In a recent interview with India Ink, a New York Times blog, Professor Rahul Mehrotra discusses the rise of “parasitic” gated communities in India’s cities, and the need for planning experts in its smaller towns. Read the full interview.
Gareth Doherty, Lecturer in Landscape and Urban Planning and Design, has been awarded Coolidge First-step Funds for Harvard-Brazil Faculty Engagement from the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies for research on urban ecology and color in Brazil.
Michael Hooper, Assistant Professor of Urban Planning, and his colleague Leonard Ortolano at Stanford have published results from their research on slum dweller mobilization in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Their recent paper, in the journal Environment and Urbanization, examines factors motivating slum dweller participation in physically and politically risky social movement activities. The research looked at grassroots mobilization around a large-scale eviction in the city's Kurasini ward. The study's results suggest that the dynamics of participatory decision making are more complex than usually assumed by planners, policymakers and community organizers alike.
Cloud Terrace, a new temporary installation by landscape artists Andy Cao (LF '11) and Xavier Perrot, recently opened at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C. Clouds sculpted from chicken wire dangle 10,000 loaned Swarovski crystals creating the effect of gathered raindrops over the property's Arbor Terrace. John Beardsley, Adjunct Professor of Landscape Architecture at the GSD and Director of Landscape Studies at Dumbarton Oaks, says temporary installations “breathe new life into these landscapes,” which are “living works” no matter how historic. The commission developed from Cao's visit to the institute as a Loeb fellow in 2011.
Over the GSD Spring Break Alex Krieger lectured at six of China's leading architecture and planning schools including Tsinghua University in Beijing, Tonji University in Shanghai, Dongnan University in Nanjing, Xian University, Harbin University, & Tianjin University. Additionally, he addressed the staff of the Planning Bureaus of the cities of Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing and Fuzhou about the importance of urban design. Earlier in March he delivered the Keynote Lecture at the Annual Conference of the Israel Planners Association, on this year's organizing theme of planning large scale urban infrastructure.
Eve Blau participated in a panel discussion with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns and literary critic Christopher Benfey on "The Human Prospect: A Panel on History, Art and the Humanities" at Hampshire College, as part of the Presidential Lecture Series on February 21, 2012.
Dongwoo Yim (MAUD '08) and PRAUD are finalists in the Urban Intervention Seattle Competition for their design "Seattle Jelly Bean."
The Urban Land Institute/Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition challenges multidisciplinary student teams to create a comprehensive development program for a real, large-scale site. This year's student entries numbered 139 between 64 schools and proposed a long-term vision for creating a distinct identity for a new downtown Houston district. Two teams of GSD students were recognized in the tenth annual competition, one with an honorable mention for superior site planning, and the other, a joint team with the University of Colorado, was selected as one of four finalists.
David Ogul of the San Diego Union-Tribune reported on the induction of Horace Hogan II into the California Building Industry’s Hall of Fame.
In 2003, the New England Monte Jade Science and Technology Association invited two research doctors from Joslin Diabetes Center to speak on the alarming increase of diabetes in Asian-Americans. It was this presentation that inspired Been Wang to get involved with the world’s preeminent diabetes research and clinical care organization, something that has become a passion for the renowned local architect.