Left to right: Chuck Hoberman, Jon Lott, and Carles Muro
Dean Mohsen Mostafavi announces three appointments to the Harvard Graduate School of Design faculty, each effective July 1, 2016.
Chuck Hoberman has been appointed the Pierce Anderson Lecturer in Design Engineering. A visiting lecturer at the GSD since 2012, Hoberman has recently also been named to the Associate Faculty of Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. With his dual appointments, he will continue to play a leading role in university-wide initiatives designed to bridge the gap between design and science, with particular focus on Harvard’s new collaborative Master in Design Engineering (MDE) program. He will co-teach a studio in the fall 2016 semester for the MDE program’s first incoming class.
Internationally known for his “transformable structures,” Hoberman is founder of the multidisciplinary practice Hoberman Associates, and is an inventor who seamlessly fuses the disciplines of art, architecture, and engineering. Through his products, patents, and structures, Hoberman demonstrates how objects can be foldable, retractable, or shape-shifting. Such capabilities lead to functional benefits: portability, instantaneous opening, and intelligent responsiveness to the built environment.
Jon Lott (MArch ’05), who has served as a multi-year design critic at the GSD since 2015, has been appointed assistant professor of architecture. He previously taught at Syracuse University, where he directed the School of Architecture’s New York City Program and the graduate level Thesis Preparation. Lott is principal of PARA Project PC and co-founder of Collective-LOK. He is recipient of, among other honors, the Emerging Voices Award by the Architectural League of New York, the Design Vanguard award by Architectural Record, the New Practices New York award by the American Institute of Architects, and the Architectural League Prize by the Architectural League of New York, and he also has been named a MoMA/PS1 Young Architects finalist.
A design critic at the GSD since 2011, Carles Muro has been appointed associate professor of architecture. Prior to the GSD, he held academic teaching positions at a variety of universities, including the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB), the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, and the Faculty of Architecture at Alghero in Sardinia, and has been a visiting professor at many schools worldwide. Muro’s professional work has been extensively exhibited and widely featured in international publications. He worked with Elias Torres and Jose A. Martinez Lapena in Barcelona, as well as Alvaro Siza in Oporto, before setting up his private practice. His work exhibits an intense responsiveness to its context and a thoughtfulness about siting, which often results in an enhancement of the open spaces surrounding the building. Muro is also a prolific writer and has been published widely.