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Harvard GSD online survey seeks architecture graduate visa holders to create snapshot of professional practice

2024-11-20T15:10:00-05:00

This semester, a group of students at the Harvard Graduate School of Design is taking a survey of U.S. architecture graduate visa holders in the workplace for a research project that's part of their coursework for assistant professor Jacob Reidel's "Frameworks of Practice" seminar.

They are inviting participants to answer a series of anonymous questions related to their experience as workplace visa holders. The aim, they say, is to produce a snapshot of how immigration status affects both entry-level career choices for architecture graduates and long-term career planning.

The students share: "The original idea came from conversations with peers about how, in the field of architecture, visa status makes workers feel like they are in a precarious position and our preliminary qualitative interviews have supported this. We hope that this research can draw attention to the situation and offer both workers and employers new statistics to work towards compassionate decision-making in offic...

Harvard GSD completes first stage renovation of Gund Hall

2024-10-30T09:26:00-04:00

The Bruner/Cott Architects-led renovations to Gund Hall at the Harvard Graduate School of Design has concluded its first phase after work began to rehabilitate the building’s envelope at the end of the spring 2024 semester.

Both building efficiency and occupants' comfort have been improved with better insulation and an increased quality of light in most spaces as greater accessibility was made possible on the outside with the addition of new handrails and guardrails. The GSD's faculty building committee chair David N. Fixler said it was "important that the GSD project a spirit of innovation but also of legacy, of stewardship, of respect for the historic quality of [the building]."

Fixler had also previously called the project an important teaching tool for students interested in the preservation of other important mid-twentieth-century structures.

New Harvard GSD Program on Narrative Architecture: Learn Theme Park Design Secrets for Your Next Project

2024-09-18T11:35:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by Harvard GSD Executive Education

Every building tells a story. These stories are grounded in our emotional connection to architecture. Our built environment protects us, surrounds us, defines us, and gives us a place to live our lives. The better you understand a building's story, the better you can enlist others into your vision.

In this program on narrative architecture, Steve Tatham, one of the world's leading theme park designers, will discuss how theme parks use story techniques to create unforgettable built environments and how you can use these practices to bring your built projects to life. We asked Steve what you will learn in this program in the video below.

When Florida’s Walt Disney World opened in 1971, NBC’s David Brinkley called it “the most imaginative and effective piece of urban planning in America.” This in-depth program, taught by a 30+ year veteran of theme park design with Disney and Universal Creative, demonstrates how to imp...

Get Lectured: Harvard University, Fall '24

2024-09-04T18:25:00-04:00

The Harvard GSD has shared its Fall 2024 public lectures series as part of our Get Lectured roundup of events taking place across the academic spectrum in the new semester.

The exciting lineup begins with professor Eric Höweler's presentation 'Clay: Pedagogy and Practice' on September 9 followed by Chelina Odbert's Margaret McCurry Lectureship in the Design Arts on September 12. Following that, the Senior Loeb Scholar Lecture featuring Malkit Shoshan, Tatiana Bilbao, and Elke Krasny will take place on September 24. Signe Nielsen closes the month with her presentation 'Parks and Monuments: A Cultural Evolution' on September 26.

October begins with a flourish when the 2021 Wheelwright Prize winner Germane Barnes returns to Cambridge to deliver his lecture 'Where This Flower Blooms' on October 7. The rest of the month's lectures include Theodore Spyropoulos (October 15); Sean Godsell (October 17); Jala Makhzoumi (October 22); Shoshan, Andrew Herscher, and Daniel Serwer (October 24); An...

Thandi Loewenson honored with 2024 Wheelwright Prize for examining racial capitalism and Earth's resources

2024-06-27T10:00:00-04:00

The Harvard Graduate School of Design just announced this year's winning proposal for the coveted Wheelwright Prize, featuring an examination of colonial systems and racial capitalism from the UK-based Zimbabwe-born researcher Thandi Loewenson.

The $100,000 award is provided annually with the chance to give a lecture at the GSD and be published in one of five different school publications. Loewenson will have the chance to uncover "how we get free" through a series of what she calls "Black Papers," breaking down the "entanglement of Earth and Air" in the endemic landscape of seven different countries. The prize money supports her study of "Outer Space," which includes examining aerial land surveying techniques as well as the mining of precious metals used in smartphone devices and unwittingly underwriting a system of "digital dispossession" worldwide.

Loewenson, currently a senior tutor at the Royal College of Art, also holds a PhD from the UCL Bartlett School of Architecture.

Tha...

Harvard is searching for a Loeb Fellowship Curator

2024-03-27T11:22:00-04:00

Following last week’s look at an opening for an Architect at the US Bureau of Reclamation, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore an open role on Archinect Jobs for Curator of the Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University.

The role, based in the Harvard Graduate School of Design, calls for an individual to provide “vision and overall direction to the Loeb Fellowship program for mid-career professionals in design-related disciplines.” In addition to acting as principal spokesperson for the program, the curator will be expected to contribute to the wider GSD offering. Among the requirements for the role are a Bachelor’s degree and “proven curatorial, staff and program management, and/or development leadership in an educational/design setting including architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, urban design or related field.”

Why the r...

Leading Architects Become Harvard Alums with this Executive Development Program

2024-03-21T14:55:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by
Harvard Graduate School of Design Executive Education

Created for global leaders in the built environment, the Advanced Management Development Program in Real Estate (AMDP) at the Harvard Graduate School of Design leverages the school’s resources to help participants reach the absolute pinnacle of their profession. The intensive one-year program with five weeks spent on campus brings participants into contact with industry leaders from around the world via on-campus sessions, site visits, and project-based learning, culminating in graduates being granted Harvard alumni status.

This article features insights from three program alumni, Trusted Inc. Founder and CEO Michael Peters, Class of 2015, Unico Developers Principal and Co-founder Fernando Levy Hara, Class of 2010, and Raouf Advisory Founder and Chief Advisor Hussam Raouf, Class of 2017, to get an inside look at this unique educational and professional growth opportunity.

“The Most Exclusive Real E...

How Architecture Firms Should Design Their Workplace: Harvard Online Course

2024-02-13T14:52:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by
Harvard Graduate School of Design Executive Education

While many fields have acclimatized to hybrid ways of working, architecture and design firms have encountered persistent challenges in making this transition.

Harvard GSD’s online course Designing the Creative & Collaborative Workplace: Space, Technology, and Culture looks at the unique spaces, technology, and culture shaping the creative workplace to help creative teams answer the question: “How will we redesign our workplace and the way we work?”

This discussion will be informed by research done by Jacob Reidel seeking to understand how architects have designed new ways of practicing in direct response to the upheaval of recent years.

Image courtesy Harvard GSD Executive Education.

Divided into three modules — Spaces, Technology, and Culture — the course will use a scaffolded approach to provide participants, regardless of background, with the resources to take actionable steps towards transformi...

Get Lectured: Harvard University, Spring '24

2024-01-26T08:00:00-05:00

The Harvard Graduate School of Design has listed its slate of Spring ‘24 public lecturers as part of our Get Lectured roundup for the new academic term.

The events program begins on February 8 with a lecture from the new Global War on Terror Memorial designer Marlon Blackwell, whose appearance precedes another from author Christiana Sharpe on February 13. The month continues with the Senior Loeb Scholar Lecture from Malkit Shoshan on February 27 and ends when University of Virginia faculty member Elizabeth K. Meyer delivers the Daniel Urban Kiley Lecture on February 29.

The 2020 Wheelwright Prize winner Daniel Fernández Pascual will deliver his Wheelwright Prize Lecture on March 5, followed by the International Womxn's Day Keynote Address from Jack Halberstam on March 7. Author Debra Spark speaks also on March 7. Her examination of the creative dynamics between Richard Neutra and Rudolph Schindler will precede another lecture from Shoshan on the position of women in design on March ...

How Harvard GSD's Executive Education Course Explores Designing the World’s Largest Passive House Office

2024-01-22T11:15:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by Harvard Graduate School of Design Executive Education

In response to global decarbonization mandates and changing occupant wants and needs, architects are racing to identify technologies, critical data, operating models, and financial cases that enable the success of building retrofits and designs. In Building Decarbonization 101: The Technology, Data, Operations, and Finances of Net Zero Development, participants will dig into groundbreaking buildings worldwide, hear from a global group of experts, and emerge with holistic strategies to apply to their projects.

Winthrop Center. Image courtesy Harvard GSD Executive Education.

A highlight of the program is Brad Mahoney, Director of Sustainable Development at MP Boston, diving into the development of Winthrop Center, the world's largest Passive House office space. Brad will use his experience with Winthrop Center to cover both smart and efficient building development and building decarbonization's financi...

Harvard GSD details Gund Hall renovations

2023-12-21T12:06:00-05:00

Harvard’s Graduate School of Design has unveiled plans for a slate of renovations that will culminate next year and are aimed at improving the user experience for students and faculty at 51-year-old Gund Hall in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The project will help preserve the familiar John Andrews design for new generations while serving as a model for the sustainable redevelopment of midcentury structures, the school announced. Boston-based Bruner/Cott Architects will be leading the process, leaning on its past renovation and remodeling of the Harvard Holyoke Center with Hopkins Architects that was completed in 2019.

The first phase of construction will insulate the building envelope in order to reduce energy costs and increase occupational comfort. Gund Hall’s iconic ‘trays,’ the terraced glass structures covering studio spaces will be reglazed. The GSD is testing out prototypes in Gund Hall’s 'The Pit' multiuse area and says they are especially hopeful for a hybrid vacuum-insulated ...

Explore Harvard GSD's latest Executive Education course on Blockchain and Real Estate

2023-12-13T09:00:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by Harvard Graduate School of Design Executive Education

While the NFT bubble has burst, the tantalizing potential of blockchain, which is the foundation of NFT’s, bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies, endures. Some have even written that blockchain offers the “possibility of entirely reorganizing the profession” of architecture.

Harvard University Graduate School of Design Executive Education offers From Crypto to the Metaverse: Blockchain Applications in Real Estate to equip architects for this paradigm shift.

We asked Jose Luis Garcia del Castillo y Lopez, Lecturer in Architectural Technology at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, to introduce this January's program.

Video courtesy of Harvard GSD Executive Extension

We also asked him which applications of blockchain he is most excited about — he said (1) Tokenization (fractional asset ownership) and (2) Blockchain-enabled transfers of title and ownership claims.

Video courtesy of Harvard GS...

Harvard Graduate School of Design Offers Online Course on AI for Architects

2023-11-13T09:15:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by Harvard Graduate School of Design Executive Education

A year after the launch of ChatGPT and the proliferation of generative AI tools, there remains enormous potential for architects able to harness AI-driven tools to solve their core challenges. That is why Harvard University Graduate School of Design Executive Education offers a course on AI, Machine Learning, and the Built Environment to design leaders seeking to understand this transformative technology better.

We asked Jose Luis Garcia del Castillo y Lopez, Lecturer in Architectural Technology at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, questions about AI in preparation for this January's program.

Courtesy of Harvard GSD Executive Education

Question: “I’m an architect. Can AI design buildings? Is my job getting replaced by AI?

Answer: “AI cannot design entire buildings, but it is true that certain aspects, more and more aspects of the architectural design process are being automated using A...

Get Lectured: Harvard University, Fall '23

2023-09-05T11:58:00-04:00

Our Get Lectured tour of public programming continues today with a stop by Cambridge, Massachusetts, for a look at the Fall events and lectures happening at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Tuesday, September 12, will see editors Sean Canty, Zeina Koreitem, and John May discuss the launch of the new Harvard Design Magazine #51:Multihyphenate issue, followed by a panel discussion with each of this year’s Loeb Fellowship cohort on September 13. GSD alumnus Kongjian Yu will deliver the Sylvester Baxter Lecture on September 14, followed by a visit from Shigeru Ban on September 19. Rem Koolhaas and Irma Boom’s discussion on the role of book-making in the age of globalization follows their presentations on September 27, and the month culminates on September 28 with a lecture from Memphis Design pioneer Michele De Lucchi.

The next month begins with the Frederick Law Olmsted Lecture on October 10 with Anita Berrizbeitia. The Loeb Lecture on author David Gessen’s new book Th...

Harvard GSD details its new visual identity

2023-08-25T13:01:00-04:00

The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) this week announced a new visual identity created in order to help galvanize its institutional and pedagogical aims, claiming it needed an "updated language of forms to communicate the school’s mission and values."

The rebranding effort comes in response to Dean Sarah M. Whiting’s previous call for the GSD community to establish a dialogue with the general public in a way that can embody the "critical design thinking" at the core of its educational program.

The new logo offers a further demarcation from the standard university crest-based designs used by Harvard’s other schools and undergraduate residential houses, embracing the 'Flying H' design invented by alum Nigel Smith into the GSD's graphics system to mark the turn of the 21st century.

Image courtesy Harvard GSD

The expressionistic form of John Andrews’ distinct Gund Hall building is a further source of inspiration for the new GSD Gothic typeface, which was the brainchild of the sc...

Travis Scott wants to pursue architecture at Harvard GSD when he retires from music

2023-05-27T08:00:00-04:00

Travis Scott has revealed that he plans to attend the illustrious Harvard University to study architecture once his rapping days are done. La Flame covered the latest issue of PIN-UP magazine on Wednesday (May 24) where he showcased his love for all things design from A-Z.

For PIN-UP’s Issue 34, Scott spells out his design principles across every letter of the alphabet, displayed through a visually exciting collection of photographs where the artist’s body replicated and contorted to make up the letters. "A" for him is "Architecture," in which he states: "Architecture is my true passion. I plan to apply to the architecture program at Harvard GSD when I’m done with music, which won’t be for a while. It would be dope to do both at the same time."

In 2018, Scott guest-lectured at Harvard, where he provided a master class on creativity to 500 students.

hey @trvisXX, get an early start on your architecture education at #A23Con DM us for a pass! https://t.co/14GlusB7w5
— AIA National (@AIANational) May 26, 2023

In addition to announcing his future plans, the rapper notes his appreciation for Brutalism and Postmodernism, along with Zaha Hadid. He also mentions how great of an inspiration the late multi-hyphenate Virgil Abloh has been to him, which can explai...

Harvard students' survey finds most architectural tasks can be done remotely

2023-03-13T08:00:00-04:00

Students from the Harvard Graduate School of Design have published the results of their survey into the question of whether architecture can be practiced remotely. Launched in November 2022, the survey received 221 responses from across the profession and has led organizers to conclude that “architects believe that the vast majority of architectural tasks can be done ‘entirely or almost entirely remotely’”.

The survey, authored by students Su In Kim, Yun Ki Cheung, and Pedro Rodríguez-Parets as part of the “Frameworks of Practice” course, was designed to reflect NCARB's structure for the ARE, specifying 36 tasks across 6 project phases to create what the organizers considered a typical workflow from project inception to completion as well as practice management. For each of the 36 tasks, the survey asked respondents to respond ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the question of whether the specific task could be done “almost entirely or entirely remotely.”

Graph via the "Can Architecture be practiced...

Grace La appointed Harvard GSD’s Chair of Department of Architecture

2023-03-09T10:48:00-05:00

Grace La has been announced as the new Chair of the Department of Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. A professor of architecture at the school and principal of LA DALLMAN, La will become the second women to be named as Chair of the Department of Architecture when her appointment takes effect on July 1st, 2023.

“I am honored by the GSD’s trust and look forward to collaboration on the next chapter of this esteemed department,” La said in a statement. “As a highly negotiated art form, architecture remains at the vital intersection of culture and space. The discipline is also experiencing transformations in pedagogy, with opportunities to advance environmental expertise, social engagement, and artistry. I am thrilled to work on this shared project and on the continued mission to harness the immense intellect, imagination, and energy of the GSD’s creative community.”

Having co-founded LA DALLMAN with James Dallman in 1999, La has built a portfolio that “expands the ar...

Get Lectured: Harvard University, Spring '23

2023-01-25T15:48:00-05:00

Continuing with Archinect's Get Lectured series, we highlight Harvard University's Graduate School of Design (GSD) list of guest lecturers and presenters for their Spring 2023 public programs.

The lectures kick off Tuesday, January 31, with a visit from Landprocess founder Kotchakorn Voraakhom. Her lecture will be followed on February 2 by Yung Ho Chang’s presentation titled ‘Form, Content, and Total Design.’ February 7 will bring architect Stan Allen to campus, followed by a lecture on February 9 from Ecuadorian architect Ana María Durán Calisto. The month will conclude with Adèle Naudé Santos’ presentation ‘Narrative Maps: A Design Process’ on February 14, and a visit from North Carolina State University professor Kofi Boone on February 16.

March’s programming will begin with the lecture ‘Grand Paris Express: Reconfiguring the City through Radical Infrastructure’ taking place over two days from March 2-3. It will be followed by the International Womxn’s Week Keynote Address (who...

New Harvard online survey asks: Can architecture be practiced remotely?

2022-11-18T12:02:00-05:00

As the global COVID-19 pandemic approaches the end of its now third calendar year, the architecture industry is once again in a state of adjustment, seeking to find that sweet spot between various available remote, hybrid, and in-person working arrangements. Continuing shifts in technological, health, and cultural standards have forced architectural practice, as well as employment models, to adapt to the post-pandemic challenges at hand.

A new research project at the Harvard Graduate School of Design is looking to study these trends within architectural practice at a time when an increasing number of firms choose to return the office.

Led by instructor Jacob Reidel under the banner of "Frameworks of Practice," the initiative aims to "understand how architects have designed new ways of practicing in direct response to crises ranging from economic collapse to structural racism to natural disaster to global pandemic."

Through a brief online survey with simple rating questions, the st...

Get Lectured: Harvard University, Fall 2022

2022-09-13T18:54:00-04:00

Continuing with Archinect's Get Lecture series, we highlight Harvard University's Graduate School of Design (GSD) list of guest lecturers and presenters for their Fall 2022 public programs.

August 25 kicked off the school's Unprecedented Realism: Selections from the Rodolfo Machado and Jorge Silvetti Collection, an exhibition on view until October 7. In September, Sumayya Vally of Counterspace was in conversation with Harvard GSD Dean Sarah Whiting on September 8, followed by a lecture from writer, poet, and executive director of The Black/Land Project Mistinguette Smith on September 13.

A lecture from architect and researcher Sascha Delz will take place on October 3, followed by the Loeb Fellowship's 50th Anniversary Symposium on October 6–7. USC's Milton S.F. Curry will present a lecture on October 11, followed by lectures from Ana María Durán Calisto on October 18 and Mel Y. Chen on October 27. Architect and researcher Marija Marić will complete October's lectures with a presen...

Marina Otero is announced as the 2022 Wheelwright Prize winner

2022-06-13T13:47:00-04:00

The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) has announced Design Academy Eindhoven program head Marina Otero as the winner of this year’s $100,000 Wheelwright Prize in support of her research proposal titled ‘Future Storage: Architectures to Host the Metaverse.’

Through the grant, Otero will look to explore the new architectural paradigms of data stores while considering the potential of digital infrastructure to combat some of society’s most pressing and immediate challenges. She has already begun fieldwork in France, the Netherlands and UK, and will further expand her research to include Singapore, Australia, Nigeria, the U.S., Iceland, Sweden, and Chile as a result of the prize's newly-gained backing.

"Data centers might not seem like an exciting place for an architectural project," the first-place winner explained. "However, the huge scale of the operations of the data industry and its pervasiveness and increasing importance in the contemporary world–coupled with its openness to...

Toshiko Mori on style

2022-03-25T18:29:00-04:00

My architectural hero is Lina Bo Bardi. She was an amazing person. She was connected to society, communities, and construction crews. And also the fact that she's originally Italian, and established an identity in a place different from her place of origin (Brazil), resonated for me coming from Japan and establishing my practice in the United States. Navigating that territory, not only being a woman, but being a migrant as well.

A very nuanced interview with Toshiko Mori. "The former Chair of Harvard's graduate architecture program deems signature style irrelevant, favoring a versatile research-based approach. Beyond the load bearing structures of a building, Mori's examination of material matter excavates the complexities and contradictions of modern human phenomena."

Gary Hilderbrand appointed new chair of landscape architecture at Harvard GSD

2022-03-23T14:37:00-04:00

One of the landscape design world’s leading names will be stepping into a new role this summer as Reed Hilderbrand founding principal and partner Gary Hilderbrand has been announced as the new chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture at the Harvard GSD.

Hilderbrand has been on the faculty at Harvard for over 30 years and will step into the role vacated by Anita Berrizbeitia after seven years at the helm of what is the oldest landscape architecture department in academia.

A statement from GSD Dean Sarah Whiting praised Hilderbrand’s “sensibilities as a teacher and as a practitioner,” stating that the two “are one and the same.”

“His unyielding efforts to reconcile imminent, often intractable forces of urbanization with ecological sustainability, cultural history, vegetative regimes, and thoughtful kindness are central to his pedagogy and practice both,” she continued. “I could not be more delighted he has accepted this appointment, and I am excited for what is to come under ...

Harvard researchers develop deployable structures made from a simple rotational motion

2021-06-29T16:57:00-04:00

Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) have developed a system that uses curved supports to transform flat objects into elaborate and customizable 3D structures.

Called Kiriform, the manufacturing method harnesses the mechanical instabilities in curved beams. The research team used a combination of experiments and numerical analyses to understand the geometry of curved, slender beams and what happens when those structural elements rotate and buckle. With just a simple rotational motion, buckling is used to create deployable structures.

Video: Harvard University

The system is created by layering flat sheets of elastic material on top of one another that interact to support each other when the 2D object is rotated into its 3D form. In addition to being lightweight and compact, Kiriform is fast to assemble and requires minimal hardware, making it cheap to manufacture and easy to d...

Architect and researcher Sekou Cooke joins the W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute as a 2021-2022 fellow

2021-06-15T20:15:00-04:00

Jamaican-born architect, researcher, educator, and curator Sekou Cooke is named a W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute Fellow. The fellowship is part of the W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University.

"The W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute Fellowship program invites scholars, artists, public intellectuals, and activists across the humanities and social sciences to pursue independent projects encompassing Africa and its diasporas. Fellows arrive from the U.S., Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Europe to be in residence at the Hutchins Center for either a full academic year or one semester."

The Hutchins Center for African & African American Research shares Cooke will be "in residence as a Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellow for the 2021-2022 academic year," where he will work on his project 3D Turntables Remix: The Architectural Technology of Hip-Hop.

Cooke joins a cohort of fifteen other research fellows.

"As architec...

Harvard GSD announces Loeb Fellowship class of 2022

2021-06-10T10:30:00-04:00

The Harvard Graduate School of Design’s Loeb Fellowship has announced its Class of 2022. The ten individuals were selected from a group of 134 candidates, and work across fields including activism, urbanism, public art, film and media, technology, and real estate development. The 2021-2022 cycle, the 51st in the Loeb Fellowship’s history, will also see an inaugural collaborative fellowship between the Loeb Fellowship and the ArtLab at Harvard University.

The ten incoming Loeb Fellows are:

Veyom Bahl, New York, NY; Managing Director, Robin Hood Foundation
Karen Dawn Blondel, New York, NY; Founder, Public Housing Civic Association
Andrea Bolnick, Cape Town, South Africa; Managing Director, Ikhayalami
Stephanie Hankey, Berlin, Germany; Executive Director, Tactical Tech
Will Hunter, London, United Kingdom; Founder, The London School of Architecture
Mpho Matsipa, Johannesburg, South Africa; Founder and Chief Curator, African Mobilities and Chancellor's Fellow (FALF), Univer...

Germane Barnes is Harvard GSD's 2021 Wheelwright Prize winner

2021-05-10T15:26:00-04:00

Harvard's Graduate School of Design announced the winner of the 2021 Wheelwright Prize: architect and Assistant Professor at the University of Miami School of Architecture Germane Barnes will receive the coveted $100,000 fellowship fund to support his two-year research project Anatomical Transformations in Classical Architecture. Barnes proposes to examine Roman and Italian architecture through the lens of non-white constructors, studying "how spaces have been transformed through the material contributions of the African Diaspora while creating new architectural possibilities that emerge within investigations of Blackness."

Germane Barnes' research proposal was selected from a field of finalists that also included Iulia Statica, Luis Berríos-Negrón, and Catty Dan Zhang.

Dark Mode. Photo: Blair Reid Jr.

"The past year has shown the world that marginalized communities offer more than a cursory look but a thorough excavation of their contributions and legacies," Barnes said. "As a Black...

Harvard’s origami-inspired structures offer a future for pop-up or emergency architecture

2021-04-28T10:37:00-04:00

Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed bistable inflatable structures inspired by origami, raising new possibilities for the future of emergency shelters, pop-up architecture, and even extra-terrestrial structures.

Many of today’s inflatable structures are monostable, meaning they require constant pressure to maintain an inflated state. A loss of pressure will return the structure to its original stable form – flat. The researchers at Harvard therefore asked “what if these structures had more than one stable state?” and set about developing a form that eould be just as stable inflated as it was flat on the ground.

The resulting design is inspired by origami and guided by geometry, developed through a library of triangular building blocks that can pop up, fold flat, or combine in different configurations to build closed, multistable shapes. “We are relying on the geometry of these building blocks, not the materi...

Get Lectured: Harvard GSD, Spring '21

2021-02-23T21:49:00-05:00

Since February 18th Harvard GSD has curated an exciting list of speakers to present during their Spring 2021 Lecture series. With lectures, symposiums, and public events continuing through April 20th the school has invited presenters from a variety of backgrounds who will discuss topics focusing on academia, social justice and design, professional practice, and much more.

Archinect's ongoing Get Lectured series features each school's lecture series and their graphic design prowess with eye-catching lecture posters.

Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your lecture series poster and details to connect@archinect.com.

Earlier in the month, the GSD welcomed professor and author Kate Thomas who presented her talk “Lesbian Arcadia: Desire and Design in the Fin-de-Siècle Garden.” On February 23 the GSD welcomes Senior Loeb Scholar Walter Hood for his lecture "When Memory Is Not Enough" followed by a conversation between Hood and Garnette Cadogan on February 25th. February ...