Simone Stark exemplifies the interdisciplinary spirit of a Double Panther whose academic path and professional practice continue to shape the landscape architecture community at Florida International University. Currently serving as an adjunct professor in FIU’s Department of Landscape Architecture + Environmental and Urban Design (LAEUD), Simone returned to FIU as faculty after earning her Master of Landscape Architecture in 2023. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from FIU, a background that continues to inform her holistic and systems-based approach to design.
Since joining the department in Fall 2023, Simone has been teaching Graduate Design I in the fall, which leads into Graduate Design II in the spring, a first-year graduate studio focused on local-scale landscape architecture projects. Her teaching philosophy emphasizes openness, curiosity, and exploration as foundational tools for design thinking. As she explains, “I like to teach students to give themselves permission to open their minds. We don’t start by limiting possibilities. We stay open first, then figure out what’s most appropriate for the project.” Through studio work that incorporates analog methods, artistic exercises, and conceptual mapping, she encourages students to uncover meaningful connections before narrowing toward formal design solutions.
Simone’s interdisciplinary mindset is rooted in her own academic journey. Reflecting on her return to FIU for graduate school, she notes, “When I came back to FIU for graduate school, I started seeing how my sociology degree really related to landscape architecture.” This realization reshaped how she understands the discipline.
“So many things connect to landscape architecture. It’s not just about plants or spaces—it’s about people, systems, and relationships,” she adds.
That perspective now informs both her studio pedagogy and her mentorship of students from diverse academic backgrounds.
In parallel with teaching, Simone maintains a robust professional and creative practice. She is the Departmental Director of Landscape Architecture at STRANG Design, an interdisciplinary firm working across architecture, landscape architecture, and interior design. She also operates her own landscape practice and is a practicing artist whose work often blends visual art, research, and spatial inquiry. “While I was in graduate school, I started creating a synthesis between my artistic practice and landscape architecture, particularly through photography,” she explains.
This fusion of art and landscape architecture has extended beyond the classroom and professional studio. During Miami Art Week, Simone exhibited her work as part of Art Basel–adjacent programming, further demonstrating how artistic exploration can serve as both a research method and a design tool. That same art-forward sensibility is embedded into her teaching, where students are encouraged to explore nontraditional media as a way to deepen conceptual thinking.
Simone’s research interests focus on environmental systems, ecology, and the often-overlooked impacts of infrastructure on wildlife. Her graduate thesis examined the intersection of gray infrastructure and animal migration, a topic she continues to explore through design and research. “A lot of gray infrastructure ends up segmenting green spaces that animals use to migrate, and that can be incredibly damaging,” she notes. Her work highlights the importance of designing landscapes that support both human and non-human systems.
As a mentor, Simone encourages students to embrace curiosity and resist the pressure to define outcomes too early. Drawing from her own experience with independent study courses and thesis research, she offers this advice: “If you have an idea and you think you might be onto something, explore it. Don’t limit yourself by trying to predict the outcome.” Many of those exploratory academic projects, she notes, ultimately became the foundation for her most impactful work.
Looking back on her time as a graduate student, Simone reflects on the intensity and richness of the experience. “By the time you reach the final year, you wish you had more time,” she says. “It really is a great experience.” Now, as an educator, she brings that perspective into the classroom, guiding students through the demands of design education with patience, openness, and a deeply interdisciplinary lens.
Through her work as an educator, practitioner, and artist, Simone Stark continues to embody FIU’s commitment to innovation, inquiry, and community engagement. Her return to campus as faculty is both a full-circle moment and a powerful example of how FIU alumni shape the future of the discipline while mentoring the next generation of designers.
