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Hosted by the Loeb Fellowship, Scotland’s Architecture Fringe will present two events at the Harvard Graduate School of Design exploring their current thematic provocation, Reciprocity – Architectures of Exchange.

Event 01

Wednesday February 11, 2026
6:30pm – 8pm ET
Piper Auditorium

Public Lecture:

Reciprocity – Architectures of Exchange with Mae-ling Lokko [Yale University]
Mireia Luzárraga [TAKK / Columbia University GSAPP]

This public lecture looks to reimagine our reciprocal relationship with the world around us by exploring ideas across science, architecture and construction. We are delighted to be joined by architectural scientist Mae-ling Lokko and architect Mireia Luzárraga who will present and discuss aspects of their respective research, teaching and design practices that shift us towards a deeper co-existence with planetary systems, nature, and non-human life in pursuit of a more symbiotic and sustainable future through recalibrated material cultures, fabrication customs, responsive environments, and social norms.  

Speakers

Dr. Mae-ling Lokko is an architectural scientist, designer, educator and artist from Ghana and the Philippines whose work broadly explores the design of value systems around biobased materials. Lokko is an Assistant Professor at Yale University’s School of Architecture, Assistant Director at Yale’s Center for Ecosystems in Architecture (Yale CEA) and the founder of Willow Technologies Ltd, in Accra, Ghana. At Yale, her research focuses on the whole life cycle development, distributed infrastructure design and policy around non-toxic, low-carbon materials.

Mireia Luzárraga is an architect, educator, and co-founder of TAKK, an architecture and research studio based in Barcelona and New York, together with Alejandro Muiño. Her work explores how architecture can foster more equitable forms of living through feminist, ecological, and more-than-human approaches to design. She is currently an Assistant Professor at Columbia University GSAPP, where she coordinates the First Year Core Design Studio, and has previously been a Visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo among others.

Event 02

Thursday February 12, 2026
12:30pm – 2pm ET
Piper Auditorium

Public Discussion:

Hinterlands & The Academy with –

Sarah M. Whiting, Dean, Harvard Graduate School of Design

Karen Nelson, Dean, Boston Architectural College

Bree Edwards, Director, Harvard University ArtLab

Joseph Zeal-Henry, Director of Cultural Planning, City of Boston

Jha D Amazi, Principal, MASS Design Group

A collective reimagining for how a school of architecture might radically rethink its reciprocal relationship with its hinterland in context to the challenges and opportunities of the 21st Century.

What kind of relationship does a place have with a school of architecture that sits within its midst? Likewise, what pedagogical approach does a school of architecture have towards the city, town or landscape that surrounds it? 

Reciprocity is the practice of exchanging things with others for mutual benefit, to aid one another in self-interest or in solidarity, to give as well as to receive, and to invest in and improve conditions, situations and relationships.

The term hinterland is a provocation, where we might rethink the dynamic between what is thought of as the subservient periphery and more dominant centre towards ideas of the hinterland being much closer to where we stand, drawing us into an underlying topography that the academy is very much part of and not apart from. 

When thinking of reciprocity, how might our public programs better include the public? How might our design studios build relationships with local people, to aid community thinking? How might we learn from and collaborate with non-profit organizations situated deep in the field? And how might our research help inform public discourse in an accessible way, on pressing topics such as the provision of housing, the stewardship of natural resources, and the integrated, sustainable future of the designed environment? 

This collective discussion provokes us to radically rethink the relationship the academy has with its hinterland, anchored firmly in the challenges and opportunities of the 21st Century, reimagining its role as a civic actor through acts of reciprocity and architectures of exchange.

About The Architecture Fringe

The Architecture Fringe is an activist non-profit organization based in Glasgow that seeks to critically transform architecture for the public common good by bridging public, academic and professional audiences through the curation and delivery of festivals, exhibitions, and public programs.

The seventh edition of the biennial Architecture Fringe Festival took place across Scotland in June 2025, and the organization represented Scotland at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale with the exhibition A Fragile Correspondence, co-curated by the Architecture Fringe, -ism magazine, and /other.

The events hosted by the Loeb Fellowship and presented by the Architecture Fringe at the GSD have been curated and organized by 2026 Loeb Fellow Andy Summers, co-founder and co-director of the organization.  

Harvard University welcomes individuals with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you would like to request accommodations or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact the Public Programs Office at (617) 496-2414 or [email protected] in advance of your participation or visit. Requests for American Sign Language interpreters and/or CART providers should be made at least two weeks in advance. Please note that the University will make every effort to secure services, but that services are subject to availability.

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