The theory section of the Buenos Aires-based PLOT magazine featured the South America Project (SAP) in its most recent issue. The magazine presents an overview of the SAP conference held at the GSD last October, and highlights the work in progress of the research network.
In a recent interview with India Ink, a New York Times blog, Professor Rahul Mehrotra discusses the rise of “parasitic” gated communities in India’s cities, and the need for planning experts in its smaller towns. Read the full interview.
Cooper-Hewitt Director Bill Moggridge announced the winners of the 2012 National Design Awards. Among the recipients are GSD faculty Mack Scogin and Chris Reed.
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.
An extended feature in Harvard Magazine on Professor Rahul Mehrotra (MArch '87) describes his work in Hyderabad, between the historic town that developed from the 14th century hilltop fort built by Hindu rulers, and HITEC City (Hyderabad Information Technology Engineering Consultancy) with towering office buildings and high-rise apartment towers. Mehrotra's Mumbai-based firm, RMA, endeavors to "soften thresholds" between these different sectors of society, building for a new India while conserving its past. The article by Elizabeth Gudrais traces the firm's evolution, Mehrotra's design methodology, and the context of Hyderabad.
SsD, the firm led by Jinhee Park (Design Critic in Architecture) and John Hong (Adjunct Associate Professor) won four AIA awards for recent work: The White Block Gallery, featured in Metropolis Magazine, won both a regional AIA New England Design Award as well as an Honor Award for Design Excellence from the Boston Society of Architects (BSA). 8 Towers, part of the Ordos 100 project, andIsland of Water, a landscape urbanism project in Incheon, Korea both won BSA Unbuilt Architecture Awards with the latter project taking the highest Honor Award in that category.
Professor Eric Höweler and his firm Höweler + Yoon Architecture won an Annual Design Award from Architect Magazine and a Boston Society of Architects Honor Award for their project Chengdu Sky Courts. The firm has been invited to participate in the Audi Urban Futures Initiative 2012, a year long research project that speculates on the future of cities and mobility. Having recently completed the Boston Society of Architects headquarters BSA Space, the project has been published in Architectural Record, Domus, The Architect's Newspaper and Architecture Boston.
A joint team representing the GSD and University of Colorado won first prize in the ULI/Gerald Hines Urban Design Competition for their proposal, "Bayou Commons." The master plan was strategically designed to be downtown Houston’s first residential district celebrating cultural diversity and urban lifestyle. The team consisted of three students from Harvard University (Michael Albert, Master of Landscape Architecture, Anna Cawrse, Master of Landscape Architecture and Victor Perez Amado, Master of Architecture I AP + Master of Architecture in Urban Design) and two students from the University of Colorado (Chad Murphy, MBA Real Estate and Alex Atherton, MBA Real Estate).
Felipe Correa, Assistant Professor and Director of the Urban Design Program, will speak at Universidad de la República in Montevideo (Uruguay) on April 13th. His lecture will focus on resource extraction within the South American continent and its effects on current urbanization processes. The lecture will also mark the launch of theSouth America Project Research Workshops to be carried out in Montevideo throughout the next two years.
Over the GSD Spring Break Alex Krieger lectured at six of China's leading architecture and planning schools including Tsinghua University in Beijing, Tonji University in Shanghai, Dongnan University in Nanjing, Xian University, Harbin University, & Tianjin University. Additionally, he addressed the staff of the Planning Bureaus of the cities of Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing and Fuzhou about the importance of urban design. Earlier in March he delivered the Keynote Lecture at the Annual Conference of the Israel Planners Association, on this year's organizing theme of planning large scale urban infrastructure.