Oorvi Sharma MArch ’18 Profiled by Guggenheim Abu Dhabi
Oorvi Sharma MArch ’18 has been profiled by the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. A video showcasing her work was released by the Guggenheim Museum’s press channels in August 2023. Additionally, as part of Oorvi’s independent practice, her writing about the environment and material ecologies has been recently published in Disegno Journal (2021), ICON Magazine (2023), SVSA Life Magazine (2023), and Temes De Disseny (2023).
Her latest journal article for Temes De Disseny is titled ‘Radical Territoriality and Temporality: Dilli Chalo and Roadway Occupations in India’ and it investigates entanglements between the hard materiality of infrastructure and the socio-political claims expressed in recent uncivil obedience protests and mobilisations in India.
Follow Oorvi on LinkedIn and Instagram.
posted November, 2023
Zeerak Ahmed MDE ’18 Featured in TIME Magazine
Zeerak Ahmed MDes ’18 was profiled in TIME Magazine following the making of his Matnsaz iOs app, an innovative Urdu keyboard that provides a more refined user experience with the language.
This year, Zeerak has become a member of the GSD’s Alumni Council serving as the first member of the Alumni Council from the Master in Design Engineering program
Follow Zeerak on Instagram and LinkedIn.
posted November, 2023
2022 Forbes 30 Under 30: Honghao Deng MDes ’18
Honghao Deng MDes ’18, with partner Jiani Zeng, was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for their startup Butlr in the Manufacturing & Industry category. Butlr designs and manufactures smart building sensors to make architecture more responsive and understand users’ needs.
“Butlr’s patented technology is now being deployed for fall detection in senior living facilities and to help people age in place.” – Forbes
posted December, 2021
KUROFUNE Design Holdings, Co-Founded by Masamichi Ueta MDes ’18 and Takafumi Inoue MUP ’18, Creates International Student Dormitory “U Share”
Masamichi Ueta MDes ’18, a first-class registered architect in Japan, and Takafumi Inoue, AICP, MUP ’18 co-founded KUROFUNE Design Holdings upon their graduation from GSD in 2018 with the aim of implementing socially meaningful designs and products that contribute to the public. U Share is one of the key businesses that the company has been developing since its foundation.
U Share, an international student dormitory in Japan, attempts to design an optimal living environment that integrates living space and learning space, in which students, the next generation of global talents, can live together.
In the long run, U Share contributes to building a society where diverse people thrive, through nurturing global talents who have a global perspective, respect diversity, and work on solving social problems. These goals will be accomplished by designing an environment where residents can come into contact with diverse people and values, and have the opportunity to “share” their dreams and initiatives on a daily basis.
posted June, 2021
Diane Lipovsky MLA ’10 and Stacy Passmore MLA ’18 Founded Colorado-based Landscape Architecture Practice, Superbloom
Diane Lipovsky MLA ’10 and Stacy Passmore MLA ’18 have joined forces to start the Colorado-based landscape architecture practice, Superbloom. As friends and colleagues at Civitas in Denver, Diane and Stacy discovered they shared a similar passion for the future of landscape architecture in the American West. They founded Superbloom as a commitment to crafting meaningful connections between people and the land through the practice of transformative design. The name of their practice refers to the desert superbloom, and the latent potential for design to create spectacular future natures. Working across scales and on sites from urban landscapes to the dramatic prairie and high alpine forests, their work focuses on collaborative designs for cultural and ecological landscapes.
Follow on Instagram @studiosuperbloom
posted March, 2021
Team of GSD Alumni Selected as Finalists in Urban Confluence Silicon Valley Design Competition
A team of Harvard Graduate School of Design alumni is selected as one of the three finalists in the Urban Confluence Silicon Valley Design Competition held by the San José Light Tower Corporation. The design team named CO-MILIEU includes Qinrong Liu MArch ’20, Ruize Li MArch ’20, Yuting Zhang MAUD ’17, Evelyn Cheng Zeng MArch ’18, Vincent Zishen Wen MLA ’19 and Qiaoqi Dai MLA ’19 along with a lighting design group led by Yutong Jiang MDes ’21 and Sijia Zhong MLA ’21. The goal of the competition is to build an innovative iconic world-class landmark for San Jose and Silicon Valley. With an inverted void tower and blurred pixelated matrix, the team’s proposal, “Nebula Tower,” envisions a soft, dynamic, and adaptive contemporary landmark that works as a nebula incubator for new artistic possibilities and celebrates Silicon Valley’s history of technology innovation. Through the medium of light, Nebula Tower recalls the collective memory of its home to build a bridge between past and future. Inspired by the diverse geographical characters along the bay area, the proposal reimagines the Arena Green as a common ground where the natural realm and urban fabric are enriched by their interaction to embrace the co-living of diversities and utilizes innovative adaptability that can secure a sustainable future for San Jose – culturally, environmentally, and economically.
More information about the “Nebula Tower” proposal and the upcoming public meetings of Urban Confluence Competition are available on the competition website.
posted March, 2021
Firm Headed by Konstantina Tzemou MAUD ’18 Wins First Prize in Design Competition
Konstantina Tzemou MAUD’18 and DEPÓLIS received 1st Prize in the International Competition for the design of Independence Square in Podgorica, Montenegro. The project consists of 40,000 square meters of public and retail space and a parking garage in the center of Montenegro’s capital and is managed by Capital City Podgorica. This prize marks the first international recognition for the firm DEPÓLIS which was launched in September 2020 by Konstantina Tzemou and Tommaso Bernabò Silorata. The team currently operates between Rome, Italy and Athens, Greece.
You can find more information on the proposal for Independence Square and current work at DEPÓLIS on their website.
posted March, 2021
Zeerak Ahmed MDE ’18 Builds on Urdu Keyboard Development Project
Zeerak Ahmed MDE ’18 runs Matnsaz, an initiative to better represent Urdu in technology. Growing on his master’s thesis work of building breakthrough Urdu keyboards for modern smartphones, Zeerak now runs a collaboration across continents and disciplines to build infrastructure for software developers across the world that want to support Urdu and other languages in the Arabic script.
In late 2019, they released Makhzan, an Urdu text corpus. A corpus of text is the fundamental building block used to train artificial intelligence upon which language processing capabilities are built. From autocorrect, to search, and to linguistic analysis, Makhzan will support a diverse set of use cases with a high-quality and free-to-use data source.
With the help of learnings from Makhzan, Zeerak is inching closer to a public beta of his Urdu keyboard. Recent articles in MIT Technology Review Pakistan, and Princeton Alumni Weekly go deeper into the technological and cultural implications of this new technology.
Credit: Michael Raspuzzi
posted April, 2020
AD100 Designer Rodman Primack And Partner Rudy Weissenberg MDes ’18 Reveal Mexico City Residence
From their new home base in Mexico City, Rodman Primack and Rudy Weissenberg MDes ’18 find inspiration in the country’s flourishing design scene.
For 20 years, almost as long as they’ve been a couple, Rodman Primack and Rudy Weissenberg told friends they were thinking of moving to Mexico. They often traveled there, Primack in his role as an auction-house executive and later creative director of the Design Miami fairs, Weissenberg as a television producer, and both fell hard for its relaxed pace and cultural éclat. They built a circle of friends. They started buying from the local art galleries. Still, when they unpacked their boxes in Mexico City this past spring, “everyone was like, ‘WHAT?!?’ ” Weissenberg says. “We discovered there’s a difference between saying you’re moving to Mexico and moving to Mexico.”
They haven’t looked back. The idea, incubated for so long that it slowly evolved with them, was that Mexico City would be a new home base—while they still retained a foothold in New York City—that would give Primack additional headquarters for his thriving interior design–and–fabric business, RP Miller (he took a step back from the fair world in 2019), and give Weissenberg a vantage from which to launch new ventures in enlightened real estate development. “What do you add to New York City nowadays in the design space?” he asks. “Mexico is a place where you can still add something to the story, where you can have an impact.”
posted October, 2019
Harvard GSD Alumni from Puerto Rico Write Letter Protesting Against Land Use and Zoning Board
17 Harvard GSD Alumni from Puerto Rico have assembled as a group to protest the limited civic engagement and transparency in the reviewal process behind the adoption of significant and potentially detrimental changes to the island’s Zoning Maps, led by the Planning Board of Puerto Rico. Together, they wrote an open letter to María del C. Gordillo Pérez, chairwoman of the Planning Board.
The group is made up of the following alumni:
Pedro Manuel Cardona Roig MAUD ’91
Hugo Colón MLA ’13
Manuel Antonio Colón Amador MLA ’14
Irene Figueroa-Ortiz MUP & March I ’15
Nataniel Fúster MAUD ’96 & DDes ’99
Fabiola Guzmán Rivera March I ’18
Yanick Lay Fumero MLA ’18
Eduardo M. Llinás Messeguer MAUD ’13
Maria Victoria Mateo MLA ’11
Oscar Oliver Didier MAUD ’06
Judith Rodríguez MLA & MAUD ’13
Gabriella S. Rodríguez MLA & MAUD ’16
Ángel Y. Rodríguez Colón MAUD ’11
Joanna Rodriguez-Noyola MArch I ’14
Héctor Tarrido-Picart MAUD & MLA ’15
José Juan Terrasa Soler MLA ’07
Emmanuel Torres MAUD ’14
In the past months there was a recent upsurge in democratic mobilization to demand transparency and democracy in the way politics and business are conducted in Puerto Rico. This led to the recent resignation of Governor Ricardo Roselló and will likely lead to fundamental changes to the political and institutional structures of the Caribbean island.
While these mass civil protests were taking place, the Planning Board of Puerto Rico conducted most of the public hearings for first-time proposed major revisions to the Zoning Maps. In addition, the Planning Board failed to provide key information and a suitable timeline for a comprehensive examination by all the parties affected by the zoning changes, including the island’s 78 municipalities. Some of these zoning changes go against the interest of vulnerable communities, the ones most affected by hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017.
To read the letter in Spanish click here and for English click here
posted August, 2019
Stacy Passmore MLA ’18 Publishes Penny White Project Funded Research on Beavers in Places Journal
What kind of impact is the North American beaver having on the landscape of the Mountain West? An article by Stacy Passmore MLA ’18 published in the July issue of Places Journal takes on this question. Supported by a 2017 Penny White Project Fund grant and recipient of the GSD’s Charles Eliot Traveling Fellowship, Passmore chronicles her travels examining the work of the animal that has “gained something of a cult reputation as an environmental engineer.”
“I had heard stories about humans and beavers working together to restore wetlands and river systems, and I wanted to see for myself,” writes Passmore. “That might sound weird — working together — but as a landscape designer you have to be open to unusual collaborations. If farmers and ranchers were turning into ‘beaver believers,’ I could respect that.”
When she’s not scouting such altered landscapes, Passmore is a landscape designer at Civitas in Denver, Colorado.
Read the full article, “Landscape with Beavers.”
Image: Concept sketch of a “beaver deceiver,” a flow device to limit pond depth. [Stacy Passmore]
posted August, 2019
Philip Poon MArch ’18 Presents “Shared Spaces” at Pearl River Mart Gallery in NYC
Architectural projects by Philip Poon MArch ’18 will be on display at the Pearl River Mart gallery in NYC from July 13 through August 31, 2019. The show, “Shared Spaces,” is an invitation to imagine how people of diverse backgrounds might share the same physical space, particularly Manhattan’s Chinatown. Using large scale models and images, Poon explores architecture’s role in shaping worlds in which those with differing viewpoints, values, and experiences might coincide, and the possible conflicts — and harmonies — that come with that. Three projects will be on display: a proposed Chinatown gateway, a monument to humanitarian Keshia Thomas, and photos documenting Chinatown’s changing landscape.
Pearl River Mart, a family-owned Asian emporium, houses one of the few galleries in New York’s Lower Manhattan dedicated to showing works that matter to Asian American communities.
There is an opening reception on Saturday, July 13, from 5 – 7 PM.
Read a Q+A with Poon.
Images provided.
posted July, 2019
Recent GSD Graduates, Current Students Receive ASLA 2018 Student Awards
Founded in 1899, the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) is the professional association for landscape architects in the United States, representing more than 15,000 members. Each year, the ASLA Professional Awards honor the best in landscape architecture from around the globe, while the ASLA Student Awards give us a glimpse into the future of the profession.
Award recipients receive featured coverage in Landscape Architecture Magazine, the magazine of ASLA, and in many other design and construction industry and general interest media. Award recipients, their clients, and advisors will be honored at the awards presentation ceremony during the ASLA Annual Meeting and EXPO in Philadelphia, October 19-22, 2018.
This year, recent GSD graduates and current students received four awards in three categories:
2018 Student Award of Excellence in the Communication Category, on behalf of “Korea Remade: A Guide to the Reuse of the DMZ Area Towards Unification“: Xiwei Shen MLA ’19, Jiawen Chen MLA ’18, and Siyu Jiang MLA ’18; Faculty Advisors: Niall Kirkwood, Jungyoon (Yuni) Kim MLA ’00, and Yoonjin Park MLA ’00.
2018 Student Award of Excellence in the Residential Design Category, on behalf of “Baseco: A New Housing Paradigm“: Julio F. Torres Santana MArch ’19, Yinan Liu MLA ’19, and Aime Vailes-Macarie MArch ’19; Faculty Advisor: David A. Rubin MLA ’90
2018 Student Honor Award in the Analysis And Planning Category, on behalf of “Bloom! A Dynamic Landscape Biological System“: Xiwei Shen MLA ’19, Jiawen Chen MLA ’18, and Chengzhe Zhang MLA ’18; Faculty Advisors: Craig Douglas and David Watts
2018 Student Honor Award the Residential Design Category, on behalf of “The Snow [RESERVE]: Dynamic Microclimate Strategies for South Boston Living“: Sunmee Lee MLA ’19 and Phia Sennett MLA ’19; Faculty Advisor: Craig Douglas
posted September, 2018
