Sara Bega '14
Adjunct Assistant Teaching Professor

- Phone
- +1 574-631-2266
- Office
- 301 Walsh Family Hall
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Biography
Sara Bega’s work is dedicated to the creation of enduring built environments that celebrate valued traditions and cultures. Her design and consulting projects with Bega Design Studio explore pedestrian-priority urbanism and traditional local architecture.
Bega is former Town Architect of Las Catalinas, a hilltown on Costa Rica’s Guanacaste coast. For over a decade she led architectural and urban design efforts, developing strategies for car-free urbanism filled with vernacular architecture. Throughout her tenure, Bega’s design work focused on fabric buildings, public spaces, and micro-phased neighborhood plans. Las Catalinas received a CNU Charter Award (2022) and Urban Guild Design Excellence Awards (2020).
Bega also serves on the board of the Urban Guild, advancing design excellence at the intersection of architecture and urbanism.
Areas of Expertise
- Community Building
- Form-based codes
- Residential Design
- Sustainable Architecture and Urbanism
- Urban Design
- Urban design, history, and theory
News
- "The Architecture of Place: In Conversation with Sara Bega," ICAA interview, 2025
- "Sara Bega: Las Catalinas - Building a Stunning Car-Free, Kid-Friendly, Multi-Generational Town," Building Culture interview, 2024
- "A New Community Rises in Costa Rica, but Don’t Bring Your Car," The New York Times, 2019