Meet Maria Segura | Architect and Interior Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Maria Segura and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Maria, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?

Since I was a child, I have dreamed of having my own business; I have always been a highly creative person. So, I decided to combine and follow my entrepreneurial desire with my creative skills. Fantasy, objectivity, creativity, technique, design, service, and purpose; would be the right words to describe my life. Hence, Legos, coloring books, colored pencils, and crayons were the protagonists of my childhood; however, many of them are still essential in my daily life since my creative essence, years later, is called Architecture, specifically Interior Architecture. On the other hand, another of my great passions is promoting a healthy living style since I have Congenital Heart Disease, so finally, after a few years of reflection, I decided to combine all my passions and founded my design Brand called MS Design, Wellness & Health, in which I aim to teach you how to use Interior Architecture principles and techniques to heal and improve your health.

For me, risk has always been present in my life for as long as I can remember. Specifically, it was the signing of the consent form for my Open-Heart Surgery that taught me what risk means; In other words, when you have to gamble with your greatest possession, your life, you learn that sometimes risk means a new and better beginning. In the end, taking a risk will always have significant meaning in your life and career; it can be an opportunity or a great lesson.

Without a doubt, I believe that the success of my design brand (MS Design, Wellness & Health) is due to the fact that it is based on the combination of my great passions: creativity, design, and well-being. Furthermore, it aims to promote design to be more than luxury and aesthetics; interior design can be used as a powerful healing tool to improve your overall health and well-being. It is completely true that we are a product of the physical environment in which we are immersed on a daily basis.

Besides my Open-Heart Surgery, another tough but significant decision has been to move from my natal country Costa Rica to Miami, first to undergo my life-saving surgery and later to pursue a master’s in Interior Architecture at FIU. In the beginning, it wasn’t easy to live apart from my mom and siblings since I lived with them in Costa Rica. Still, this experience has taught me that sometimes you must make certain difficult decisions and sacrifices, in occasions with fear, to ensure what you want. Having goals set with clarity is an important key that has helped me to move through difficult times.

It is true that balance is an important vital key; however, when you decide to follow your passions and start building a design firm and brand, life balance is not always guaranteed, especially during the initial years of your business. Therefore, staying strong and goal-oriented is crucial, and keeping in mind that everything takes passion, effort, determination, and perseverance. On the other hand, it is true that when you do what you like as a job, it is very easy to forget the sense of time since time flies by.

In conclusion, I would say that empathy, determination, positivity, hard work and a smile are the best words to describe who I am and my essence. For me, health and well-being go hand in hand with design, as we spend most of our lives inside buildings. Therefore, my intention is to use all the knowledge that I have been acquiring throughout my life, to improve people’s quality of life. Since I’ve known what it’s like to live with a congenital heart condition, I’ve learned how a well-designed space can help you improve your mood and quality of life by promoting wellness through strategic design. So, life and my education have prepared me using personal experiences and books as my mentors. In short, I would say that I can’t even imagine doing anything different.

What should our readers know about your business?

For me, it is essential to remark that it is possible to heal through design, more specifically, making use of Epigenetics by the stimulation of the brain’s neurotransmitters by interior architecture design principles and techniques.

In other words, as an architect and interior designer with a CHD (Congenital Heart Disease), I know how to combine my two greatest passions, Wellness and Design, through creativity and purpose. For me, design is more than aesthetics and luxury since it is life, comfort, and wellness.

In conclusion, MS Design, Wellness & Health is an Interior Architecture Design Lab that helps people to achieve better health and living quality through powerful design concepts and strategies. This is possible through the development and implementation of interior design layouts, concepts, and strategies that create living environments that become a powerful passive therapy to promote healing and wellness.

Also, I offer services as Design Coach guiding people to change their living environment to ensure a better quality of life because nothing better than living experiences, passion, empathy, determination, and expertise in architecture and interior design to describe my work done in MS Design, Wellness & Health. My goal is to make an impact on people’s wellbeing through design. Please, do not hesitate to contact me, it will be a pleasure to help you achieve a better living quality through design.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I am a person that loves to explore and be in direct contact with nature, also love to discover new places to share a coffee and quality time with people that are important to me, like family and friends. Hence, if my best friend would visit me in Miami I will show him natural spots like the Bayfront Park and will look for a nice place to eat and share coffee in Coconut Grove or in Coral Gables. Also, Brickell and Biscayne are other excellent options to explore and visit.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I am so excited to be part of Shoutout. In my case, my parents have been my support in many ways, but mainly emotionally. So, I want to dedicate my Shoutout to them because they also have been important inspirations and examples to follow. I was born in Costa Rica, but my dad is Cuban, and my mom is Nicaraguan. So, both of them have taught me that everything is possible with dedication, effort and determination, and, also, they have taught me that love is the most important fuel in life.

Instagram: @msarquitecturaeinteriores

Facebook: @msarquitecturaeinteriores

Webpage: msdesignwellnessandhealth.com

E-mail: msegura@msdesignwellnessandhealth.com

Mobile: 786-426-0884 will be a pleasure to help you!

Image Credits
The pictures were taken by my mom or friends that were present during those days. Thank You! The render is from my Masters Thesis presentation which won the best research by my design called MIND ( Mindfulness Neurotransmitters Interior Design), and my Architectural Thesis was called HE+Art (Hospital Especializado + Arquitectura Terapeutica). Both theses were recognized during my dissertation due to their complexity and passion.