Amie Shao | Where Life Begins

Amie Shao | Where Life Begins

How do the spaces we design shape the earliest moments of life and the futures that follow? In her powerful keynote, “Where Life Begins,” Amie Shao, Principal at MASS and Lead of the Maternal Newborn Health Lab, invites us to rethink the spaces of childbirth not as neutral containers, but as active forces that determine access, outcomes, and dignity for families around the world.

Drawing from her own experience as a first-time mother navigating high-risk pregnancy and the NICU, Amie shares a deeply personal story that underscores a universal truth: birth is not only a clinical event, it is where families begin. And yet across the globe, childbirth spaces often undermine the very care they intend to support.

Amie takes us from maternity wards in Malawi, to maternity care deserts across the U.S., to hospitals in Ethiopia highlighting the importance of traditions like coffee ceremonies. Through each example, she reveals how architecture can either reinforce inequity, or become a lever for safety, trust, and agency.

This keynote honors the communities, clinicians, mothers, and families pushing for a world where childbirth is safe, equitable, and dignified, no matter who you are or where you live.