Suleiman Alhadidi sitting at a table with safety glasses onSuleiman Alhadidi (DDes ’23) is an architect and engineer. He is a researcher at the Material Processes and Systems Group (MaP+S) at the GSD. His practice and research work aims to design and build more efficient, intelligent, and sustainable buildings and cities.

He practiced architecture in Australia, USA, Europe and the Middle East and worked before at several well-known architectural research institutions and practices such as: MIT Media Lab, Melbourne University, RMIT University, SIAL, Coop Himmelblau, BVN, and HASSELL. During 2016–2018, Suleiman took an elected position in the administration council of The Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia. He has served as reviewer and contributor for several architecture journals and conferences such as ACADIA, the Journal of Architectural Education and CAADRIA. He authored several peer-reviewed publications and book chapters on architecture, urban design and technology.

During the last 15 years, Suleiman received more than 25 awards for his research, design and academic achievements. Suleiman was one of the American Australian Association 2018 Scholars. His doctoral research at Harvard focused on robotic buildings with an aim to provide affordable smart buildings that encompasses environmental and spatial design, in particular, he investigated the need for flexible co-working spaces and the understanding of the future of workspace. Being a multidisciplinary advocate of architecture, real estate investment, computation and engineering, he aims to build transformable spaces using robotic technologies and smart methods.

 

black and white headshot of Spyridon AmpanavosSpyridon Ampanavos (DDes ’22) is an architect and computational designer. Spyridon is exploring ways in which humans and artificial intelligence systems engage in a synergetic design process. He holds a Diploma in Architectural Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece and a Master in Design Studies in Technology with Distinction from Harvard GSD.  In his doctoral thesis he used machine learning methods and generative processes to support environmental building design in the early design phase.

Spyridon has worked with Adobe Research to create a new experience for browsing fonts through a machine learning-generated visual organization, and with Autodesk to develop machine learning applications for structural design and real-time energy prediction. He has taught several J-term courses at GSD investigating applications of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Design and Art, with gentle technical introductions. He has previously worked as an architect in Greece and has taught design and programming at Nuvu Studio innovation school in Cambridge, MA.

Other research interests and skills include Human – Computer Interaction, Data Visualization, Data Science. His research at CGBC involves Augmented Reality for real time visualization, inspection and control of smart buildings’ operation (House Zero).

 

black and white headshot of Aleksandar BauranovAleksandar Bauranov (DDes ’21) is a licensed civil engineer. He explores the relationship between cities, mobility and autonomous vehicles.

Aleksandar was a researcher at NEXTOR, an aviation research institute, where he worked on projects led by the FAA and NASA on the modernization and automation of the National Airspace System. Coupled with his experience in transportation planning and urban design, Aleksandar has a keen perspective on the challenges of integrating autonomous vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles into the urban environment. His other recent projects tackled a variety of interdisciplinary topics in transportation, economics and operations research. Aleksandar regularly publishes papers in scientific journals and presents his research at international conferences. He is skilled in machine learning, data science, and data visualization.

Aleksandar is a founder of Urbanova, a consultancy that specializes in transportation planning and economics. Aleksandar holds a master’s degree in Transportation Engineering from the University of California Berkeley, and a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Belgrade.

 

black and white headshot of Nicole BeattieThe goal of Nicole Beattie’s (DDes ’18) doctoral study was to identify the ways in which the design of our built environment and policymaking can facilitate humans’ vital relationship to sunlight and thus our health.

Nicole’s research covered three distinct areas: The Industrial Revolution as a historical precedent for understanding dark and densely populated communities and the important health and housing policies that emerged as a consequence of these conditions; The Modernist Movement, as the design community’s answer to these unhealthy and dark living spaces; and the Rapidly Urbanizing Centers, a contemporary example, focused in Chile, to address whether novel designs can emerge to stem the growth of unhealthy built environments in rapidly urbanizing centers.

After receiving her MArch from the University of Pennsylvania, Nicole’s interests in environmental health factors led her to medical research. She worked at NYU, examining different genetic and environmental factors in asthma incidence. In 2008, Nicole was part of a research group that traveled the Amazon River to study the infrastructural development at sites throughout the region. This research resulted in an architecture studio she taught in Quito, Ecuador in conjunction with a studio in Temuco, Chile.

 

black and white headshot of Joëlle BittonJoëlle Bitton, (DDes ’16) is head of the BA programme in Interaction Design at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). She is an artist and interaction designer, addressing in her work the relationships between humans and technologies, in particular within the topics of connectedness, embodied fabrication and everyday life. Her teaching puts an emphasis on associating theory and practice and on inviting students to question assumptions and stereotypes, and to embrace the “excursive” journey of a design process.
Her DDes research titled “Measure of Abstraction: Embodied Fabrication and the Materiality of Intimacy” proposed interactive processes in digital fabrication with the implication of personal data.

 

Ignacio Cardona holding an ipad with a landscape displayed on the screen Ignacio Cardona (DDes ’21) focused his studies on creative methodologies of design research to weave together fragmented urban fabric in the cities of the Global South in order to promote social equity, particularly in areas often characterized by being highly conflictive and violent. The work intends to address issues of urban informality, fragmentation, connectivity and social equity in urban environments that although very dense are nevertheless highly malleable and hold potential for effective intervention.

Ignacio is an Architect (Universidad Simón Bolívar / 1998) and cum-laude Magister of Urban Design (Universidad Metropolitana / 2003) and Founder of AREPA: ARCHITECTURE, ECOLOGY & PARTICIPATION an important Venezuelan think tank that has become a reference on urban phenomena in Latin-American, that has developed several projects with the philosophy to articulate the technical knowledge of design with felt needs of communities.

Before starting the Doctor of Design and Harvard GSD, he developed a career as professor in the Universidad Simón Bolívar (Caracas, Venezuela) for ten years In Studios about architecture and urban design, and as advisor of more than 90 thesis of undergraduate and graduate students. Ignacio also has been Visiting Professor in the Magister of Urban Design at Universidad Metropolitana (Caracas, Venezuela), and in the Bachelor of Science in Architecture at Wentworth Institute of Technology (Boston, USA).

He has presented lectures and papers in seminars and peer-reviewed publications from cities like Barcelona, Boston, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Delft, México City, Nairobi, New York, Puebla, and Santiago; and he has won several awards including a Fellowship in Urban Design for the study of systems of streams in Caracas (IDB, 2002), Honorable Mention in the International competition of urban and social projects (CAF, 2012), Finalist in the Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation (UCLG,2016), the EB1 Visa of Extraordinaries Abilities (USCIS, 2017), and the New York City Summer Fellowship of the IPA Institute of Public Architecture (IPA, 2018).

 

graphic of a person's head and shouldersYonghui Chen (DDes ’23) has a background in urban planning and urban design. Focusing on urban conservation theory and practice, his doctoral research explored historic conservation strategies applicable to contemporary cities with particular interest in China. Prior to entering the DDes program, he held a Master’s Degree in Design Studies concentrating in Critical Conservation at the Harvard GSD. He is interested in using spatial analytics methods to study urban conservation and urban design. During the past few years, he was granted the Outstanding Student Award of the Year in 2017 by the Eris Development Center and Harvard Center for Geographic Analysis. He worked as a research assistant at the GSD City Form Lab, translating Andres Sevtsuk’s Urban Network Analysis: Tools for Modeling Pedestrian and Bicycle Trips in Cities which has been published in China. He taught as a teaching fellow in the GSD Urban Planning Department for 2019 Fall VIS 2129 Spatial Analysis and the Built Environment, and 2020 Spring SES 5211 Cities by Design.

 

black and white headshot of Yujiao ChenYujiao Chen (DDes ’19) studies building technology and sustainable urban development through a computational approach. Her past research explored sustainability in the built environment across multiple scales, from building component and building to neighborhood, city and region. In particular, her research interests include natural ventilation, indoor air quality, advanced building control, high-performance building, net-zero energy building, and rainwater management. She is skilled at building performance simulation, data analysis, machine learning, and software development. Her contribution of green building studies has been included in the State of the Nation’s Housing report by Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. Her recent papers have been published in Applied Energy, Energy and Buildings, Environment International, Building and Environment, Journal of Environmental Management, Building Simulation, and have been presented at IBPSA Building Simulation Conferences.

Before entering the DDes program, Yujiao worked as a research associate at Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities for two years. She also worked as a research assistant at GSD Building Energy and Simulation Lab, and PennDesign T. C. Chan Center for Building Simulation and Energy studies. She holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Zhejiang University, a Master in Environmental Building Design degree from University of Pennsylvania, a Master in Design Studies with concentration in Energy and Environments from Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and a Master of Science in Computational Science and Engineering from Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

 

headshot of Sang-Yong ChoSang-Yong Cho (DDes ’23) is a researcher and designer bridging the domains of landscape architecture, urban design, planning and technology. His research focused on the near and long-term transition of energy, water, and carbon nexus between urban and industrial systems. He incorporates material flow accounting methods and urban metabolism principles to test the feasibility of integrating energy, water, waste flow between urban and the industrial sectors by examining emerging technologies. In addition, Sang and researchers at Samsung Medical Center are studying the association between breast cancer and air quality in Seoul, South Korea.

Sang is currently an Assistant Professor at the School of Planning at the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning where he teaches landscape architecture and planning studios and seminars. Additionally, he is working with researchers at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center to study respiratory outcome and urban features incorporating innovative data-driven technologies and community engagement protocols to increase environmental health literacy outcomes for underserved communities.

He has practiced as a landscape planner in Boston; and was a former research fellow at Ulsan Research Institute, South Korea. He received his Master of Landscape Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

 

headshot of Michael ChieffaloMike Chieffalo (DDes ’21) is an architect and former planning commissioner. His research question broadly engages the role(s) of nonhuman animals in histories and theories of urbanization, specifically using livestock as a lens to critique a pervasive anthropocentrism in Western urban theory.

Holding a B.Arch from Roger Williams University, a post-professional M.S. in architecture from Columbia University, and an Urbanism, Landscape, Ecology focused MDes (Distinction) from Harvard, Mike has extensive academic training in architecture and urban social sciences. He is also an experienced architect in practice, with high-level involvement across many project types. In addition to his professional experience, Mike served as a Planning Commissioner in Norwalk, CT from 2009-2012. He was previously a Research Assistant in the Urban Theory Lab GSD; Teaching Fellow in Neil Brenner’s History and Theory of Urban Interventions course; and Teaching Assistant in the inaugural design studio for the Master in Design Engineering program at Harvard. He currently sits on the editorial board at New Geographies Journal; serves as an adjunct faculty at Roger Williams University; and is co-editor of New Geographies 10: Fallow.

 

headshot of Daniel DaouDaniel Daou (DDes ’21) is an associate professor at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). His thesis, Synthetic Ecology, explores the relationship between the design, ecological, and political imaginaries from 1972 onward and the ways in which the ecological metaphor can help reconsider an emancipatory project for architecture today.

Daniel holds a Licentiate in Architecture from the Universidad Iberoamericana graduating top of his class in 2006. He was an exchange student at the M.Arch II program at SCIArc, and, in 2011, with the support from the Fulbright program, the Brockman Foundation, and the Mexican National Council for Science and Technology, he obtained a Master in Science of Architecture Studies and a Master in City Planning with an Urban Design Certificate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was also a ‘Young Artist’ fellow by the Mexican National Fund for Culture and Arts from 2005 to 2006.

Prior to obtaining his graduate degrees, he worked as Unit Chief at the Department of Urban Development and Housing in Mexico City, studio instructor at the Universidad Iberoamericana, and junior designer at Fernado Romero/FREE, Enrique Norten/TEN Arquitectos, and Castillo+Springall/Arq911.

Daniel has been involved in over 40 projects spanning a dozen countries. He has been research assistant, teaching fellow, and lecturer at MIT and the GSD; assistant professor at the Boston Architectural College (BAC) and Wentworth Institute of Technology (WIT), and guest reviewer at the GSD, MIT, WIT, BAC, UPenn, Northeastern University, and the Danish Academy of the Arts.

At Harvard, he has been a Fellow of the Energy Council at the Center for the Environment and a member of New Geographies’ editorial board from 2013 to 2018 where he co-edited the ninth volume of the journal. Over the last decade, he has contributed over 60 essays on design for several magazines and journals including Domus Mexico, Arquine, Thresholds, Lunch, and New Geographies.

Daniel is a sci-fi fan, an avid traveler, and a half decent cook.

 

headshot of Ali FardAli Fard (DDes ’18) is a designer, researcher, and educator. He was an editor of the New Geographies journal. He is the co-director of Op.N, a design and research office based in Toronto and Boston, and a research associate at the Urban Theory Lab at Harvard GSD. Ali has held teaching positions at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and University of Waterloo where he is a lecturer in Architecture and Urbanism. Ali’s current research investigates the operational landscapes of connectivity, the urban/spatial disposition of information and communication technologies, and the urbanization of cloud computing. His research and design work have appeared in MONU, MAS Context, Bracket, Azure, and Harvard Design Magazine. Ali is the co-editor of New Geographies 7: Geographies of Information. (HUP, 2015) Prior to the GSD Ali received a Master of Architecture (M.Arch) from University of Toronto.

 

headshot of Wendy FokWendy W. Fok (DDes ’17,) trained as an architect, is the creative director/founder of WE-DESIGNS, LLC (Architecture/Creative Strategy) and Resilient Modular Systems, PBC (Socially Missioned Venture). She was the winner of the Autodesk AiR Fellowship (2016), Young CAADRIA Award (2015), Digital Kluge Fellowship awarded by the Library of Congress (2014/15), the Art Director’s Club of New York’s ADC Young Guns 11 Award (2013), AIA (American Institute of Architects) Dallas “Express Yourself” Women in Architecture Award (2013), and selected designer of the Perspective 40 under 40 Award (2011) and the Hong Kong Young Design Talent Award (2009). Fok has a Master of Architecture and Certification of Urban Policy/Planning from Princeton University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture with a Concentration in Economics (Statistics) from Barnard College, Columbia University.

Along with her practice, Fok is an Assistant Professor of Integrated Design at Parsons School of Design Strategies (SDS). In parallel with her doctoral research, Fok is involved as a Teaching Fellow for CopyrightX, under the guidance of Prof William “Terry” Fisher of the Harvard Law School, and a pioneer in the Digital Problem Solving Initiative (DPSI) with Peter Suber at the Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Her doctoral research was an investigative approach between intellectual property issues of ownership/authorship of digital/real property in computational innovation, and ethical/equitable application of technical methods within open innovation, digital fabrication, and commodisation for the built environment. Fok has also been invited to several Architectural Association (AA) Visiting Schools, SXSW Interactive, among other prestigious design workshops internationally.

 

headshot of Fu YunFirst and foremost an architect and designer, Fu Yun‘s (March ’15, DDes ’20) scholarly interests are diverse and international in scope, but focused on persistent classes of design problems pertinent in contemporary practice. His doctoral dissertation, Schemas in a Design Problem: Building in Seismic Regions Diversely Considered, deconstructs the conventional view of the earthquake as a purely objective and mechanical problem requiring only rote resolutions, reframing it as a design problem in which diverse and often contradictory conceptual and methodological approaches co-exists. Recent and on-going projects include Worklive: The Joys and Accommodations of Working from Home, supported by the GSD Research Grant; The Architecture of Loitering, a study of different ways to do nothing and its design accouterments; and a series of housing projects exploring evolving notions of dwelling.

Yun’s work has been recognized and supported by the Rome Prize in Architecture from the British School at Rome, the Sinclair Kennedy Traveling Fellowship, and the Confucius Fellowship at Peking University. Yun co-authored the forthcoming book Korean Modern: The Matter of Identity (Birkhauser, 2021) and The Mumbai Metropolitan Region and Palava City: A Brief Account and Evaluation (Harvard GSD, 2017), and was part of the research team behind China’s Urban Communities: Concepts, Contexts, and Well-Being (Birkhauser, 2016) and Urban Intensities: Contemporary Housing Types and Territories (Birkhauser, 2014).

Yun graduated with a Bachelor of Architectural Studies from UNSW Sydney with the Australian Institute of Architects Undergraduate Design Medal in 2010, a Master in Architecture from the GSD with the American Institute of Architects Henry Adams Medal in 2015, and after collaborating with Foster+Partners in London and ZAO/standardarchtiecure in Beijing, established an independent practice with Guo Wenting in 2019. Yun joined the GSD faculty in 2018, where he co-developed the current iteration of Elements of Urban Design, the advanced core studio, and teaches the course on Modern Housing

 

headshot of Jose Luis Garcia del CastilloJose Luis Garcia del Castillo (DDes ’19) is an architect, computational designer, and educator. He advocates for a future where programming and code are tools as natural to designers as paper and pencil. In his work, he explores creative opportunities at the intersection of design, technology, fabrication, data and art. His current research focuses on the development of digital frameworks that help democratize access to robotic technologies for designers and artists.

Jose Luis is a registered architect, and holds a Masters in Architectural Technological Innovation from Universidad de Sevilla and a Master of Design Studies in Technology from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He has worked as a structural consultant for several international firms, such as OMA, Mecanoo, and Cesar Pelli, as well as data visualization architect at Fathom Information Design. He is also the co-founder of ParametricCamp, an international organization whose mission is to spread the knowledge of computational design among designers and architects.

Jose Luis pursued his Doctor of Design degree at the Material Processing and Systems group at the GSD, works as research engineer in the Generative Design Team at Autodesk Inc., and teaches computational creativity in the Arts+Design Department at Northeastern University.

 

headshot of Mariano Gomez Luque Mariano Gomez Luque (DDes ’19) is an architect from Argentina, a Research Fellow at the Urban Theory Lab and the Office for Urbanization, and Editor of the New Geographies Journal. Mariano’s thesis investigated the intersections between vertical architecture and capital in the context of late 20th and early 21st centuries. Mobilizing architectural theory vis-à-vis political economy, critical urban theory, and science fiction studies, the research inquires into the status and potential futures of very tall buildings in an age characterized by pervasive financialization, planetary urbanization, and anthropocenic dynamics. He holds a Master in Architecture degree (with Distinction) from the Harvard GSD.

 

picture of Jonathan Grinham smiling and holding a chickenJonathan Grinham (DDes ’17) is a Lecturer in Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and Researcher with the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities. His work asks how the design of conventional and emerging material technologies can address architecture’s big problem, energy and where we get it. This question has led to the development of novel technologies and publications around vascular-thin-film heat exchange, nano-scale thermal tuning, and the coupling of breathable materials to buoyancy-driven ventilation. These topics are complemented by Jonathan’s other research interests that track themes in robotics, kinematic structures, embedded computation, and automated fabrication workflows.

Jonathan has taught technology seminars at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as design studios at the Catholic University of America and Virginia Tech. While at Catholic University, Jonathan was the Assistant Project Manager for Team Capitol DC’s Solar Decathlon house, Harvest Home. Jonathan’s professional practice ranges from super-tall mixed-use buildings (while at SOM Chicago) to fiberglass composite structures (while at Studio 27 Architecture in Washington, DC) to facade consulting (for Mass Design Group in Boston, Ma).

Jonathan received his Doctorate of Design degree (DDes) at the Harvard Graduate School of Design where he was a Graduate Researcher for the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and Project Manager for the GSD’s Alive Project (MaP+S group). He holds a BArch and MS from Virginia Tech.

 

headshot of Boya Guo showing side profileBoya Guo (DDes ’22) is a cultural geographer and urban historian with an interest in how cultural powers shape the built environment and vice versa. Her doctoral thesis focuses on the power interplay and conflicts between UNESCO’s Outstanding Universal Values, Chinese nationalistic discourses and practices of heritage, and local responses, to draw conclusions about underlying power dynamics of contemporary China’s use of heritage and history. In line with her research, she is working on a book project about Qianlong Beijing Plan and the history of cartography in Qing Dynasty of China.

Boya firmly believes the value of cross-disciplinary dialogue and has been actively engaged with China-related academic activities within and beyond GSD. Her research has been widely supported by Weatherhead Center, Asia Center, Fairbank Center of Chinese Studies, Joint Center for Housing Studies, Ash Center China Programs, Frederick Sheldon Fellowship, and Chinese Scholarship Council, etc. Her works have been presented at Tianjin University, Central Academy of Fine Arts in China, the bi-annual conference of Association of Critical Heritage Studies in 2020, annual conference of Royal Geographical Society with IBG in 2018, Royal College of Art Conference “Spatialised Governmentality: China and the Global Context” in 2018, Goethe-Institut Beijing “Whatever Works, Whatever It Takes” symposium in 2019. She also co-organized the Harvard DDes 2018 conference “[RE]FORM” in which nine worldwide prominent scholars repositioned the discourse of urban form within contemporary urban theory. Besides doing research, Boya has been practicing as an urban planner and consultant for many conservation projects in China. Boya holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in urban planning and a Bachelor of Arts degree in art history from Peking University, and a Master in Design Studies degree from the Harvard GSD in the area of Critical Conservation.

 

headshot of Jung Min (Ellie) HanJung Min (Ellie) Han (DDes ’22) is a researcher who seeks strategies for architectural sustainability and energy-efficient building design. She innovates on interoperable building performance simulation (BPS) software for architects to use in nimble building performance analysis and flexible early-stage design decision making. Her doctoral research, advised by Prof. Ali Malkawi, focuses on the geometric properties of architecture and exchangeable data formats for evaluating building designs. Artificial intelligence and deep learning are her primary methodologies for advancing the feasibility of BPS software.

Han holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Korea National University of Arts, a Master of Science in Building Performance and Diagnostics from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), and a Master of Design Studies with a concentration in Energy and Environments from Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD). Before starting the DDes program, she worked at the Delos Labs as a building science intern and the Brooks+Scarpa Architects as an intern architect. She has worked at the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities as a research assistant since 2017. As a student and researcher, she developed several BPS tools to help architects with sustainable design decision-making on topics ranging from building to urban scales of implementation. Along with her academic engagement, her journal and conference papers on building performance and simulation have been published and presented at conferences sponsored by the International Building Performance Simulation Association and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers.

www.hailiehan.com
https://scholar.harvard.edu/jhan2/home

 

headshot of Saira HashmiSaira Hashmi‘s (DDes ’18) research focused on designing an optimal water infrastructure model for sustainable cities that embodies culture and the environment with a focus in the MENA region—test case is Abu Dhabi region, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

She developed a model that will help in maximizing reuse of water sources, minimizing the water consumption by investing in an appropriate and efficient set of water saving technologies within the city along with unconventional water resources. This will include the quality of water received from desalination plants along with environmental, social, economic and political constraints and policies. The model will help in pricing water and in the evaluation of future water demands.

Saira holds a BSc degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering and she received her Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering from Harvard University. She has extensive teaching experience and has received numerous teaching fellowships from various graduate schools at Harvard, including the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Graduate School of Design, among others. She organized the 2011 water sustainability workshop with Professor Steve Caton that focused on the current global water crisis.

 

headshot of Vaughn Horn

Vaughn Horn (DDes ’21) holds an architectural license in his native state of California and in his new home, Massachusetts. His dissertation research focused on applying architectural tools to improve substandard housing through an examination of cultural moments in the U.S. public housing program, from its origins in the Great Depression to present day. His other research interests and pursuits in academia, the nonprofit sector, and in the architectural practice span 20 years on an array of project types in which he has served in academic administration roles and mid-senior level management roles.

 

headshot of Xiaokai Huang

Xiaokai Huang’s (DDes ’20) research concerns the field of real estate development and urban development under China’s transitioning economy. In particular, he explores the role of state-owned enterprises in the real estate development sector and their impacts on urban development from the perspective of political economy. Related field covers real estate finance.

Xiaokai’s research was widely granted by the Harvard Real Estate Study Grant, Harvard Asia Center and the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. He is also a FIABCI Scholar awarded by the FIABCI foundation, which aims to support students in international real estate study.

Prior to joining the DDes program, Xiaokai worked at Sasaki Associates as an urban planner with the responsibility of developing strategic urban and regional planning for municipal governments and some of the largest private developers in China. From 2015 – 2016, Xiaokai, as a research consultant at a consulting practice, worked closely with a municipal government in Southern China and its Development and Reform Commission, and co-developed a comprehensive report regarding development potentials of 24 towns in the city. Xiaokai is now working as an intern consultant for the Development Research Centre of State Council, P.R.China, with main focus on the cross-border e-commerce in China and its potential impact on China’s economy.

 

headshot of Kristen HunterKristen Hunter (DDes ’23) is a real estate development strategist and scholar specializing in complex urban projects. Her research explored the efficacy of Massachusetts’ Community Preservation Act-funded subsidies in expanding affordable housing options in municipalities across the spectrum of fiscal and institutional capacities, socioeconomic profiles, land-use regulatory environments, and real estate market dynamics.

An experienced development manager and LEED AP, Kristen currently provides strategic consulting for complex urban development projects in domestic and overseas markets. She authored a series of case studies on best practices in the delivery of federal construction projects for the U.S. General Services Administration Public Buildings Service, where she served as an Assistant Instructor at the agency’s semi-annual academy.

Since 2010 she has taught Real Estate Development and Finance, as well as Public and Private Development, at the GSD.  She was the recipient of the 2012‑2013 GSD Student Forum Teaching Fellow Award. As an extension of her teaching, Kristen advises student teams participating in a variety of regional and national urban development competitions.

Kristen received a master’s degree with distinction in Real Estate and Project Management from the GSD, earning the Gerald M. McCue Medal for highest overall academic record and the Ferdinand Colleredo‑Mansfeld Prize for superior achievement in real estate studies.  She also holds an M.A. in Medieval Chinese History from Cornell University and an A.B. cum laude in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University.

 

Daniel Ibanezheadshot of Daniel Ibanez (DDes ’21) is a Spanish practicing architect and urbanist based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. During his time at the Harvard GSD he was a research fellow at the Harvard Office for Urbanization and the Urban Theory Lab. Daniel’s overall research critically seeks to frame the design disciplines in relation to broader socio-ecological interdependencies through cross-disciplinary studies in the field of urban metabolism. As part of his academic efforts, Daniel has organized conferences on Projective Views on Urban Metabolism (Harvard GSD, 2014) and Wood Urbanism: From the Molecular to the Territorial (Harvard GSD, 2014) and Heliomorphism (Harvard GSD, 2016). He is author/editor three book publications: New Geographies 06: Grounding Metabolism (HUP, 2014); Third Coast Atlas (forthcoming Actar, 2015); and Wood Urbanism: From Molecular to Territorial (forthcoming, Actar, 2018). His articles have been featured in the Harvard Design Magazine, PLOT, urbanNext, Mies Crown Hall Americas publication, Ediciones ARQ, or LIGA DF.

Additionally, Daniel holds two other academic affiliations. He is an assistant professor at Rhode Island School of Design in the School of Architecture, and co-director of the Master in Advanced Ecological Buildings (MAEB), at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalunya in Valldaura, Barcelona. Since 2017, Daniel has been advising the World Bank and the Interamerican Development Bank in the housing and urban development projects in Latin America.

He is co-founder and director of the design firm Margen-Lab, a transcalar targeted office invested in the developing more ecologically powerful and materially exuberant architecture and urban design with projects in USA, Spain, Chile, and China. Margen-Lab has been awarded first prizes in national and international competitions, and it has exhibited its work on design venues such as the Biennale di Venezia 2012, the Oslo Architectural Triennale 2013, or the Design Biennial Boston among others.

Daniel received his Masters of Architecture from Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid in 2007 with honors. Also, he holds a post-professional Master in Advanced Architecture from IAAC with distinction. In 2012, he completed a Masters in Design Studies in Urbanism, Landscape and Ecology with distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Daniel’s grants for academic research include Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies, Fundación La Caixa Fulbright Fellowship, Real Colegio Harvard Complutense Scholarship and the Harvard GSD Dimitris Pikionis Award, Penny White Research Scholarship and the Dean´s Merit Award.

 

black and white headshot of Aleksandra JaeschkeAleksandra Jaeschke (DDes ’18) is an architect, researcher, and Assistant Professor of Sustainable Design at The University of Texas at Austin. Her doctoral dissertation (DDes’18) entitled Green Apparatus: Ecology of the American House According to Building Codes investigated how building regulations coupled with green building technologies and incentives shape environmentally-driven design and environmental awareness in general. Her broader interests range from mainstream discourses on sustainability and use of integrative design strategies, to process-driven design techniques and broader notions of ecology.

Prior to her move to the UT at Austin, Aleksandra was part of faculty at the Woodbury School of Architecture in Los Angeles where she taught urban design studios exploring the catalytic potential of urban infrastructures. Her most recent studio, taught in close collaboration with the Culver City Department of Community Development, addressed the socio-environmental ecology of the Ballona Creek, an active flood-control channel and underutilized urban space.

While at the GSD, she served as a teaching fellow both in the Architecture and Landscape Architecture Departments. In 2015, she coordinated the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians Housing Research and Prototype Design Project hosted by the GSD Environments & Design Research Lab. In this project, the sustainability of a housing prototype was explored both as a building-scale issue and that of extraction, transportation, and embodied energy of building materials. Aleksandra also co-organized the 2016 Doctor of Design Conference #decoding, which investigated the impact of codes in mapping of environments, demarcation of legal territories, operational protocols of logistics and control of built environment, highlighting the interconnections between design techniques, economic processes, and regulatory mechanisms.

Born and raised in Poland, Aleksandra holds an AA Diploma from the Architectural Association in London, and a professional license in Italy where she practiced at AION, an architectural firm she co-founded and co-directed with Andrea Di Stefano until her move to the U.S. in 2013. Most of her research and professional work as partner of AION focused on the integrative approach to design of material organizations, performative potential of material systems, material form-finding, and the role of digital design tools in the integration of environmentally-driven agendas. As part of AION, she managed numerous design workshops and contributed to various publications. She participated in the 27/37 Exhibition of Young Italian Architecture at the Italian Pavilion, Shanghai Expo 2010, and was part of the ARCHITEKTUR! conference series held at the MAXXI Museum in Rome in 2012. In 2013, AION held a solo exhibition Eco-Machines in the Wroclaw Museum of Architecture in Poland. In recognition of the work developed by AION, she received the Europe 40 Under 40 Award for 2011 conferred by the European Centre for Architecture, Art, Design & Urban Studies and Chicago Athenaeum.

 

black and white headshot of Ghazal JafariGhazal Jafari (DDes ’18) is a designer, researcher, and cofounder of OPN, an undisciplinary collective crossing geography, media, time and territory. Ghazal was an Aga Khan student, as well as a research fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, a member of the Urban Theory Lab, and a coeditor of New Geographies Journal. Ghazal’s current research is concerned with logistics as logic of organization, and as a lens for investigating the significance of land in hyper-contingent and uncertain markets and geographies. Ghazal’s previous projects are invested in the landscape of infrastructural systems at multiple scales, altitudes, and across borders; also the challenges/opportunities brought with migrating climatic and economies zones. The geographic context of these projects range from emerging oceanic economies to submerging coastlines. Her writings and projects has been exhibited in Toronto, New York, San Francisco, and Montreal, and has been published/featured in Volume, Harvard Design Magazine, Azure, MONU, and Domus, among others.

www.decoding.space

 

black and white headshot of Nikos KatsikisNikos Katsikis (DDes ’16) is an architect and urbanist working at the intersection of urbanization theory, design and geospatial analysis. His research seeks, through conceptual and cartographic experimentation, to contribute to a geographical understanding of the socio-metabolic relations between agglomerations and their operational landscapes. He is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Luxembourg, collaborating in the development of a new program on Architecture, European Urbanization and Globalization. He is also an affiliated researcher at Urban Theory Lab, Harvard GSD. At the GSD he has served as Instructor in Urban Planning and Design (2014-2015), Teaching Fellow, and Research Associate (2010-2014 and 2015-2016). Since 2012 he is on the editorial board of the New Geographies journal and co-editor of New Geographies 06: Grounding Metabolism (Harvard University Press, 2014). He is a licensed architect in Greece and has practiced architecture and urban design as an individual, and as an associate architect. He holds a Doctor of Design from Harvard GSD, a professional degree in Architectural Engineering with highest distinction (2006) and an MSc in Architecture and Spatial Design (2009) with distinction, both from the National Technical University of Athens.

 

headshot of Seung Kyum KimSeung Kyum Kim (DDes ’19) is a John R. Meyer Dissertation Fellow at the Joint Center for Housing Studies. His current research examines the economic impact of climate change adaptation measures on the real estate markets in coastal cities.

Seung Kyum holds a Master of Design Studies, Risk and Resilience concentration, from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Before his post-professional degree, he practiced in various fields from planning and design to policy and administration, in private and public sectors both in the United States and South Korea. His previous work was as a director of international cooperation on large urban infrastructural projects. These experiences expanded his research interests in understanding the current challenges facing the design practices in the market place, particularly at the interplay between infrastructure development, local economy and politics. He has organized several summit-level inter-governmental conferences and managed national projects related in water and disaster, for which he received the President’s Award from the President of the Republic of Korea for his outstanding contribution in urban resilience and economic development dealing with flood management and drought mitigation.

 

black and white headshot of Nathan KingNathan King (DDes ’15) is a Co-Director of the Center for Design Research and Assistant Professor of Architecture and Industrial Design at the School of Architecture + Design at Virginia Tech. He has taught at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, The Rhode Island School of Design, and the University of Innsbruck. At Virginia Tech, Nathan developed the Design Robotics Laboratory and the Laboratory for Additive Manufacturing in Design and holds leadership roles in the Intelligent Infrastructure for Human Centered Communities initiative that is driving the creation of university-wide, infrastructure, curriculum, and trans-disciplinary research programs. In addition, Nathan has developed impact-driven design initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa that provide students with opportunities for international learning and engagement. Nathan lectures and publishes extensively, including the recent book Ceramic Material Systems and Transformable Design (forthcoming) of which he is co-author.

Beyond academia, King was a Director at MASS Design Group, where he collaborated on the development and deployment of innovative building technologies, medical devices, and evaluation methods for application in resource-limited settings. In addition, Nathan has contributed to the development of several Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) –scale research facilities to advance the field of Design Robotics and related material systems research in both industry and academic settings. Recently, Nathan was instrumental in the ln the development of the Autodesk BUILD Space—a 35,000 ft2 AEC research facility that drives innovation through collaboration between academia, industry, and design practice.

 

picture of Jingping Liu standing on a ledge looking out over a busy squareJingping Liu (DDes ’21) focuses on the community and housing issues in P. R. China, especially the evolution and retrofit of work-unit (Danwei) communities that were built during 1950s to 1980s. She aims to figure out reasonable and applicable retrofit strategies for the work-unit community in the country by studying the morphology evolution process of specific work-unit community cases in Nanjing, with the self-organizing theory as a supporting theory and typo-morphology approach as the primary methodology.

Before coming to Harvard, she was a graduate student at Southeast University, P. R. China. There she participated in a “Twelfth Five-Year” National Key Technology R&D Program of China, and she was mainly responsible for the key technologies of community planning in areas with dense watercourses. She got her Bachelor of Architecture degree from Zhengzhou University and Master of Architecture degree from Southeast University in China.

Jingping has been awarded a scholarship from China Scholarship Council (CSC) to pursue her doctoral study at Harvard. She has coauthored the paper Quantitative Study on the Evolution Trend and Driving Factors of Typical Rural Spatial Morphology in Southern Jiangsu Province, China, which was published in Sustainability in 2018. She made an oral presentation in the Sustainable Built Environment (SBE) Conferences 2016, Seoul. She participated in the Venice Biennale Sharing & Regeneration Exhibition 2016 with the team work Living Construction.

 

black and white headshot of Yingying LuYingying Lu (DDes ’19) studies sustainable urban planning and design. Her research focused on active transportation including walking, cycling, and their correlations with built and social environment. The goal was to identify ways in which planners, designers, and policymakers can facilitate active transportation for individuals’ health and the overall social benefits. Her thesis titled “Walking Culture in China” uses qualitative and quantitative methods to explore the shared values about walking and how culture may impact walking behavior in contemporary China. She participated in the Health and Places Initiative Neighborhoods Research led by Professor Ann Forsyth and Professor Peter Rowe from 2013 to 2015, and her work on environmental analysis was published in the book China’s Urban Communities (2016). She also worked as a Research Associate in Professor Peter Rowe’s Lab from 2013 to 2014 exploring GIS-based techniques on spatial analysis. Additionally, she co-founded and is the resident of the Harvard East Asia Urban Forum, an academic platform focusing on urban issues.

She studied in the MDes program with a concentration in Energy and Environments from 2011 to 2013. She received a Master of Engineering degree from Tsinghua University in China, with her thesis on sustainable architectural design strategies awarded Outstanding Master’s Thesis of Tsinghua University in 2010. She received her Bachelor of Engineering from North China University of Technology, majoring in Electrical Engineering. She worked at Tsinghua Urban Planning and Design Institute, COX Architecture, and Chinese Academy of Science Institute of Automation in Beijing.

 

black and white headshot of Mojdeh MahdaviMojdeh Mahdavi (DDes ’22) is an urban designer and registered architect. At the Harvard Graduate School of Design her work was supported by GSD Dean’s merit, Iranian Scholarship Foundation and P.E.O Foundation. At the GSD, she was also the co-editor of the twelfth volume of the DDes annual journal, New Geographies 12: Commons. Mojdeh received a research-based (mention recherche) Post-Master degree in Architecture and Urbanism from École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture Paris LaVillette, ENSAPLV, and a Master in Landscape Architecture from University of Tehran where she was graduated with honors.

Before the GSD, Mojdeh practiced urban and architectural design in Paris, Tehran, and Almaty in well-established firms as well as experimental design groups. Her work has been presented in conferences in Paris, Tehran, Zurich, and Montreal. During several years of professional and academic experience, she has gained extensive knowledge in civic engagement, public participation and community empowerment in the process of urban development. Since her collaboration with Tehran Urban Innovation Center in 2016, where she is currently a partner, she has examined the efficiency of a combination of off-line and online methods as well as digital technologies in the complex process of participation. Currently, as a Bloomberg fellow in City Leadership Initiative, she uses this practical knowledge in community engagement and ICT and urban intelligence engendered opportunities in helping Syracuse’s office of Accountability, Performance and Innovation to devise a socially-conscious, inclusive, and economically-responsive smart city plan.

Mojdeh’s research at the GSD investigates how spatialized urban intelligence and emerging digital technologies change the nature and structure of urban governance and public interfaces. She looks at the ways through which urban governments prepare for implementation of smart infrastructure and smart technologies, create new growth-coalitions and revise their relationships with citizens. Mojdeh’s broader research engages with the evolving relationships between urbanization, politics, urban governance, urban intelligence and their effects on sociopolitical capacity of the society.

 

black and white headshot of Matan MayerMatan Mayer (DDes ’14) is Assistant Professor of Architecture at IE University School of Architecture and Design in Madrid and Segovia, Spain, where he teaches construction technology and design courses. He holds a Doctor of Design (’14) and Master in Design Studies (Technology, ’10) degrees from Harvard Graduate School of Design, as well as a BArch degree from Tel Aviv University. Matan’s research work focuses on achieving life cycle innovation in the built environment through developments in manufacturing technology, assembly techniques, and digital design platforms. Prior to his current position, Matan has taught research seminars at Harvard GSD and at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella. He has completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities, a residency at the Harvard Innovation Lab Venture Incubation Program, as well as research fellowships at the Institute for Lightweight Structures and Conceptual Design at the University of Stuttgart, the Composite Construction Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and the Emerging Material Technologies Group at the University of Arizona.

 

black and white headshot of Miguel Lopez MelendezMiguel Lopez Melendez’s (DDes ’21) research challenges the reduction of the philosophical term “autonomy” within architecture to a disciplinary detachment rather than a cultural engagement. It argues that the impulsive interpretation of autonomy overemphasized the history of architecture and relegated the history of autonomy amid the social and cultural unrest of the second half of the twentieth century. His thesis, titled Autonomy and Urbanism, aspires to provide a cultural reflection on design. It counters the assumptions of architecture on autonomy through the evidence of its historical and cultural formation. It studies the philosophical, political, aesthetic, and architectural progression of the term to formulate the theoretical and practical framework of a latent urban interpretation exposed by the current historical conditions but whose origins date back to the eighteenth century.

Miguel studied architecture at Tecnologico de Monterrey (Mexico) and Urban Design at Harvard Graduate School of Design. He worked at FR-EE Enterprise, TEN Arquitectos, and Tecnologico de Monterrey as Assistant Professor. At Harvard, he has worked on research projects such as the Housing Surplus Project (Brazil), Topaz Project (Mexico), and A Sustainable Future for EXUMA (Bahamas). Besides working on his doctoral research, he works as Research Assistant for the former Dean Mohsen Mostafavi.

autonomie.design

 

headshot of Taraneh MeshkaniTaraneh Meshkani (DDes ’16) is an architect, urbanist, and educator. She graduated from the Doctor of Design program in 2016 and since then has been teaching at Boston Architectural College. During her studies, Taraneh received a doctoral fellowship from the Graduate Consortium on Energy and Environment at Harvard, and she is an editor of the New Geographies journal. Her research examines the linkage of new information and communication technologies and their spatialities to the social and political processes of contemporary societies. Her dissertation is on the impact of social media on physical urban spaces as the issue relates to recent sociopolitical movements. She holds a master of architecture from the University of Toronto. Meshkani has worked in different architectural firms, including Morphosis Architects, organized many conferences and exhibitions, and taught as an instructor and a teaching fellow at Harvard Graduate School of Design and Boston Architectural college. Her work has been published and presented in Canadian Architect Magazine, the International Journal of Islamic Architecture, MediaCities, and ACADIA.

 

black and white headshot of Jeffrey NesbitJeffrey S Nesbit (DDes ’20) is an architect and urbanist. He is founding director of the experimental design group Haecceitas Studio and was a research fellow in the Office for Urbanization, directed by Charles Waldheim and Mohsen Mostafavi. His research focuses on processes of urbanization, infrastructure, and the evolution of the defense landscape. Currently, Nesbit is studying the 20th century spaceport complex at the intersection of architecture and aerospace history. He has written a number of journal articles and book chapters on infrastructure and urbanization and is co-editor of Chasing the City: Models for Extra-Urban Investigations (Routledge, 2018), Rio de Janeiro: Urban Expansion and Environment (Routledge, 2019), and currently working on the forth-coming New Geographies 11 Extraterrestrial (Actar, 2019). Nesbit previously taught architecture and urban design as an Assistant Professor, along with leading a number of studios and theory seminars at the University of North Carolina Charlotte and Texas Tech University. He received his Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and Bachelor of Science in Architecture from Texas Tech University.

 

headshot of Xuanyi NieXuanyi Nie’s (DDes ’21) dissertation explores healthcare economy in cities, and the political economy behind the making of medical cities. Having multiple journal articles under review, his research concerns medical and economic geography, urbanization and infectious diseases, and the impacts of health policies on urban governance and development. His research projects have been granted by the Harvard GSD, Joint Center for Housing Studies, Fairbank Center, Harvard Asia Center, and Harvard China Health Partnership. Xuanyi is also a FIABCI scholar awarded by the FIABCI Scholarship Foundation for International Real Estate Studies. He holds a professional certificate in municipal finance awarded by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and is a member of the China Healthcare Architecture Association (CHHA) in Beijing.

Xuanyi’s research has benefited from various academic and professional experiences. He is currently a research fellow at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, focusing on the financing and policies for developing healthcare facilities in China. He has served as a teaching fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design for classes on both urban history and theory, and architectural tectonics. Xuanyi recently worked at the UN-Habitat, engaged in various projects including Strategic Urban Project Financing, International Guidelines on Urban and Territorial planning COVID-19 Response, and COVID-19 and Learnings for Urban Planners. Prior to joining the doctoral program, Xuanyi has worked at KPF, Kengo Kuma, New York Department of City Planning, and NBBJ. He has been invited to present at academic institutions including Peking University, Nanjing University, Tongji University, and Rutgers University. Xuanyi received his Master of Architecture Degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and a Bachelor of Architectural Studies from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand.

 

black and white headshot of Dimitris PapanikolaouDimitris Papanikolaou (DDes ’16) is an urban scientist, architect, and engineer, and a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard GSD. He holds a DDes (’16) from Harvard GSD, an MSc from MIT Media Lab, an SMArchS from MIT SAP, and a Diploma in Architectural Engineering from NTUA. His research combines big data, complex systems modeling, and interactive technologies, to analyze, model, and design intelligent urban infrastructure and mobility systems. He has previously worked at Microsoft Research, developing novel applications of the Internet of Things, and at the MIT Media Lab, co-developing Mobility on Demand, an intelligent sharing system of electric foldable cars named by TIME magazine as the best automotive invention of 2007. His research has been published in 15 peer-reviewed conferences and 7 books and journals, and has received distinctions including the Buckminster Fuller Challenge; the Harvard Deans’ Design Challenge; the MIT Transportation Showcase award in Economics, Finance, Policy and Land Use; the Harvard Fellowship on Energy and Environment; the Harvard Meyer Transportation Research award; and a Fulbright Fellowship for graduate studies at MIT. Starting Fall 2017, he will be a tenure track Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, with a joint appointment between the School of Architecture and the Department of Software Information Systems, where he will be directing the Urban Synergetics lab.

 

headshot of Daekwon ParkDaekwon Park (DDes ’17) is a licensed architect (NY), a LEED accredited professional and a design technologist who has received his MDes degree in Technology at the GSD in 2012. Daekwon has extensive experience in large scale sports and entertainment facility design and has practiced in various countries around the world including USA, Australia, and China. More recently, he worked as the director in Korea for Populous (formerly HOK Sport), independently leading all the projects in Korea including the 2014 Incheon Asian Games Main Stadium. In parallel with this career, Daekwon has also established his multi-disciplinary design practice meta-territory_studio and has been actively participating in various design competitions, exhibitions and publications.

Academically, Daekwon engaged in a wide range of teaching and research opportunities at Harvard, MIT, and EPFL. During his time at Harvard, he actively collaborated with the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering (Harvard), Design Robotics Group (GSD), Responsive Environment and Artifacts Lab (GSD), High-Low Tech Group (MIT Media Lab), Changing Places Group (MIT Media Lab), and Media and Design Laboratory (EPFL). Daekwon’s research studies the intersection between design, digital technology and biotechnology with an emphasis on how it influences the way the built environment is designed, built, and occupied.

 

Pablo Pérez-Ramosblack and white headshot of Pablo Pérez-Ramos (DDes ’18) is Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. His research and teaching focus on the relationship between design and ecology. Departing from the prevalence of ecologically-driven design in today’s landscape architecture, his work retraces the genealogy of systems and process-based ideas in the theory of ecology, and investigates their mediation with design methods that privilege the legibility and the specificity of form.

A licensed architect from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid ETSAM, Pérez-Ramos also holds a Master of Advanced Studies from the same school, and a Master in Landscape Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. His work has been funded through grants and fellowships from the Fundación La Caixa, the Fundación Caja Madrid, the Harvard GSD, the Penny White Fund, and the Harvard RCC.

Pérez-Ramos has been visiting assistant professor and the Urban Landscape Program coordinator in the Northeastern University School of Architecture. He has been a member of the editorial board of the New Geographies journal from 2013 to 2018, and co-editor-in-chief of New Geographies 08: Island (Harvard GSD, 2016). His writing has also been published in A Line in the Andes (Harvard GSD, 2012), MONU (2014), Urban Landscape: Critical Concepts in Built Environment (Routledge, 2015) and Architecture is All Over (Columbia University Press, 2017).

His research and design work have been recognized in international competitions of architecture and urbanism. He is a landscape consultant and has recently served as landscape planning coordinator for the 2025 Masterplan for the Metropolitan District of Quito.

 

black and white headshot of Carolina San Miguel on a beachCarolina San Miguel‘s (DDes ’19) research and interests vary across the fields of human / family & community development, semiotics, social psychology, design thinking, social design & inclusive urbanism, ecological urbanities, healthy environments, risk & resilience in early childhood, child friendly design processes & policies in neighborhoods, child-centered urbanism & activism.

As a designer, architect, urban planner, researcher, community strategist, activist and child advocate, she has lived, studied and worked in Brazil, Switzerland, Norway, Mexico, Bolivia and USA, holding a MAS in Social Housing (ETH, 2010), a MA in Strategic Design (IED, 2007) and a BA in Architecture & Urbanism (CAU-MG, 2003). Her evolving mindset envisions, works, advocates and believes in Design as an anonymous, autonomous and just constructive process of service, across governments, geographical territories, and social constructions, where all realities and peoples matter. Recently, she’s been working on research and grassroots actions with vulnerable populations, fostering families suffering eviction, volunteering, managing and leading community-based activism in homeless shelters for children and youth and collaborating with foster care systems, government and non-profits in private and public partnerships to help homeless children, young moms, their babies and families in vulnerable circumstances of life.

 

headshot of Andreina SeijasAndreina Seijas (DDes ’20) studies the urban night. In other words, how cities can become safer, more inclusive and productive by creating quality spaces for work and leisure not only during the day, but also at night. Her doctoral research analyzes how day-night dynamics are changing over time, and the institutional arrangements—such as the emerging role of ‘night mayors’—that cities have to manage and shape nocturnal environments. By performing a comparative analysis of three systems of nocturnal governance—the laws and institutional arrangements to oversee night-time activity in Amsterdam, London and New York—her work hopes to shed light on the emerging field of night-time planning and policy.

Andreina is a Venezuelan communications professional and public policy analyst with more than 10 years of experience managing communication and policy strategies for the public, private and non-profit sectors. She has a Communications degree from Universidad Católica Andres Bello (Caracas), an MSc in Social Policy and Development from the London School of Economics, and a Master in Public Administration and Non-Profit management from New York University.

Before entering the DDes program, Andreina worked as a consultant for the Housing and Urban Development Division at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington D.C. Previously, Andreina was the Information Manager for the Mayor’s Office of the Chacao Municipality in Caracas, worked as Policy Associate at Americas Society/ Council of the Americas and Editorial Associate for policy journal Americas Quarterly in New York City.

Andreina has presented lectures and papers in seminars and international conferences organized by McGill University, Leiden University, United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), the Responsible Hospitality Institute (RHI) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Her work was also featured at the XX Architecture and Urbanism Biennial in Valparaíso, Chile. Watch her TEDx talk and learn more about her research project at www.andreinaseijas.com.

 

black and white headshot of Julia SmachyloJulia Smachylo (DDes ’21) is an urban designer as well as a registered urban planner in Canada and the United Kingdom. She was a member of the Urban Theory Lab, a Canada Fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and earned secondary degree in Critical Media Practice, which integrates media production into her academic work. Her research responds to an increased awareness and shift towards valuing natural capital in research and policy, as well as the growing influence of non-state actors such as environmental organizations, landowners, and the private sector in shaping landscapes in response to climate change. Using film as a method of investigation, her recent work focus on woodland areas in the province of Ontario, Canada, documenting incentivized managed forests to reveal the extent to which these landscapes are tied to the social, economic and political histories of production and conservation within the region.

Julia has a BA in Geography from Queen’s University, a Master of Science in International Planning from the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, and a Master of Urban Design from the University of Toronto. Before coming to Harvard, Julia worked in planning, landscape and urban design offices in London and Toronto, and in 2014 she was deputy curator of the Canadian exhibition at the 2014 Venice Biennale in Architecture entitled Arctic Adaptations: Nunavut at 15 with Lateral Office. Julia is on the editorial board for the journal New Geographies and was the co-editor of New Geographies: 10 Fallow (2019). Other recent publications include Agents of Design: Incentivized Conservation in Southern Ontario’s Private Forests (in) Wood Urbanism: From the Molecular to the Territorial (2018), and her work with Lateral Office on the book Many Norths: Spatial Practice in a Polar Territory (2017). She has been an invited critic at a variety of universities in Canada and the US for landscape, urban planning and urban design studios, and has taught core studio courses at both Ryerson University and the University of Waterloo.

 

headshot of Jihoon songJihoon Song (DDes ’18) studies urban planning with an architectural background, and his research interests encompass various social and environmental issues related to the making of livable and sustainable cities. His research seeks to better understand interaction between spatial environments and people, with implications for urban policies enhancing social justice, environmental sustainability and healthy living.

Among his specific research topics are urban regeneration, mixed-use and open space planning. Working as a research assistant at the GSD, Jihoon participated in the publication of Cheonggyecheon: The City and the Stream (2010) which analyzed social and environmental impacts of the Cheonggye stream restoration project in Seoul. He also co-authored a paper examining the relationship between commercial use and residential property values for the 2013 AESOP-ACSP conference. He is currently working on a dissertation that investigates environmental factors that influence pattern and volume of open space visitation in Tokyo.

His interests in research methods have led to creative and precise applications of quantitative spatial analysis based on GIS and statistical tools. His dissertation deals with emerging data gathering and analysis techniques, including remotely-sensed imagery and massive GPS data, and ponders the potential and limitations of those techniques to answer important planning questions.

Jihoon holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Seoul National University and a master’s degree in architecture and urban design (MAUD) from Harvard University. He has been fully supported by the Samsung Scholarship since 2008. He practiced architecture at Heerim Architects and taught courses on architectural design and history at Bucheon University in Korea. He also served as a short term consultant for the World Bank, analyzing and suggesting strategy for urban growth in Afghanistan. Currently, he is a cooperative researcher at the Center for Spatial Information Science in the University of Tokyo.

 

black and white headshot of Charu SrivastavaCharu Srivastava (DDes ’23) is an architect and engineer. Her interests include human-building interaction, perceptions of space and the future of workplace design. Her research focused on using machine-learning models to predict the impact of workplace design on perceived worker well-being and work performance.

Previously, Charu has worked as a researcher at the Google R+D Lab for the Built Environment, as well as the Urban Informatics Lab and Hybrid Physical + Digital Spaces at Stanford University. She also practiced architectural design at DES Architects + Engineers and CAW Architects, published articles as a Schneider Fellow at the U.S. Green Building Council and conducted social network analysis at Google Real Estate + Workplace Services.

Charu holds an M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering and a B.S. in Architectural Design Engineering, both from Stanford. She also studied abroad at Oxford University. Her current research is supported by the Dean’s Annual Research Grant for Junior Faculty, the Harvard Real Estate Research Grant and the Harvard Campus Sustainability Innovation Fund. Charu has received an Honorable Mention by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowships Program, the ARCC King Medal for Excellence in Environmental Design and Research and the Chappell Lougee Scholarship.

https://charus.design/

 

black and white headshot of Ashley TannebaumAshley Tannebaum’s (DDes ’21) research examines how evidence-based design can lead to the construction of learning environments that foster academic and social growth. More specifically, Ashley’s dissertation studies at Harvard investigate how the built environment can facilitate collaboration among students within postsecondary innovation spaces, particularly in comparison to remote collaborative modalities. The Healthy Places Design Lab, Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, and Doctor of Design program have generously funded this study.

Ashley centers her career on the study and design of effective, sustainable public spaces both within and outside of the realm of academic environments to foster social engagement. Since 2014, she has worked on academic, civic, and healthcare projects in all stages of design. She holds a Bachelors of Arts in Architecture and a Masters in Architecture + Health from Clemson University – the latter of which included an empirically-based thesis project funded through multiple grants. In this project, she aimed to locate effective behavioral healthcare environments for adolescents and identify specific design strategies to facilitate the therapeutic milieu.

 

black and white headshot of Daniel TishDaniel Tish (DDes ’23) is a designer and researcher whose work lies at the intersection of digital fabrication, material science, sustainability, and computation, investigating new design opportunities through the lens of bespoke materiality. Working in collaboration with material scientists, his dissertation research developed robotic fabrication techniques for a new class of carbon-negative biocomposites made from microorganisms. At Harvard, Daniel was a member of the MaP+S group, and has had his research generously supported by the Center for Green Buildings and Cities and the Joint Center for Housing Studies. Daniel is also a Research Associate at Autodesk, where he develops new technologies for construction robotics. His work has been published as a part of recent ACADIA, Fabricate, Rob|Arch, and IASS conferences, as well as in the book Towards a Robotic Architecture and the journals Construction Robotics and TAD. Daniel’s work has been exhibited at Design Miami/ Basel and in venues across the US and in Australia.

Daniel was previously a Lecturer at the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, where he taught digital fabrication. Additionally, he led an intensive summer masterclass at the University of Technology Sydney. Daniel has worked in the research offices of RVTR in Ann Arbor and murmur in Los Angeles, as well as in commercial firms in Chicago and St. Louis. Daniel received his Master of Architecture with Distinction from the University of Michigan and his Bachelor of Science in Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis with a self-guided special major in Sustainable Design.

 

Lara TomholtLara Tomholt (DDes ’22) studied how the integration of science, technology and design can help us develop new, innovative concepts for adaptable façades that significantly increase the energy efficiency of building thermoregulation.

Alongside her doctoral research at the GSD, she was part of Harvard’s Council of Student Sustainability Leaders, joined The Green Program, and conducted materials research for the GSD’s Adaptive Living Environments (ALivE) group. She was a research assistant for the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities (CGBC), and conducted biology and biologically inspired robotics research at the Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory (formerly affiliated with the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering). Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including Energy & Buildings, Journal of Structural Biology and Science Translational Medicine.

Lara holds a BSc and MSc degree in Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences from Delft University of Technology. As part of her studies in Delft, she participated in multiple projects of The Why Factory (part of MVRDV) and an exchange program with the Polytechnic University of Milan. She worked as an intern at Benthem Crouwel Architects, after which her research was presented at the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam 2014.

Her other interests include complex data visualization, parametric modeling, fabrication, animal welfare, and food sustainability.

laratomholt.nl

 

black and white headshot of Guy Trangoš

Guy Trangoš (DDes ’21) is a South African architect, designer and urban researcher. He is a founding partner in Meshworks Architecture and Urbanism, and a member of the New Geographies editorial board. His doctoral research investigates the historical, human, and spatial processes enacted by megascience.

Guy’s broader research considers the evolving relationships between urbanization, society, science, technology, and outer space. He has written on these and other themes for numerous publications including Folio, Perspecta, Scenario Journal, The Architectural Review, City Journal, Canadian Architect, and Architecture South Africa. In 2019 he edited New Geographies 11: Extraterrestrial, and in 2015 edited ‘Movement Johannesburg’. He also has authored chapters in other edited volumes.

He works commonly in multidisciplinary teams, and has been instrumental in award-winning architectural, research and graphic projects. He has most recently been employed as a researcher at LSE Cities, a lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand, a researcher at the Gauteng City-Region Observatory, and a Teaching Fellow at the GSD. He has also been a guest lecturer and critic at numerous institutions.

Guy holds a MSc. in City Design and Social Science from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Master of Architecture (Professional) from the University of the Witwatersrand.

guytrangos.com

 

black and white headshot of Hanne van den BergHanne van den Berg (DDes ’21) is an urban planner and designer specialized in urban resilience, adaptation to climate change, participatory planning and (urban) decision-making processes and tools. As a Fulbright Fellow and doctoral researcher at the GSD, Hanne studies adaptive and participatory approaches to urban (climate) resilience. She focuses on the disproportionate impact of climate change on vulnerable communities and ways to achieve more equitable adaptation to climate change.

Before coming to Harvard, Hanne worked as researcher/advisor at the Dutch applied research institute of Deltares, where she was involved in the development of climate adaptation and urban resilience strategies and tools for the Netherlands, Bangladesh, Mexico and the United States. This included a two-year relocation to Singapore to strengthen Deltares´ knowledge alliance with the National University of Singapore. She has furthermore worked for architecture and urban design offices in London and in the Netherlands.

At the GSD, she has been a Teaching Fellow for a Design and Planning Studio on urban justice in Pittsburgh; Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis; as well as a Thesis Preparation course for Urban Design and Urban Planning students. She has acted as Thesis Director for students in the Urban Planning and Urban Design program and served as guest critic for numerous reviews at the GSD and externally. Her teaching experience furthermore includes a position as Studio Tutor at Delft University of Technology.

Her publications include peer-reviewed journal articles and conference publications, as well as assistance on a book publication on Singapore’s blue-green infrastructure with her Harvard GSD primary advisor (expected in 2019) and co-authorship of another book on urban grids and blocks with the same advisor (expected in 2019).

Hanne holds an MSc degree in Urban Planning and Design from Delft University of Technology (cum laude), an MA and BA degree in Architecture from the University of Cambridge (Honours) and a BSc in Natural Sciences from University College Utrecht (summa cum laude).

 

picture of Bing Wang sitting at a table in front of a 3D model of a cityscapeBing Wang (DDes ’17) is a post-doctoral research fellow at Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities. His primary research interest is building performance informed design, including building performance evaluation and its integration with design, especially in regard to natural ventilation, but also including daylighting, energy consumption and thermal comfort. In his doctoral research he developed a design decision-making support system for early-stage design considering natural ventilation potential and embedded the system in Rhino Grasshopper.

Bing worked as teaching assistance at both Harvard University and Tsinghua University for core courses and studios, as well as research assistance for various research projects. In addition, he also has working experience in Transsolar, supervised by the director, Matthias Schuler, and worked in collaboration with architects Steven Holl, Frank Gehry and others. He worked there as a computational fluid dynamics specialist, focusing on analysis of natural ventilation and thermal comfort of indoor and outdoor spaces.

In addition to his DDes degree, Bing Wang holds a Master degree in Design Studies in Energy and Environment from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor degree of engineering from Tsinghua University in China. His previous work was published in peer-reviewed journals as well as presented in international conferences.

 

headshot of Liang WangLiang Wang (DDes ’23) is an architect, urban designer, and educator. He  was previously a teaching fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He taught at Syracuse University School of Architecture as the 2020-21 Harry der Boghosian Fellow. Liang’s scholarship and teaching concern history and theory of urban form, space and politics of the superblock, architecture and the idea of the city in East Asia, as well as the idea of the commons and collective living. His research work and teaching have been supported by Harvard University, Syracuse University, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, among others. In line with his research work, Liang is the co-author of the book Urban Blocks and Grids: History, Technical Features, and Outcomes (Scholars’ Press, 2019). He is also the co-editor of the twelfth issue Commons of the New Geographies journal (Harvard University Press, 2021). .

Previously, Liang completed his Master of Architecture in Urban Design degree with distinction from the GSD, where he was awarded the Urban Design Thesis Prize and the Clifford Wong Prize in Housing Design. He also holds a Master of Architecture degree from Rice University, where he won the Morris R. Pitman Award in Architecture and the Fondren Research Award.

In addition to his academic experiences, Liang is the co-founder of Commons Office—a creative think tank and a research-minded design practice. Prior to founding Commons Office, he practiced architecture and urban design internationally at Herzog & de Meuron, SOM, WW Architecture, and Atelier Liu Yuyang Architects.

www.liang-wang.com

 

headshot of Jung Hyun WooJung Hyun Woo (DDes ’20) is an architect, urban designer, and planner specializing in spatial analytics for transit development plan and its design. Her doctoral dissertation concerns a multidimensional evaluation for Transit Oriented Development associated with infrastructure, walkability, culture, public realm, economies, and design. She developed an empirical research method with spatial network analysis tools in which a model projection for assessment of TOD impacts on a city and its urban qualities.

She holds a Master’s degree in Urbanism, Landscape, Ecology from the Harvard GSD. She earned an Advanced Master of Architecture at the Berlage Institute in the Netherlands, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Ewha Womans University in South Korea.

Along with her practice, she worked at Relational Urbanism Office in London, MVRDV in Rotterdam, and SIAPLAN in Seoul. She taught an urban design core studio at the Berlage Institute in TU Delft (2012-2013) and was invited as a guest critic and lecturer in different countries. She has served as a teaching fellow and a research assistant at the Harvard GSD since 2015. She has published a research article in Kerb Journal 23: Digital Landscape (RMIT University, 2016) and her “Green Line- The Ecological Trajectory of Broadway in Manhattan” design project has been widely reported by the professional news media, such as NY Daily News, Abitare, Dezeen, and Business Insider. Her work has appeared in various publications, including the Vertical Village (MVRDV, NAI Publishers & Equalbooks, 2012), and Sketches for a National History Museum (SUN Publishers, 2011.)
www.archiurbanplatform.com

 

headshot of Longfeng WuLongfeng Wu (DDes ’20) has a background in urban planning and landscape architecture. He is interested in the ecological and social services of green space in contemporary urbanization typically in the developing world. His dissertation focused on how the spatial distribution and formation of urban-rural green space effect its ecological as well as socioeconomic contributions during the rapid urban expansion in Beijing metropolitan area. Relying on data construction and consumption from various sources with the support of GIS techniques and quantitative analysis tools, Longfeng targeted a more efficient planning approach to improve the performance of the future urban-rural green spaces.

Longfeng holds a Master in Design Studies concentrated in Urbanism Landscape Ecology from Harvard Graduate School of Design. His researches have been granted by the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard Asia Center, the Penny White Fund, Geology Society of America, and Harvard Center for Geographical Analysis. He also received scholarship from China Scholarship Council for the doctoral study. Before in GSD, he received a Bachelor of Engineering in Landscape Architecture and a Master of Engineering in Urban Planning from Beijing Forestry University. He has been involved in various scales of landscape design and planning projects closely working with several renowned landscape architects in China.

 

black and white headshot of Dingliang YangDingliang Yang (DDes ’19) is an architect and urban designer from China. He received his Master of Architecture in Urban Design Degree with distinction at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design where he was awarded Urban Planning and Design Thesis Prize and Paul M. Heffernan Fellowship. He also holds a bachelor’s degree of architecture with highest honor of Chu Kochen Medal from Zhejiang University in China.

Yang is the author of Urban Grids: Handbook for City Design (ORO, 2019), Zhengzhou: from Rail-City to Metro-Polis (AR+D, 2019), Regular City in Chongqing (Harvard GSD, 2018) and Savannah: Rethinking the Multi-Scalar Capacity of the City Project (Mariscal, 2018), Shanghai Regeneration: Five Paradigms (AR+D, 2016), Hangzhou: Grids from Canal to Maxi-Block (AR+D, 2016) and forthcoming book Townization: In Search of New Paradigm of Urbanization in China (Springer, 2019). His most recent writings are included in CITY, EL Croquis, Mechanics in Engineering, Time+Architecture, Taiqian: The Countryside as a City (Harvard GSD, 2015), Cities and Urban Plans in the 21st Century (AMB, 2014), and Xiamen: The Megaplot (Harvard GSD, 2013). Besides his academic work, Yang is the founding partner of VARY DESIGN, conducting practices at different scales both in US and China. He has won various awards, inclusive of Architizer A+Awards and The American Architecture Prize, and his works have been widely published and exhibited, including Venice Biennale, Beijing International Art Biennale, Beijing Design Week and China International Architectural Decoration and Design Art Fair and Architecture and Design Museum.

Yang’s dissertation is entitled “Between the Past and Future: the Transformation of the Pearl River Delta”.

 

headshot of Arta Yazdanseta showing side profile Arta Yazdanseta (DDes ’18) is a LEED certified architect. She is a research assistant at the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities (HCGBC) where she is investigating the thermal impact of green walls on building energy performance. Her research explores the intersection between design, building science, and plant biophysical ecology and emphasizes coupling building energy performance with vertical vegetative surfaces through design strategies.

Arta received her Masters of Design (MDes) in Energy and Environment in Design from GSD and her professional architectural degree (with Honors) from the Pratt Institute. Her work experience includes both large scale master plans and small residential projects. She has worked with numerous well known design firms such as SHoP Architects and hMa. She founded her architectural design studio, LINX Architecture, in 2008 while serving as a visiting instructor at the Pratt Institute.

During her tenure at the Pratt Institute, Arta created and developed the Institute’s Building Information Modeling (BIM) department, designing and teaching two BIM courses as well as overseeing the creation of the BIM lab itself. She also served as a lecturer in several other courses, including Professional Practice.

Arta’s team was the first prize winner of the 2012 IBPSA Student Competition Award in Chambery, France, and her Master’s thesis, Radiative Cooling Roof Systems, was a winner of the Harvard Sustainability Grant. She is a recipient of the Circle Award Fellowship and was an AIA Women’s Architectural Auxiliary Eleanor Allwork Scholar. Her work has been displayed at the New York Chapter of the AIA and has been published in Metropolis magazine.

 

headshot of Nari YoonNari Yoon (DDes ’19) is a research assistant at the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities. As a building performance research enthusiast, her cross-disciplinary design study involves high building performance, urban airflow, building energy simulation (BES) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). She is currently working on a method of informing designers with the predictive building performance achieved through passive strategies including natural ventilation and thermal mass for the customized design and usages.

Her academic and professional interests range from architectural design to engineering, as she has accumulated various experiences from architectural and engineering firms. Before attending the DDes program, she worked as a building performance analyst and CFD engineer at Cradle North America, where she performed independent studies on natural ventilation with CFD and assisted clients in CFD simulations. She conducted research about a BIM-integrated CFD automation and demonstrated the potential for applying CFD to design phases. She has held several workshops and lectures about the applications of CFD for buildings at professional conferences and academic institutions.

Nari holds a Master in Design Studies from the Harvard GSD and a B.Arch from Hongik University, Korea.

 

headshot of Jeongmin YuJeongmin Yu (DDes ’20) is interested in informal settlements in highly developed East Asian cities. Focusing on the period from the 1940s to the present, her study explores the various forms and histories of informal settlements, with a particular focus on rooftop housing. Rooftop housing, which in most instances are illegally built and inhabited, is a common occurrence throughout East Asian cities. Jeongmin’s research explores its architectural typology, current demographics, relation to formal housing, role in society, and its future with the potential developments on the local and regional level.

Previously, Jeongmin worked at the Architecture & Urban Research Institute (AURI) in Korea and at the NYC Department of City Planning in the Urban Design Department. At AURI, she worked on an affordable housing project under South Korea’s Park administration (2013-2018), and constructed a database for Han-Ok (traditional Korean housing) remodeling. She was a teaching fellow and a guest critic at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and Korea University.

Jeongmin holds a BA in Architecture from Columbia and a MLA from the GSD. Her master’s thesis proposed ways to improve the vulnerable housing and infrastructure in South Korea’s Daldongnaes (informal settlement areas). The project explored ways to minimize the residents’ inconvenience throughout the upgrade process, preserve the site’s local fabric, and promote a heightened sense of community.

 

headshot of Jingyi ZhangJingyi Zhang (DDes ’18) researches real estate and land economics. She studies the impact of mixed land use and urban amenities on residential housing prices. Her other research interests include infrastructure finance, public-private partnership and real estate investment. Jingyi is the recipient of Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies John Meyer Dissertation Fellowship 2015-2016.

Prior to attending the Harvard GSD, Jingyi worked at the World Bank’s Sustainable Development Department in Washington DC for two years. She worked on research and operations in the regions of East Asia, Latin America and Africa covering a wide range of fields of land value capturing of urban rail, land development strategies for Special Economic Zones, tourism promotion through cultural heritage protection and urban regeneration, small town urbanization and municipal finance. Jingyi also worked in real estate investment with institutional investors including sovereign wealth fund, pension and endowment funds. In Cambridge, Jingyi worked as a research assistant and a teaching fellow for real estate finance and development courses at the GSD and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Jingyi holds a Master of Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and a bachelor’s degree from Peking University with a double major in Economics and Spanish.