Date/Time

06/27/2025
9:00 am - 10:15 am (EDT)

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Design Impact 2025 flyer with black and white headshots of speakers

Join the GSD Alumni Council for Design Impact 2025: Places Left Behind, a virtual forum exploring the intersection of spatial design—architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning—and policy in addressing inequality and fostering regeneration.  

Panelists Arthur Adeya MLA ’06, Zeerak Ahmed MDE ’18, Mark Johnson FASLA, MLAUD ’82, and moderator Michelle Cramer MAUD ’99 will highlight three unique case studies in response to the essential question: How can we use design to reimagine spaces that the modern world seems to have discarded?

This event will offer the following approved continuing education credits:

  • 1.25 AIA LU|HSW
  • 1.25 LA CES HSW
  • 1.25 AICP CM

Special thanks to Design Impact Co-chairs Stacey Pennington MUP ’05 and Ole Wiig MArch ’73 and student contributors Spurty Kamath MDes ’26 and Victor Muturi MArch ’28.

Learn more and register.

Case Studies: 

Nairobi, Kenya (Arthur Adeya) 

Arthur Adeya examines the dynamic interplay between formal and informal settlements in Nairobi. His work challenges traditional planning paradigms by reframing public space as a crucible for both productivity and creative resilience. Through investigating the historical narratives woven into these landscapes, Adeya uncovers the latent potential of everyday spaces, demonstrating how the interplay of functionality and creativity can transform “left-behind” areas into vibrant, community-centered environments. 

Lake Milada, Ústí nad Labem (Mark Johnson)

North of Prague stands a 160-meter-deep coal mine, now known as Lake Milada, a 4,000-meter-long testament to postindustrial rebirth. After the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, the cessation of mining activities prompted the Czech Republic to attempt a basic form of revegetation. Although the resulting landscape is verdant, it is marked by a monoculture that failed to revive the lifeless, erased towns. 

This case study critically examines potential pathways for transformation. One key concept is the development of a recreation-based economy—a vision inspired by models seen in Colorado—where an emphasis on community engagement and environmental stewardship ensures that economic development goes hand-in-hand with preserving natural heritage. Can modern developments truly honor erased communities, or do they risk perpetuating the legacy of extraction? Lake Milada’s waters bring to light the tension between progress and memory. 

Technology (Zeerak Ahmed)

Uneven technological development has left the Global South grappling with widening inequalities, as advancements centered in the West erase cultural context and the needs of other populations. Zeerak Ahmed delves into technology’s central role in how we interact today in spaces both digital and physical. Through the way these spaces are shaped, we are deepening digital divides and socioeconomic gaps. He advocates for a more inclusive technological progress, one that empowers marginalized communities and transforms technology into a tool for bridging divides rather than reinforcing them. 

Design Impact is a global design leadership speaker series hosted by the Harvard Graduate School of Design Alumni Council. These virtual events bring together outstanding rosters of global leaders to share their work and vision, challenging us as a global community to use design as a tool for actionable, transformative change and healing.

Questions? Contact alumni@gsd.harvard.edu.