Kader has spent decades building luxury homes in Miami, but a calling back to Costa Rica changed everything. In this episode of the Designers and Builders Podcast, Jaya sits down with host Alyssa Olson to share how regenerative design became not just her practice, but her philosophy for life.

Jaya is the founder and principal of KZ Architecture and the creator of Regen Design Lab, an arm of her practice dedicated to projects that support human evolution and planetary well-being. Born and raised in Costa Rica, she came to the United States for college and built a career designing high-end residential projects in Miami, including the city's first LEED-certified home. But after years of feeling a growing disconnect between luxury development and the values she held, a pivotal return to Costa Rica in 2020 set her on a path to regenerate herself first, and then her entire approach to design.

Jaya and Alyssa dig into what regenerative design actually means, not as a checklist or certification, but as a foundational shift in why we design. Jaya explains how her work moved from sustainability to regeneration through curating panels for the GSD's Design Impact initiative, where she connected with Indigenous leaders, circular economists, and regenerative planners like Walter Meyer of Local Office. She shares her coherence protocol, an alternative to traditional kickoff meetings that uses sensory meditations, land-based connection, and relational governance to align project stakeholders before a single line is drawn. The conversation also touches on the role of women in architecture, where only 10% hold leadership positions globally yet 63% lead in sustainable design, and what that signals about feminine intuition driving the profession forward.

Whether you are rethinking your own practice, exploring regenerative principles, or simply questioning the systems you serve, this episode offers a deeply personal and philosophical perspective on what it means to co-create with the land rather than impose upon it.

00:00 Growing Up in Costa Rica and the Pura Vida Mentality

06:20 What Regenerative Design Really Means

12:25 Collaborating with Walter Meyer and Design Impact

17:55 Sustainability vs. Regeneration: The Why, Not Just the What

28:05 From LEED to Intuitive Sustainable Practice

34:47 How COVID Cracked Open the Profession

40:44 The Coherence Protocol: An Alternative to Kickoff Meetings

47:00 Robin Wall Kimmerer, Buckminster Fuller, and the Dalai Lama

58:33 The Future of Regenerative Design

1:01:33 Architecture as Legacy vs. Architecture as Monument

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You can connect with Jaya at:

https://kzarchitecture.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaya-kader/

https://www.instagram.com/jayakader/