The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) announces its fall 2024 schedule of public programs and exhibitions, many of which offer interdisciplinary perspectives on conflict, power, and design as a means of communication.
In the series of events Democracy and Urban Form (October 9–10), Michael Sandel, Richard Sennett, and Diane Davis discuss how the design of our cities can empower citizens and facilitate modes of discourse essential to democratic societies. Senior Loeb Scholar Malkit Shoshan hosts “Reconstruction and Redestruction” (October 24), a discussion about the complexities of postwar reconstruction with Andrew Herscher and Daniel Serwer. In “Building with Care” (September 24), Shoshan develops similar ideas, speaking with Tatiana Bilbao and Elke Krasny about how a powerful shift in worldview can follow from displacing the use of the word “war.”
Foregrounding global perspectives on the power dynamics underlying design history and practice, on October 7, Germane Barnes presents “Where This Flower Blooms,” his Wheelwright Prize research that reinserts North African building practices that were critical to Italian architecture throughout antiquity but erased in Eurocentric histories of design. The talk coincides with Barnes’ first solo exhibition, which opens at the Art Institute of Chicago on September 21. In the 2024 Aga Khan Program Lecture, Iraqi landscape architect Jala Makhzoumi (October 22) searches for a grounded language for landscape architecture in the Middle East that captures the complexity of the English term “landscape.”
Fall programs explore the role of design in mitigating environmental degradation while bolstering social equity and deepening our connections with nature. Anne Whiston Spirn poses direct questions about the connection between climate change and urban landscapes in her lecture, “Restoring Nature, Rebuilding Community” (October 29), while Chelina Odbert (September 12) addresses 15 years of her “mission-driven,” community-engaged design. Surveying the practice of landscape architect Bas Smets, the exhibition Changing Climates (October 28–December 20) demonstrates the power of urban micro-climates in confronting ecological crisis. And Sean Godsell, the Kenzo Tange Visiting Critic, reflects on the Australian bush, a “mystical, mythical” place where water is a most precious commodity (October 17).
Focusing on the practice of design and the tools architects use to develop their work, the exhibition Architecture as an Instruction-Based Art (August 26–October 14), curated by Farshid Moussavi, features construction coordination drawings created by practitioners from around the world. These detailed composite drawings, which Moussavi and exhibition contributors discuss on September 3, are conceptual tools architects use to think through their buildings. Selections of the drawings are also featured in Harvard Design Magazine 52: Instruments of Service (launching October 16), guest edited by Elizabeth Bowie Christoforetti and Jacob Reidel.
The complete public program calendar appears below and can be viewed on the GSD’s events calendar.
Architecture as an Instruction-Based Art
Exhibition
Druker Design Gallery
August 26–October 14
Exhibition Opening: Architecture as an Instruction-Based Art
Farshid Moussavi and guests
September 3, 6:30pm
Eric Höweler, “Clay: Pedagogy and Practice”
Lecture
September 10, 6:30pm
Chelina Odbert, “Situating Justice: Reflections on Mission-Driven Practice”
Margaret McCurry Lectureship in the Design Arts
September 12, 6:30pm
Perfect Days (2023)
Film Screening
September 19, 6:30pm
GSD Comeback: Celebration of Alumni & Friends
September 20–22
Malkit Shoshan, Tatiana Bilbao, and Elke Krasny
“Building with Care: Feminist Perspectives on Design in Conflict”
Senior Loeb Scholar Conversation
September 24, 6:30pm
Signe Nielsen, “Parks and Monuments: A Cultural Evolution”
Lecture
September 26, 12:30pm
RealTimeNature
With opening remarks by Peter Galison and closing keynote by Daniel Barber
DDes Conference
September 27, 9am
Germane Barnes, “Where This Flower Blooms”
Wheelwright Prize Lecture
October 7, 6:30pm
Wheelwright Prize Jury with Germane Barnes
David Brown, David Hartt, Mark Lee, Megan Panzano, and Sumayya Vally
Conversation
October 8, 12:30pm
Democracy and Urban Form
Michael Sandel, “Democracy’s Discontent”
Lecture
October 9, 6:30pm
Democracy and Urban Form
Richard Sennett, Diane Davis, Claire Zimmerman, Markus Miessen, and Guests
Panel Discussion
October 10, 12:30pm
Theodore Spyropoulos, “Quantum”
Rachel Dorothy Tanur Memorial Lecture
October 15, 6:30pm
Harvard Design Magazine 52: Instruments of Service
Issue Launch
October 16, 12:30pm
Sean Godsell, “Your Feet Against My Feet: Upside-Down Architecture”
Kenzo Tange Visiting Critic Lecture
October 17, 6:30pm
Jala Makhzoumi, “Landscape, Garden, and a Colonial Legacy”
Aga Khan Program Lecture
October 22, 6:30pm
Malkit Shoshan, Andrew Herscher, and Daniel Serwer
“Reconstruction and Redestruction: Post-War Antinomies”
Senior Loeb Scholar Conversation
October 24, 6:30pm
The 2024 Ivory Prize Housing Innovation Summit
October 25, 12:30pm
Changing Climates
Exhibition
Druker Design Gallery
October 28–December 20
Anne Whiston Spirn, “Restoring Nature, Rebuilding Community”
Frederick Law Olmsted Lecture
October 29, 6:30pm
Exhibition Opening: Changing Climates
Bas Smets
October 31, 6:30pm
Laurie Olin, “First We Read, Then We Write”
Sylvester Baxter Lecture
November 7, 6:30pm
Sheila O’Donnell, “Conversations with Place”
Lecture
November 12, 6:30pm
A Round Table
Loeb Fellowship Symposium
November 15, 12pm
Symposium in Honor of Giuliana Bruno
With Keynotes by Isaac Julien and Emanuele Coccia
Gund Hall and Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
November 21
All programs take place in Gund Hall, are open to the public, and will be simultaneously streamed to the GSD’s website, unless otherwise noted.