In the News
The Harvard Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability Announces Major Grant Inspired by HouseZero®
The Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability at Harvard University recently announced a new, major multi-year grant for “Sustainable Building and Urban Future ,” one of two climate research clusters as part of an interdisciplinary initiative targeting urgent climate challenges in the built environment.
“Sustainable Building and Urban Future” is one of two newly-announced clusters designed to address sources of planet-warming emissions and foster novel collaborations across Harvard’s Schools and academic disciplines. Along with the “Urban Mobility and Climate Change ” cluster, the new research efforts will collectively receive $3.6 million over three years and involve more than a dozen faculty from the Graduate School of Design, John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences , Harvard Kennedy School , and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences .
The “Sustainable Building and Urban Future” cluster, which will be housed in the HouseZero®, is led by Ali Malkawi, serving as principal investigator; he is the Founding Director of the Center for Green Buildings and Cities, Professor of Architectural Technology, and Director of the Doctor of Design program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. The cluster team draws on expertise in chemistry, materials science, fluid mechanics, AI, computer science, architecture, and engineering, with the goal of developing innovative low-carbon materials integrated with smart sensors and advanced algorithms to transform the energy-efficient operation of buildings and urban environments. The team consists of faculty co-investigators Joanna Aizenberg , Petros Koumoutsakos , Na (Lina) Li , Jarad Mason , Vijay Janapa Reddi , and Le Xie .
“This project, driven by interdisciplinary collaboration, addresses urgent climate challenges by developing and scaling sustainable design solutions,” said Malkawi. “We aim to modernize and eventually revolutionize energy-efficient building performance to help shape the future of sustainable urban environments.”
Yihao Wu is APA Economic Development Division Holzheimer Scholarship winner
Yihao Wu, a second year DDes student, has won the Holzheimer Memorial Student Scholarship for Economic Development Planning for his paper titled, “Innovation Districts and Urban Economic Resilience: Kendall Square’s Sectoral Transformation.” The paper was written for Rachel Meltzer’s class, Local Economic Development.
The scholarship is named in memory of longtime American Planning Association member and economic development visionary, Dr. Terry Holzheimer of Arlington County, Virginia and Virginia Tech. The $500 award is a scholarship provided by the APA’s Economic Development Division. Submissions typically reflect adaptations of original student work, including theses, term papers, capstones, and studio projects. Yihao’s paper is to be published on the Economic Development Division website and distributed electronically to EDD members in the News & Views newsletter.
Yun Fu (DDes ’20) received Dezeen Awards Exhibition Design of the Year 2024
Yun Fu, Design Critic in Urban Planning and Design, and his practice SEMESTER recently received the Dezeen Awards Exhibition Design of the Year 2024 for their pop-up public space The Temporary Storage Garden, and Fu’s Thinking and Building on Shaky Ground just received the 2024 DAM Architecture Book Prize.
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Harvard Graduate School of Design Community Makes a Strong Showing at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale
As spring emerges in Venice, Italy, so too does the 2025 Architecture Biennale, also known as the 19th International Architecture Exhibition, opening to the public on May 10. Curated by Italian architect/engineer Carlo Ratti and titled Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective. , this prestigious event showcases design solutions to climatic adaptation, transcending disciplinary boundaries to address […]
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A Team of Harvard Researchers Develop a Prototype for a More Efficient and Eco-friendly Air Conditioner
Continuing a trend from this summer, September 2023 was the hottest September on record, according to scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. As climate change increases global temperatures, world cooling demands are expected to triple by 2050. While globally accessible and cheap to manufacture, conventional air conditioners still rely on wasteful mechanical vapor-compression methods […]
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Kongjian Yu Wins 2023 Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize
The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) has named Beijing-based landscape architect Kongjian Yu (DDes ’95) the winner of the 2023 Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize , a biennial honor that includes a $100,000 award and two years of public engagement activities focused on the laureate’s work and landscape architecture more broadly. Yu recently delivered […]
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How Designers Can Help Keep Our Air Breathable
Smoke from wildfires raging in Canada blanketed the Northeastern United States this month, turning the skies an eerie orange. Responding to record-setting levels of pollution, officials around the region declared health emergencies. Advice to close windows and run air filters helped mitigate the acute effects of the short-term crisis, but the event also drew attention […]
Alumni Publications
Books
Articles
By Holly Samuelson (DDes ’13), Charu Srivastava (DDes ’23), Amir Baniassadi
By Nari Yoon (DDes ’19), Leslie Norford, Michael Wetter, Ali Malkawi
“Data-informed building energy management (DiBEM) towards ultra-low energy buildings”
By Jung Min Han (DDes ’22), Sunghwan Lim (PhD ’27), Ali Malkawi, Xu Han, Elence Xinzhu Chen (DDes ’24), Shide Salimi, Tor Helge Dokka, Tine Hegli, Kristian Edwards
By Holly Samuelson (DDes ’13), Yiwei (Lucy) Lyu (DDes ’26), and Jialiang Xiang (MDes ’24)
“Ensembled Deep Learning-based Model Predictive Control for Automatic Window Operations in Winter”
By Elence Xinzhu Chen (DDes ’24), Xu Han, Ali Malkawi, Na Li
By Elence Xinzhu Chen (DDes ’24), Xu Han, Ali Malkawi, Runyu Zhang, Na Li
“Impact of workplace design on perceived work performance and well-being: Home versus office”
By Charu Srivastava (DDes ’23), Elizabeth L. Murnane, Sarah L. Billington, Holly W. Samuelson (DDes ’13)
By Ali Malkawi, Stephen Ervin, Xu Han, Elence Xinzhu Chen (DDes ’24), Sunghwan Lim (PhD ’27), Spyridon Ampanovos (DDes ’22), Peter Howard