Alumna Gautier Featured on CNN’s ‘Champions for Change’

Wentworth Institute of Technology alumna Carla Gautier and her organization, KONTi Design, will be featured on the CNN program “Champions for Change.”

The television series will air September 13-19 and highlight figures across the globe who are “realizing innovative work and effecting change in a variety of fields,” according to advance promotional materials. Gautier’s episode, which examines environmentalism and sustainability, will also feature climate change activist Greta Thumberg.

“We are incredibly grateful for the opportunity to show the world what we, as singular people, can do if we come together to help this planet prosper,” said Gautier.

Gautier founded KONTi in September 2019 as an architecture studio based in Puerto Rico. Known for affordable, prefabricated spaces, the organization makes the KONTi Model M1, a modular container home created using repurposed shipping containers that are designed to be hurricane, earthquake and disaster proof. KONTi also prides itself on using sustainable materials.

The “Champions for Change” episode will showcase a KONTi container home on the Island of Vieques, the organization’s offices in San Juan, the park where containers are acquired to build homes and the site in Guayanilla where a KONTi home was used as a temporary therapeutic center in the aftermath of Puerto Rico’s January 2020 earthquakes.

Gautier earned a bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Wentworth in 2016 and a Master of Architecture in 2017. She held various co-op and intern positions in Boston and Puerto Rico, and she worked as a building inspector for FEMA between 2017 and 2018.

She is also no stranger to CNN. Two years ago, the news organization featured Gautier and her company at the time, HiveCube. She and HiveCube co-founder Maria Gabriela Velasco helped bring their modular houses to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria ravaged the island. The structures were compliant with US building codes, ADA accessible and designed to withstand winds up to 175 miles per hour.

“’Champions for Change’ is a spotlight to challenge the way we look at our built environment and move towards smarter use of resources so that humans and nature can continue to live in harmony,” said Gautier. “Our solution might not be perfect, but we expect it to keep evolving and most of all inspire others so that sustainable living becomes the norm in all aspects of our lives.”

--Greg Abazorius

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