@harvardgsd

"(e)motion library" by Nashra Balagamwala @nashrabalagamwala (MDes ADPD '21) and Mengfei Wang @mengfei_wan (MDes ADPD '20). Completed for the seminar "Making Participation Relevant to Design," fall 2019. Instructor: Belinda Tato @belindatato. ⁣ ⁣ "'(e)motion library' is a platform that allows participants to playfully, artistically, and anonymously share their mental health concerns. Users can choose one of the many styles available on the platform, going from slightly anonymous, to completely obscure. Through built-in software, '(e)motion library' changes participants' voices and faces, allowing them to anonymously share their truth. Users are also given access to resources in their area, easily allowing them to book appointments with mental health professionals, or find support groups. '(e)motion library' is a virtual mental world, aimed at alleviating feelings of isolation and destigmatizing mental illnesses." 🔗Learn more hgsd.us/projects⁣⁣⁣ --⁣ Video shows various ways "(e)motion library" can augment a participant's face. --⁣⁣⁣ @harvardadpd

Today is our Core I Jump Cut review, so we are looking back at Min Sung Kim's @m.i.n.s.u.n.g.k.i.m (MArch I '23) project design from last fall. Studio Instructor: Elle Gerdemann @ellegerdemann. The assignment asks for the interpretation and reinvention of a building from seemingly incompatible section drawings. ⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣ "This project creates a continuity between the two sections in plan, using four loops that can accommodate discrepancies and generate heterogeneity. The loose figures of four loops resemble one another, generate continuity by tangency, and accommodate discrepancy in programmatic organization. The tangency of the box to the looping figures allows for peeling without breaking the continuous surface that binds the misaligned floor levels. The figures being a two dimensional shape inherits a level of freedom to create a collage of conditions, such as a circulation space, a single room, or a series of rooms that composes a sub-residence. The figure as a generative diagram liberates architecture from a singular space making strategy and allow for the jump from one paradigm to another within one snapshot."⁣⁣⁣🔗Learn more hgsd.us/projects⁣⁣⁣⁣ --⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣

to one of the many comfortable (?) spots around Gund Hall that @remy.the.harvard.cat found to get some shut-eye. 📸: @ciarastein via @good_ol_gund. --

"String-pieced Columns" by Cecilia Huber @ceciliahuber (MLA '20). Completed for the option studio "Public Figure/Private Ground: Redevelopment of the @FBI Site in Washington, D.C.," spring 2020. Studio Instructor: Thomas Luebke. ⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ "When Andrew Jackson Downing submitted his plans for the National Mall to President Fillmore in 1851 he wrote that the people of Washington D.C. would benefit from 'a public museum of living trees and shrubs' displaying plants native to the region. Though Downing's Victorian plan for an arboretum as a public park was never realized, it was the first in a series of designs for public space in the city by landscape architects that used the urban forest as a way to designate the public realm. In the spirit of past urban forest proposals for Washington D.C. by Downing, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., and Dan Kiley, this project reimagines the FBI site as a public pavilion and commons. This new space, one of the largest civic gathering spaces in the city, is not an arboretum, but rather an informal collection of past and future urban trees that define the city’s public character.⁣ ⁣ The site design was inspired by quilting and the women's work that built D.C. in the years after emancipation. Accordingly, the site is organized in two directions. The first follows a gridded extension of the triple allée on Pennsylvania Avenue designed by Kiley in the 1960s. The second follows a patchwork of states of water through mist, runnels, wetlands, and a basin that allude to the site's historical hydrology. The pavilion, which serves as a marketplace and exhibition space, maintains the alignment of the former FBI building on Pennsylvania Avenue. The final element is a master plan for downtown D.C. that connects Franklin Square to the commons by a meandering walk through the city, abstracting the former alignment of Goose creek and inverting the proportions of the public figure in downtown." 🔗Learn more hgsd.us/projects⁣⁣⁣⁣ --⁣ @gsd_mla

"Land Grabs and Land Grants: Social Forestry as New Governmentality in West Kalimantan, Indonesia" by Ziwei Zhang @z.zo_wie (MLA '17/ MDes ULE '20). Design Studies Thesis, spring 2020. Faculty Advisor: Sai Balakrishnan.⁣ ⁣ ⁣⁣ "This thesis focuses on social forestry as a model of community development and democratic invention in Indonesia by interrogating its formation, formulation, and implementation. First, I reposition social forestry in the history of the democracy movement in Indonesia to explore in depth by whom, how, and why spaces for participation and decentralization are being opened and filled. Second, I argue that in the current political and legal space, social forestry, while notionally 'empowering' local communities, has also enabled depoliticization of the previous radical, anti-capitalist, and anti-palm oil civil movements. Third, I aim to call attention to the land politics in the proximity of extractive and conservative land use, as well as in the planning institution that institutionalizes insurgent civil movements." 🔗Learn more hgsd.us/projects⁣⁣ --⁣ Images show (1) three villages located next to both extractive land use and conservation land use in West Kalimantan and (2) a map of forest concession across Indonesia.⁣ --⁣⁣⁣

A little modeling from home on a beautiful autumn day with Barbara Miglietti @bmiglietti (MArch II '21) for the option studio "Aemulatio," fall 2020 🍂 Instructor: Job Floris @monadnock.architects. Swipe to see the further along.⁣ ⁣ "The Renaissance period brings the idea of , expressing the challenge to creatively imitate famous examples instead of inventing new themes. Imitation was the basic rule, an attitude which covered most of the arts, finding expression in different ways: translatio (translate), imitatio (creative editing) or aemulatio (surpass). Every architectural example, classic or contemporary, could be copied as it was considered to be an honor when others varied in one’s work. In accomplishing this, an architect had to know the conventions (rules, regulations) of different architectural expressions, tools, and elements. During this studio, we will work along this principle of aemulatio." 🔗Read the full course description on our website hgsd.us/STU-1305-20⁣ --⁣⁣ [Image 1 Video Description: Timelapse showing the process of building an architectural model from a home desk as colored leaves reflect fall light through the window.]⁣⁣ --⁣⁣

Did you catch the recent option studio "Mass Timber and the Scandinavian Effect" in the September 2020 issue of @metropolismag? Led by Jennifer Bonner @jbonn90057 and Hanif Kara @hanif.kara @akt_ii with TA Nelson Byun @nelsonbyun, the studio challenged students to design a single family house and mid-rise tower out of 9-by-50-foot cross-laminated timber (CLT) blanks (large structural sheets). Browse all the designs: @gsdmasstimber.⁣ ⁣ "The students produced projects that were intrepid demonstrations of CLT’s resilience after being splintered from these blanks, which are 'a sheet material that can do anything,' says Bonner, who used a similar process to create pieces of CLT for her own mass timber tour de force, Haus Gables in Atlanta," writes Zach Mortice @zachmortice. Read the full article via @metropolismag .⁣ -- Student work by Edgar Rodriguez (MArch II '20) @edgararl, Calvin Boyd @calvinray_boyd (MArch I '21), Anna Kaertner @annakrtnr (MArch I '21), Edward Han Myo @edhanmyooo (MArch I '21), Benson Chien @benchien (MArch II '21), Kyat Chin @kyatchin (MArch II '21), Daniel Garcia @_danielalexis_ (MArch II '20), Alejandro Saldarriaga @saldarriagaalejandro (MArch II '22), Aryan Khalighy @aryankhalighy (MArch I '21), Peeraya Suphasidh @anothershore (MArch II '20), Anna Goga @gogaanna (MArch II '20), Hiroshi Kaneko @rhkaneko (MArch II/MDes HPDM '21), Ian Grohsgal, Elif Erez @elif.erez (MArch '22), and @ian_grohsgal (MArch I '21). --⁣

"downlifting" by Erik Fichter @erik.fichter (MArch I AP '22). Completed for "Third Semester Core: INTEGRATE," fall 2019. Studio Instructor: Jon Lott @jon.lott. ⁣⁣ ⁣ "'downlifting' addresses urban densification, instantiating the relationship between existing and new. The project serves the structural integrity of the existing and its resulting perception: two actors tangle their gravitational ambition, which results in the dissolution of their hierarchy.⁣ ⁣ First, a new compression structure is situated in the atrium of the existing building, occasioning minimal structural conflicts with the existing structure. Second, a tension structure wraps the extension around the existing to reinforce the small footprint of the central structure. 'downlifting' is an attempt to link pragmatism with surrealism.⁣ ⁣ The design proposes an extension building for @nyuniversity on top of the existing in Manhattan. The extension comprises a design school with public amenities, private design studios, faculty and fabrication spaces; a total of 280,000 sf. It consists of heavy blocks that contain the required amenities and are wrapped by a curtain facade. The spaces in between the blocks are imagined to be open to experimentation to all students, just like the roof-space between the old and new building is intended to be a public park for students and exhibitions. Both heavy and light materialities together with the tensile structure enable readings of counterbalancing program blocks. Equally the existing library in relation to the addition enhances an ambiguous reading of 'downlifting.'" 🔗Learn more hgsd.us/projects⁣⁣⁣ --⁣⁣⁣⁣ [Image 3 Video Description: Animated gif of tethered rock floating above and being pulled back down towards building model.] --

This check out the latest episode from @aadn_gsd's featuring an interview with Dr. Michelle Joan Wilkinson @MJinthemix (@loebfellows '20), curator at the National Museum of African American History and Culture @nmaahc.⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣ Dr. Wilkinson and hosts Caleb Negash @africaleb and Tara Oluwafemi @tara_ola take a deep dive into Terry Boddie's @3rdeyevision365 "Blueprint" (2001) as a lens into systems of power embedded in architectural design and the historical ties between visual representation and histories of subjugation. Along the way they discuss Dr. Wilkinson's earliest encounters with art and art history, her personal experiences documenting diasporic Black architectural heritage, and the importance of recording and preserving Black oral histories. The show also features an exciting behind-the-scenes look at Dr. Wilkinson's process of curating collections around Black architects and architectural history at the Smithsonian and beyond.⁣ Listen and wherever you get your podcasts.⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣ Developed by the African American Design Nexus at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, The Nexus is a podcast that explores the intersection of design, identity, and practice through conversations with Black designers, writers, and educators. The Nexus is produced in conjunction with a commitment by the to acquire and create an open-access bibliography of various media suggested by the GSD community on the intersection between race and design. It is hosted by Master in Architecture students Caleb Negash and Tara Oluwafemi.⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ --⁣⁣⁣⁣ Image: "Blueprint" (2001) by Terry Boddie, Gelatin silver emulsion, iron blue toner on paper / Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.⁣⁣⁣⁣ --⁣⁣⁣⁣

by Sophie Mattinson @sophaloafers (MLA I '22) for Landscape Architecture Core III, "From Off-Shoring to Near Shore: Littoral Landscapes at Work," fall 2020. Studio Instructor: Paola Sturla. thanks to @gsd_mla.⁣ ⁣ This studio will imagine alternative futures—in situ and ex situ—for productive landscapes in Massachusetts sited in coastal areas of chronic risk. The complex environmental and social interests of people at work in working landscapes will be explored through design from the regional scale to localized sites.⁣ --⁣

Prototype of an inexpensive CNC machine for distribution to students in "Material Systems: Digital Design and Fabrication," led by Zach Seibold @zseibold and Nathan King, with TA Erin Linsey Hunt @erinlinseyhunt. The kit includes custom parts from the @gsd_fablab.⁣ ⁣ This year's course positions material systems and the numerically controlled machines which manipulate them as a venue for speculative design research. During the first phase of the workshop, students will construct modular, digitally controlled machines at home from a kit. A second phase will focus on the development of a novel material process and will leverage the machines fabricated in the first phase to construct a machine designed to generate a specific material effect.⁣ --⁣ [Video description: Black and white timelapse showing hands (one of which is in a cast) assembling a CNC machine and hooking it up to a computer.]⁣ --⁣ thanks to @zseibold!

with graduation years ending in 0s and 5s: Last call to register for Virtual , happening THIS SATURDAY, September 26 from 2:00-6:00 pm ET 👾 Program highlights include an address from Dean Sarah M. Whiting and mini-courses with GSD faculty Jennifer Bonner @jbonn90057 (MArch ’09) and Hanif Kara @hanif.kara @akt_ii, Gary Hilderbrand @gary.hilderbrand (MLA ’85), Jose Castillo @josecastillo911 (MArch ’95, DDes ’00), and Danielle Choi @danielle_choi (MLA ’08).⁣ ⁣ Plus don't miss the panel "Look Back, Look Forward: Alumni Reflections on the Design Professions," featuring David Rubin @landcollective (MLA '90), Frank Ruchala @fruchala (MArch/ MUP '05), Eric Shaw @eshawucla (MUP '00), and Kristina Yu @mcclain_yu_arch (MArch '95).⁣ ⁣ Find more details and register at groundedvisionaries.org/events/gsd-reunion-2020/ ⁣ --⁣ 📸: Archival photo from the 2000s. Part of at the .⁣⁣ --⁣