Design Impact Series: South Asia – Design Agency & Climate Change

This is the third installment in a broader series of virtual symposia being organized by the Harvard Graduate School of Design Alumni Council. The first two events, Transformations at the Intersection of Equity, Climate Change, and Health and Homelessness: Ethics/Policy/Action have attracted thousands of attendees from across the globe.

Design Impact Vol. 3: South Asia – Design Agency & Climate Change examines the understanding of design and development as applied or framed in the South Asian context with a particular emphasis on equity and socio-economic development. The event is organized into two panels presenting diverse voices followed by a moderated discussion and an audience question and answer session.

The first panel, Global Orientations and Local Perspectives will unravel the depth of enquiry and the degree of success in balancing global orientations and local practices in multiple South Asian cities. The second panel, Climate Migration in South Asia will bring forth perspectives on climate migration in South Asia as a trigger to other forms of migration and the need for transformation and innovation in humanitarian response.

Panelists

• Aditi Agarwal MDes ’20, Computational Designer, based in Atlanta, GA
• Ambika Malhotra MAUD ’20, Architect and Urban Designer, based in Delhi, India
• Rohit Manudhane MDes ’10, Architect and Lighting Expert, based in Mumbai, India
• Alpa Nawre, MLAUD ’11, Landscape Architect, Architect & Urbanist, based in Gainesville, FL

Session 1: Global Orientations and Local Perspectives / 10:40 – 11:55 PM EST (Feb 24)

Theoretical underpinnings and practice in South Asia have been typically viewed as derivatives of the Global North. With increased scholarship on localized knowledge, and the need to engage with unique constraints, urban practices can no longer be merely defined in terms of appropriating global discourses. This panel examines pressing questions of geo-political agendas, unbridled urbanization, and thematic prerogatives in the design discourse through the lens of diverse stakeholders in the South Asian development landscape.

​Session Curator: Seetha Raghupathy, CEO Seagull Studio, Architect and Urban Designer, based in Chennai, India
Session Moderator: Naksha Satish, Master of Architecture in Urban Design 2022, Harvard University, Architect and Urban Practitioner, based in Bangalore, India

Panelists

• Kenichi Yokoyama, Director General of Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) South Asia Department, based in the Philippines
• Arif Hasan, Architect and Planner, based in Karachi, Pakistan
• Khaleed Ashraf, Architect, Architectural Historian and Critic, based in Dhaka, Bangladesh
• Iromi Perera, Researcher and Activist, based in Sri Lanka
• Krishnan Saranyan, Additional Chief Secretary, Finance; Managing Director of the New Tirupur Area Development Corporation Limited, based in Chennai, India

Session 2: Climate Migration in South Asia / 12:00 – 1:15 AM EST (Feb 25)

Climate change-induced displacement is a grim reality for South Asia’s densely populated regions. The problem is one of both time and scale. It extends beyond the local to impact people globally, as migration is not just an internal challenge but also impacts cross-border relations. This panel presents experts from diverse fields who will talk about the transformation necessary in international governance, policy, finance, and design to mitigate challenges that may leave the most vulnerable, helpless.

Session Curator & Moderator: Nupur Gurjar, Harvard University, MDE ’21, Designer, Architect, based in Cambridge, MA
Session Keynote: Ms. Licypriya Kangujam, 9-Year-Old Climate Activist & Founder, The Child Movement

Panelists

• Abhas Jha, Practice Manager, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management (South Asia Region), The World Bank
• Runa Khan, Founder & Executive Director, Friendship NGO, Bangladesh
• Kashif Majeed Salik, Associate Research fellow at Sustainable Development Policy Institute, based in Islamabad, Pakistan
• Sudipta Kumar, Badapanda ActionAid, based in Afghanistan
• Pasang Dolma Sherpa, CIPRED, based in Nepal

Design Impact Series: Transformation at the Intersection of Equity, Climate Change and Health

Design Impact is a global design leadership speaker series sponsored by the Harvard Graduate School of Design Alumni Council. These virtual events bring together outstanding rosters of global leaders to share their work and vision, challenging us as a global community to use design as a tool for actionable, transformative change and healing.

Sessions

Session 1: Slum Upgrading and the City: Policies, Design and Transformation

Slum Upgrading and the Right to the City: Policies, Design and Transformation will be the first of a three panels series revolving around the urgent need and impact of design across disciplines, scales, and geographies. This session would look at slum upgrading and what policy makers, planners and designers should be mindful of and how to work with communities to tackle the inequities in our cities which were laid bare by COVID-19. This last crisis add up to the increasing frequency and severity of disasters produced by climate change, and the systemic racial, religious and economic discrimination that plagues cities.

​Event Curator: Sameh Wahba, Global Director for the World Bank’s Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience and Land Global Practice
Event Moderator: Francisco Brown, Research Affiliate at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Panelists:

• Sheela Patel, Director of the Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC), Chairperson, Slum/Shack Dweller International (SDI), based in Mumbai, India.
• Jorge Mario Jauregui (Argentina/Rio de Janeiro), Architect and Urban Planner “The Favela-Bairro Program,” based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Bio
• Inês Magalhães, Former National Housing Secretary and Minister of Cities, Senior Housing Expert, Based in Sao Paulo, Brazil
• Jennifer Musisi, Former Executive Director of Kampala City, City Leader in Residence, Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, based in Cambridge, MA
• Anacláudia Rossbach, Regional Manager for the Latin America and Caribbean Region, Cities Alliance, based in Mexico City.
• Sameh Wahba, Global Director for the World Bank’s Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience and Land Global Practice based in Washington D.C.

Session 2: Regenerative Design for Radical Sustainability

After two decades of global initiatives and efforts to promote Green building strategies, the design and construction industry is still largely responsible for resource depletion and environmental degradation worldwide. The Regenerative Design for Radical Sustainability panel explores alternative design strategies that enhance and regenerate our natural capital. Thought leaders and practitioners will share ideas and practical insights, promoting the design of environments that can coexist harmoniously with the vast richness and beauty of our planet. Speakers will inspire design leaders to take action in their practices and communities towards alternative design processes that can help reverse environmental damage.

Event Curator: Jaya Kader, Founding Principal of KZ architecture, born in Costa Rica and based in Miami. Sustainability advocate.
Event Moderator: Aditi Agarwal, Research Associate, Harvard Graduate School of Design. Building Scientist and Researcher.

Panelists: ​

• Edward Müller, Founder of University for International Cooperation, based in Costa Rica (Environmentalist, regenerative design advocate).
• Susan Jones, Founder of AtelierJones, based in Seattle (Architect, leader in alternative sustainable practices).
• Hitesh Mehta, An eco-landscape architect, eco-architect, and environmental planner. Founder of HM Design, born in Nairobi and based in Ft Lauderdale (Leader and pioneer in sustainable tourism design).
• Ivan Shumkov, Founder of Build Academy and Principal of ISA – Ivan Shumkov Architects , based in New York.
• Maren Costa, Founding member, Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, based in Seattle (Advocate for the Environment, Founding Member and Leader for Amazon employees for Climate Justice).
• Alnoor Ladha, Founder of Brave Earth, based in Costa Rica (activist, alternative community building).

Session 3: Design Equity: The Revolution Will Be Designed

There has been continual philosophization about whether design can alleviate civilization’s collective offenses against humanity and the environment. Simply, Yes, it can. The question is, How do we do it equitably? To answer, we must confront the impediments to non-discriminatory ways of living worldwide and interrogate how design can be utilized to realize universal justice in the 21st century.

​Event Curator: Courtney D. Sharpe, former Director of Cultural Planning for the City of Boston, current MBA Candidate at MIT Sloan School of Management
Event Moderator: Naksha Satish, GSD MAUD 2022, Architect and Urban Practitioner

​Panelists:

• Jacquelyn Iyamah, User Experience Designer, Based in the Bay Area, California. Activist and social media maven addressing anti-Black racism through design.
• Cheryl D. Miller, Founder of Cheryl D Miller Design, the corporate communications design firm that defined the civil rights era. Based in New York, NY.
• Jefa Greenaway, RAIA MDIA (Wailwan|Kamilaroi) Knowledge Broker | Lecturer – Indigenous Curriculum Development, University of Melbourne, Australia.
• Anne Quito, Journalist and Design Critic. Based in New York, NY.
• Bryan C. Lee Jr, Artist, Educator, Architect and Design Justice Advocate. Founder of Colloqate. Based in New Orleans, LA.

RealityxDesign

Event Description

RealityxDesign , the ninth annual conference from HarvardxDesign, will be hosted virtually 10:30am-4:30pm ET on Sunday, February 28,  2021. Now more than ever, we live our daily lives through not just one but multiple and blended realities. Design plays a critical role in helping us confront our lived realities, escape them, and then construct new, better ones. Together with a multidisciplinary panel of artists, curators, architects, and thinkers, we will explore exciting examples of designers who play with notions of reality, and discuss the roles and responsibilities they take on in doing so.

HarvardxDesign is an annual conference, launched in 2012, that brings together over 500 creative thinkers, design luminaries, and students each year to celebrate the impact of design across scales and sectors. It is a student-run event organized by student clubs at the Harvard Business School and the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Speakers

Speaker highlights for the xDesign conference include interdisciplinary leaders and designers including but not limited to:

Shelby Jiggetts-Tivony – VP of Creative at Disney Parks at Disney Imagineering

Sofie Anderson – Head of Digital, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Michaela Kane – Head of social branding at immersive art exhibition Teamlab

Jason Napolitano – Speculative Designer, former Experience Design Director at McKinsey Design

Alexandre de Betak – Founder of Bureau Betak , fashion show production and design

Jane Gormley – Design for America  WashU strategic planning

Lee Moreau – Design Lecturer at MIT , former VP of Design at Continuum

Sheng-Hung Lee – Vice-Chair at Industrial Design Society of America  Boston Chapter, former designer at IDEO

How to Join

Tickets and more information about the conference can be found at realityxdesign.com .

To learn more about the speakers and get updates on conference panels, please follow us on social media:

On IG: @harvardxdesign

On FB: HarvardxDesign

 

Design Impact Series: Straight-Up Talk: Homelessness: Ethics/Policy/Action

This event will be the second installment in a broader series of virtual symposia being organized by the Harvard Graduate School of Design Alumni Council . The first event, Design Impact: Transformations at the Intersection of Equity, Climate Change, and Health, attracted over 800 attendees from more than 50 countries.

Design Impact Vol. 2: Straight-Up Talk: Homelessness – Ethics / Policy / Action will be a direct, real-talk dialogue on homelessness in the United States that explores the myriad causes of rising homelessness and innovative solutions to eradicate it. It will consist of 3 distinct panels followed by a summary dialogue. The panels will be prefaced by keynote remarks from Binyamin Appelbaum, lead writer on business and economics for the Editorial Board of The New York Times.

Event Curators

Alice Kimm MArch ’90, Principal, John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects, Director, Open Source Homelessness Initiative (OSHI), based in Los Angeles, CA
John Friedman MArch ’90, Principal, John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects, Chairperson of the Board, Open Source Homelessness Initiative (OSHI), based in Los Angeles, CA

Session 1 – Ethics: Is Housing a (Universal) Human Right? / 11:00 – 12:25 EST

The first panel, “Ethics: Is Housing a (Universal) Human Right?” will probe the cultural, historical, and socio-political causes of homelessness in the United States, as well as the moral and ethical question of who bears ultimate responsibility for providing housing in this country.

Denise Ghartey JD ’19, Justice Catalyst Fellow and Attorney with the Community Justice Project
Michael Lehrer MArch ’78, Founding Partner, Lehrer Architects
Richard Sennett PhD ’69, Chair, United Nations Habitat Urban Initiatives Group
Leilani Farha, Former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing, Global Director of The Shift
Binyamin Appelbaum, Lead Writer on business and economics for the Editorial Board of The New York Times

Session 2 – Policy: What’s the Problem? / 12:30 – 1:35 EST

The second panel, “Policy: What’s the Problem?” will clarify homelessness politics and policy, focusing on how to advance a new national will committed to providing affordable homes for all individuals.

Sam Greenberg  AB ’14, co-founder of Y2Y Harvard Square
Shaun Donovan AB ’87, MArch ’95, MPA ’95, New York City Mayoral Candidate, Former Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Nithya Raman AB ’02, Councilmember-elect, LA City Council District 4
Angela Howard, Senior Vice President, Real Estate and Facilities, Covenant House
Hanan Scrapper, Regional Director of PATH San Diego
Heidi Marston, Executive Director, Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA)

Session 3 – Action: Accelerating Implementation / 1:40 – 2:45 EST

The third panel, “Action: Accelerating Implementation” will explore a range of housing and other innovative solutions designed to help eradicate homelessness in the United States and abroad.

Kofi Akakpo MArch ’21, Co-Chair of Africa GSD
Rosanne Haggerty, Founder of Common Ground Community and Community Solutions
Claire Elizabeth Williams, Co-Founder & CEO, Foundations for Social Change
Sam Klein AB ’99, Co-Founder of Underlay, a project of Knowledge Futures Group
Kevin Hirai AMDP ’18, Chief Operating Officer of FlyawayHomes

CANCELLED – Landscape as Urbanism in the Americas

Over the past quarter century landscape has been claimed as model and medium for the contemporary city. During this time a range of alternative architectural and urban practices have emerged across Latin America. Many of these practices explore the ecological and territorial implications for the urban project.

The emergence of these practices has coincided with societal and political transformations in many countries across the region. Landscape as Urbanism in the Americas convenes a series of conversations on the potentials for landscape as a medium of urban intervention in the specific social, cultural, economic, and ecological contexts of Latin American cities.

 

Schedule

Friday, March 27,
06:30 PM – 08:00 PM, Piper Auditorium

06:30  Welcome remarks by Anita Berrizbeitia and Brian Farrell

06:45  Introductions by Charles Waldheim

07:00  Ciro Najle

07:20  Fernando Viegas

07:40  Response by Jeannette Sordi

08:00  Reception hosted by LatinGSD

 

Saturday 28 March
09:00 AM – 02:30 PM, Piper Auditorium

09:15  Introduction by Charles Waldheim

09:30  Luis Callejas

09:50  Alessandra Ponte

10:10  Response by Sergio Lopez-Pineiro

10:20  Coffee Break

10:30  Romy Hecht

10:50  Iñaki Echeverria

11:10  Response by Pablo Pérez-Ramos

11:20  Manuel Gausa

11:40  Elena Tudela

12:00  Response by Mercedes Peralta

12:10  Lunch Break

01:20   Remarks by Florencia Rodriguez

01:30  Alfredo Ramirez

01:50  Ana María Duran

02:10  Response by Felipe Vera

02:20  Conclusions by Jeannette Sordi and Mercedes Peralta

 

Convened by

Charles Waldheim, Harvard GSD

Christina Burkot, OFU, Harvard GSD

Mercedes Peralta, OFU, Harvard GSD

Marcela Ramos, Arts@DRCLAS

Jeannette Sordi, OFU, UAI

David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS)

MDes, Urbanism, Landscape, and Ecology

LatinGSD

SpainGSD

 

Participants

Anita Berrizbeitia, Harvard GSD

Ana Maria Duran Calisto, UCLA-PUCE-YALE

Luis Callejas, LCLA Office, AHO

Iñaki Echeverria, UPenn

Brian Farrell, DRCLAS

Manuel Gausa, University of Genoa

Romy Hecht, PUC

Ciro Najle, Universidad Torcuato di Tella

Mercedes Peralta, Harvard GSD

Pablo Pérez-Ramos, Harvard GSD

Sergio Lopez-Pineiro, Harvard GSD

Alessandra Ponte, Université de Montreal

Alfredo Ramirez, AA, GroundLab

Marcela Ramos, ARTS@DRCLAS

Florencia Rodriguez, -NESS, Loeb Fellow ‘14

Jeannette Sordi, UAI

Elena Tudela, UNAM

Felipe Vera, UAI, IDB

Fernando Viegas, Escola da Cidade

Charles Waldheim, Harvard GSD

 

For more information please contact Christina Burkot.

Cancelled – Harvard Real Estate Weekend 2020

This event has been cancelled. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

The Harvard Real Estate Weekend serves as a leading forum that brings together leaders from both the public and private sectors including investors, operators, developers, designers, technologists, and entrepreneurs with experts from academia to discuss the most pressing issues and developments within the industry. By bridging the gap between academia and practice and engaging in thoughtful conversations about the current state of the market, the event aims to deepen our understanding of current trends and issues and constructively speculate on potential theses for the future. Past speakers at the Harvard Real Estate Weekend have come from organizations including, but not limited to, the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the Boston Planning & Development Agency, the Blackstone Group, Brookfield Properties, Citizen Hotels, Google, Hines, Marriott International, Starwood Capital Group, Tishman Speyer, Turner Construction, and Vornado Realty Trust. We believe that the Weekend could provide an opportunity to engage with a broader network of passionate students and accomplished professionals.

 

This year, our theme is RE_Construct and the conference will include

• 3 Keynotes and 7-8 unique panels
• Networking and recruitment opportunities
• The Annual Real Estate Venture Competition
• Local Trek

Tickets are now available at https://lnkd.in/ea5FKrc . For more information please visit the event website . We look forward to seeing you on March 7th and 8th, 2020.

 

SCHEDULE

Sat March 07
Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Gund Hall

9:00-12:00 Tours of Boston Area Real Estate Projects (Breakfast Provided)

12:00-1:30 Keynote 1: Lacy I. Rice

1:45-2:45 Panel 1: Response to Disruptors in Real Estate

2:45-3:15 Coffee Break

3:15-4:15 Panel 2: Navigating an Entrepreneurial Journey in Real Estate

4:30-5:30 Panel 3: Beyond Opportunity Zone

5:45-7:00 Keynote 2: Michael Jaffe

7:00 Cocktail Mixer

8:00 VIP Dinner

 

Sun Mar 08
Harvard Business School, Klarman Hall

8:30-9:00 Registration / Breakfast

9:00-10:00 Panel 4: Real Estate Investments

10:15-11:15 Panel 5: Housing Within Reach

11:30-12:00 Lunch

12:00-1:15 Keynote 3: Bill Maddux

1:30-2:30 Panel 6: Placemaking

2:45-3:45 Panel 7: Real Estate Technology

3:45 Closing Remarks / Reception

CANCELLED – Thresholds: Design and Science

This event has been cancelled. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

 

Science and design are often thought to represent opposite mindsets of analysis versus conjecture, of explanatory versus disruptive modes of thinking. Audacious, provocative, and unconventional work emerges when we cross the traditional disciplinary divide between science and design. The March 2020 conference assembles thought leaders from both areas who interrogate the space in between through their work. The sessions – thematically aligned with the human senses – present a multitude of approaches, methods, and techniques that transcend the disciplinary focus. Conceived as an open forum for exploration and discussion, the conference is co-hosted by faculty from the Graduate School of Design and the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. The projects and explorations featured range from fashion to material science, from perfume creation to building science, and from cooking to cognitive science.

Please note that the conference will take place at the Knafel Center at Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study,  10 Garden Street, Cambridge.

 

PARTICIPANTS

Jeronimo Beccar, Co-founder and CEO of Hyka Therapeutics

Matheus Fernandes, Applied Math Ph.D. candidate at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences ,

Benjamin Markham, Director, Architectural Acoustics Group

Olga Mesa, Research Associate in the Material Processes and Systems Group (MaP+S) at the Harvard Graduate School of Design,

Saurabh Mhatre, Research Associate in the Material Processes and Systems Group (MaP+S) at the Harvard Graduate School of Design,

Dr. Mary Tolikas, Executive Director of the Wyss Center

Pia Sorenson, Senior Preceptor in Chemical Engineering and Applied Materials at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

 

GSD Virtual Reunion 2020

Alumni with graduation years ending in 0s and 5s are invited to celebrate their GSD Reunion, virtually!

Don’t miss this opportunity to reconnect with fellow alumni, see how they are handling design and professional issues in these unprecedented times, and learn how the GSD is preparing students to take on the challenges of this ever-changing world.

View recordings from faculty mini-courses.

Details

Virtual programming will take place on Saturday, September 26, from 2:00-6:00 pm ET
+ infinite opportunities to engage in the weeks before and after Reunion on Cadence, the online event platform

Program Updates

On the 26th – you’ll hear updates from the School directly from Sarah M. Whiting, Dean and Josep Lluís Sert Professor of Architecture. We’re also offering mini-courses with GSD alumni faculty, giving a sense of recent courses offered at the GSD and a peek at how students are experiencing virtual learning today:

Jennifer Bonner MArch ’09 and Hanif Kara – Mass Timber and the Scandinavian Effect
Jose Castillo MArch ’95, DDes ’00 – Housing in Mexico: a Multi-Year Exploration
Danielle Choi MLA ’08 – The Environmental History of Interior Landscapes
Gary Hilderbrand MLA ’85 – Adrift and Indeterminate: Designing for Perpetual Migration on Virginia’s Eastern Shore
+ Look Back, Look Forward: Alumni Reflections on the Design Professions with David Rubin MLA ’90, Frank Ruchala Jr. MArch ’05, MUP ’05, Eric Shaw MUP ’00, and Kristina Yu MArch ’95

Click here  to update your contact info in the Harvard Alumni Directory. Haven’t claimed your Harvard Key? Click here  to get started. 

Black in Design 2019: Black Futurism: Creating a More Equitable Future

Black in Design 2017

The Black in Design Conference, organized by the Harvard University Graduate School of Design African American Student Union (GSD AASU) recognizes the contributions of the African diaspora to the design fields and promotes discourse around the agency of the design profession to address and dismantle the institutional barriers faced by our communities.

Building upon the Black in Design Conference in 2015, we are framing the upcoming conference across the forms of design, to unearth our agency as designers to envision more radical and equitable futures. We revealed the boundless capacity and power of a network of black and brown designers that we intend to grow through the 2017 Black in Design Conference: Designing Resistance, Building Coalitions.

While the political climate we face today is tenuous, the forces of systemic injustice are not new. We will explore design as resistance and show how designers are advocates and activists. We will highlight the contributions made by leaders across nontraditional fields in creating spaces for actions and representations of resistance. Through this exploration, we will broaden the definition of design, understanding it through the lens of these visionaries in their work.

Design is activism

Design is coalition building