Topic Social Equity

News

Wang Shus architecture of change in China

Wang Shu starts his day reading 17th C poetry and writing Chinese calligraphy. The first Chinese architect to win the Pritzker prize spent the last couple of years at the GSD and is showing China the way to bring the traditional in harmony with the modern.

Aug 19, 2012

exhibition

Participation: Empowerment in Practice

Traditionally, decisions about design and planning have incorporated limited public input. This top-down process has been questioned at various times in the twentieth century through alternative participatory strategies. But the promise of participation has not been realized at a large scale. Now, at the beginning…

exhibition dates: APR 19 – JUL 24, 2012

Michael Hooper, Curator

News

Michael Hooper writes on slum dweller mobilization in Environment and Urbanization

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. 

Apr 30, 2012

News

Article by Dan Weissman (MDesS ’12) on [Re]Building Port-au-Prince

An article by Dan Weissman (MDesS '12) on his experiences in Haiti was published in Gobal Post. Since February 2011 he has been involved in a series of reconstruction projects that are a collaboration between the GSD, MIT’s School of Architecture and Urban Planning, and various NGOs, government agencies and corporate entities throughout the Port-au-Prince region. Over the course of six trips to the city, the team continues to engage in projects ranging from small architecture and urban design to macro-scale territorial planning, water and landscape management projects. 

Apr 16, 2012

News

Michael Murphy (MArch ’11) and Alan Ricks (MArch ’10) of MASS Design Group named 2012 Contract Designers of the Year

Contract named Michael Murphy (MArch '11) and Alan Ricks (MArch '10) of MASS Design Group as the 2012 Designer of the Year. With design and healthcare projects in Rwanda and Haiti, MASS thinks big and executes. And it is on a trajectory to continue designing for dignity, to improve people’s lives through design, and to be a primary example for how designers can rethink their role in a world of increasingly global impact. A full report from Contract, including a number of MASS Design Group's projects and a glimpse into their philosophy in video is featured on their website.

Mar 4, 2012