Kongjian Yu
President, Turenscape; Dean and Professor, Graduate School of Landscape Architecture, Peking University, Beijing, China
"The Art of Survival: Recovering Landscape Architecture"

Lecture description:
Time Magazine called Kongjian Yu as "The Force of Nature," and Yu defined landscape architecture as the art of survival. In this lecture, Dr. Yu uses multiple projects to demonstrate landscape architecture as a powerful tool to achieve sustainability and green urbanism, and define a new and poetic vernacular landscape in contemporary China, while addressing issues of survival, such as flood control, food production, ecological recovery.

Brief bio:
Kongjian Yu received his Doctor of Design Degree at The Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1995. He is the founder and dean of the Graduate School of Landscape Architecture at Peking University, and the founder and president of Turenscape, which is an internationally awarded firm with more than 300 professionals and is one of the first and largest private landscape architecture and architecture firms in China.

Dr. Yu is a five-time winner of ASLA Honor Awards (The American Society of Landscape Architects) in the past five years for his ecologically and culturally sensitive projects, two-time winner of the Architectural Review Award (Commended, Architectural Review, UK). Dr. Yu is the winner of the National Gold Medal of Fine Arts (2004, China). In 2004, Dr. Yu was awarded the Oversea Chinese Pioneer Achievement Medal by the Chinese central government for his overall contribution to the nation. Dr. Yu was the keynote speaker for the 40th and 43rd IFLA World Congress, and the 2006 ASLA annual conference. In October, he will also keynote at the 2008 ASLA annual conference.

Dr. Yu publishes widely, including more than 200 papers and 15 books. His current book is: The Art Of Survival: Recovering Landscape Architecture. His major research interests include: the theory and method of landscape architecture and urban planning; the cultural aspect of the landscape; landscape security patterns and ecological infrastructure.

For more information visit: Turenscape website

For event details contact: Brooke King (bking@gsd.harvard.edu)

Now in its 20th year, this annual report looks at the pressures facing the nation's housing markets and beyond them to the underpinnings of long run housing supply and demand. Copies of the report, press release and fact sheet will be available at the event

For more information visit:

For event details contact: Elizabeth England (eengland@gsd.harvard.edu)

Mimi Hoang + Eric Bunge,
Principals, nARCHITECTS, Brooklyn, NY
"63% BUILT, 37% NOT BUILT"

Eric Bunge and Mimi Hoang's New York based practice nARCHITECTS aims for maximum effect with an economy of conceptual and material means. Their recent and ongoing projects range from buildings to ephemeral environments, and include Switch Building in Manhattan, Windshape in Lacoste France, Canopy for MoMA/P.S.1, a new park for the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, and Villa-Villa in Ordos, China. nARCHITECTS' work has been published and exhibited internationally, including the forthcoming monograph "nARCHITECTS 2000-2008" with Design Documents, now in press. Recent awards include AIA Design Honor Awards (2007, 2005), a NYSCA (New York State Council of the Arts) Award (2007), The Architectural League of New York's Emerging Voices (2006), an AR+D Mention (2006), Architectural Record's Design Vanguard (2004), the MoMA/P.S.1 Young Architects Program (2004), and New York Foundation for the Arts grants (2007,2002).

Hoang received a Master of Architecture from Harvard University, and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from M.I.T. She teaches graduate design studios at Yale and Columbia Universities and has taught at Berkeley University. Prior to co-founding nARCHITECTS, she trained in New York, Boston and Amsterdam.

Bunge received a Master of Architecture from the GSD and a Bachelor of Architecture from McGill University. He teaches at Columbia University, and has taught as the Coordinator of Graduate Thesis at Parsons School of Design, as well as at R.I.S.D., Barnard College, Berkeley University and University of Toronto. Prior to co-founding nARCHITECTS, he trained in New York, Boston, Paris, Calcutta and London. Bunge is the recipient of the 2005 Canadian Professional Rome Prize.

For more information visit: nARCHITECTS firm website
  or: Their studio option offering at the GSD this semester

For event details contact: Brooke King (bking@gsd.harvard.edu)

Joanna Aizenberg
Gordon McKay Professor of Materials Science; Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor; Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
"Natural Glass Houses in the Deep: Lessons in Design"

In the course of evolution, Nature has developed strategies that endow biological processes with exquisite selectivity and specificity, and produce superior materials and structures. This is wonderfully exemplified in the realm of inorganic materials formation by organisms, so-called "biomineralization".

Learning from and mastering Nature's concepts not only satisfies humankind's insatiable curiosity for understanding the world around us, but also promises to drive a paradigm shift in modern materials science and technology.

Professor Aizenberg's research is aimed at understanding some of the basic principles of biomineralization and the economy with which biology solves complex problems in the design of functional inorganic materials. She then uses biological principles as guidance in developing new, bio-inspired synthetic routes and nanofabrication strategies that would lead to advanced materials and devices. Aizenberg is one of the pioneers of this rapidly developing field of biomimetic inorganic materials synthesis.

Professor Aizenberg pursues a broad range of research interests that include biomimetics, self-assembly, crystal engineering, surface chemistry, nanofabrication, biomaterials, biomechanics and biooptics.

For more information visit: The Aizenberg Biomineralization and Biomimetics Lab website

For event details contact: Brooke King (bking@gsd.harvard.edu)

New Trajectories: Contemporary Architecture in Croatia and Slovenia
Presentations and panel discussion with Petra Ceferin, Sasa Randic, Bostjan Vuga, and moderators Mariana Ibanez and Eve Blau

Sasa Randic is a principal of Randic-Turanto, located in Rijeka, Croatia. Bostjan Vuga is a principal of Sadar Vuga Arhitekti in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Petra Ceferin is an architect and researcher; she writes and lectures on the construction of architectural imagery, the influence of media on architecture and the possibilities of an autonomous architecture. She lives and works in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

About the exhibition:
How are emerging practices in these newly independent countries setting new benchmarks in innovative design? How have young Croatian and Slovenian architects embraced both the legacy of their architectural traditions and forward-thinking production? What will be the impact of the countries' joining the European community on the design sphere?

These and other questions are addressed in "New Trajectories: Contemporary Architecture in Croatia and Slovenia," which focuses on the work of thirteen practices. The exhibition, which is curated by Mariana Ibanez, Assistant Professor of Architecture, is on display in Gund Hall Gallery at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. A moderated discussion with architects from both countries will be held in conjunction with the exhibition from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm on September 17 in Gund Hall's Piper Auditorium.

"New Trajectories" is the first in a series of exhibitions and conferences at the GSD that seek to redress the imbalance of our views of the design disciplines that are primarily informed by a set of dominant practices over what might be called minor or emergent practices in different parts of the world.

Over the last ten years, the economies of Croatia and Slovenia -- in transition from communist Yugoslavia to capitalist countries -- allowed for a flourishing design community to emerge without the pressures of a demanding market. Well-organized systems of public competitions gave young practices access to complex commissions -- testing innovative ideas at multiple scales and seeing them realized. As a result, new generations of Croatian and Slovenian architects have developed exceptional work that is both innovative and charged with the legacy of their own architectural heritage. Regardless of the differences between the two countries and the design practices, the production techniques and strategies implemented by these architects can be situated at the core of contemporary architectural production.

As Slovenia has joined the European Union, soon to be followed by Croatia, these nations will be open to foreign investments and foreign architects. Larger corporate interests and the seduction of the instant icon will present an interesting challenge to local designers. As they have ably demonstrated, however, the architects of Croatia and Slovenia will certainly enter this new stage, while expanding into global territories, with a confidence stemming from their established identity.

For more information visit: Randic-Turanto firm website
  or: Sadar Vuga Arhiteki firm website

For event details contact: Brooke King (bking@gsd.harvard.edu)