In the News
Sophia Sufeng Xiao named Award Winner at 2026 AAG Annual Meeting
Sophia Sufeng Xiao recently received two awards from the Asian Geography Specialty Group (AGSG) of the American Association of Geographers (AAG) at the 2026 AAG Annual Meeting. She received the AGSG Graduate Student Research Fellowship and is a winner of the AGSG Graduate Student Paper Competition.
Sophia was recognized during the Annual Business Meeting and was formally recognized during the AAG Annual Meeting Award Reception on March 20, 2026.
The American Association of Geographers (AAG) is a non-profit scientific and educational society aimed at advancing the understanding, study, and importance of geography and related fields. They provide students, educators, practitioners, and partners with the resources they need to enter the field, develop their careers, and form professional friendships that can last a lifetime. The Asian Geography specialty group was created to promote geographic research and to facilitate teaching the geography of Asia through professional meetings, publications and establishing contacts with Asian geographers, and developing an agenda for research and teaching grants.
Remembering Kongjian Yu (1963–2025)
We are deeply saddened by the news that world-renowned landscape architect Kongjian Yu (DDes ’95), founder of the Beijing-based firm Turenscape and dean and professor at Peking University of Architecture and Landscape, has passed away. Widely lauded for his concept of the “sponge city,” Yu has exerted a strong influence on the GSD, most recently delivering the Sylvester Baxter Lecture in 2023 titled “Adaptation: Political, Cultural, and Ecological Design – My Journey to Heal the Planet.” We offer condolences to Yu’s family, friends, and colleagues. Yu will be greatly missed.
Design Student Film Festival 2026
Aisha Densmore-Bey (DDes ’23) directed the Design Student Film Festival, an event showcasing student voices on art, design, and film. The event fosters accessible design education and the incredible perspectives that students have to share. The festival will took place on April 9-11, 2026, in Boston, MA.
The festival offered screenings at various venues including the famous Coolidge Corner Theater as well as prizes, awards + laurels (Best Documentary, Narrative, Animation, Audience Choice).
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.
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Harnessing AI: GSD Virtual Town Hall Examines Technology’s Role in Teaching, Learning, and Practice
This virtual townhall, sponsored by the Harvard GSD’s Development and Alumni Relations Office, features Dean Whiting and three GSD faculty members addressing pressing questions related to AI, design, and pedagogy.
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Inaugural Experimental Postdoctoral Fellows at the GSD Research Health, Wellness, and Sustainable Materials
The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is pleased to announce the inaugural Experimental Postdoctoral Fellowship for sustainable architecture: Experimental Fellowship—Harvard GSD. Supporting practice-oriented researchers working with the GSD’s Laboratory for Design Technologies (LDT), the year-long fellowship has a thematic focus on health, wellness, and sustainable material systems for buildings, landscapes, and cities. The two […]
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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 this […]
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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 the […]
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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