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• Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning
• Introduction

Harvard Griffin GSAS strives to provide students with timely, accurate, and clear information. If you need help understanding a specific policy, please contact the office that administers that policy.

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• Registration

Questions about these requirements? See the contact info at the bottom of the page. 

Students may study for a PhD degree in architecture, landscape architecture, or urban planning. The program is jointly administered by a committee of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in cooperation with the Faculty of Design.

The program is intended for persons who wish to enter teaching and advanced research careers in the history and theory of architecture, architectural technology, landscape architecture, and urban form from antiquity to the present; or the analysis and development of cities, landscapes, and regions with an emphasis on social, economic, ecological, transportation and infrastructural systems. (The PhD program does not prepare students for licensing as design practitioners in any of these fields. For information on professional master's programs, contact the Graduate School of Design, Admissions Office, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, 617-495-5453.)

Academic Residence

Two years of full-time study while registered in the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Harvard Griffin GSAS) are required. 

Program of Study  

Course information for most courses at Harvard (including both the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the Graduate School of Design) is available in the  my.harvard Course Listings . The  Cross Registration catalog  is a helpful resource for courses at other Harvard professional schools.  

Students are expected to prepare in each of the following areas:

• General Knowledge of the Field: Field has two meanings in architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning. It can refer to the professional domain to which the student’s research is related. More importantly, it refers to the academic domain chosen by the student. Regarding the first meaning, the PhD is an academic degree, but PhD holders in our fields may be interacting with professionals. In fact, many may elect to teach in professional schools. Therefore, in addition to academic requirements, it is advised that PhD students be generally knowledgeable of the basic skills of the respective design professions. As for the second meaning, doctoral research is necessarily in conversation with other research. Doctoral students must acquire a good knowledge of the disciplinary environment in which they plan to insert themselves as scholars.
• Major Subject: The interfaculty structure and purposes of the program require that students cross disciplinary boundaries. All students must master a major area of their respective academic field, including the historic development and current state of research on the subject. In addition, every student must demonstrate competence in the methods of inquiry used for research in his or her major subject.
• All students must also achieve a thorough grounding in the theory and methods of one of the arts or sciences related to their major subject, such as history of art, cultural history, economics, philosophy, government, sociology, or history of science equivalent to at least one year of full-time graduate study.
• Languages and Mathematics: Candidates for the degree in architecture must normally have a reading knowledge of at least two languages other than English in which there is broad and important literature related to their field or major subject; those in urban planning must have one other language. Every student must have a level of mathematical skills appropriate for research in the major subject. 
• There are two required courses, Discourse and Methods I and II. These seminars are designed as an introduction to the methodologies, canonical texts, and major issues that have shaped the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, and/or urbanism.

The Harvard Griffin GSAS requires that all students maintain an average of B or better in each year of graduate study. All Incomplete grades must be removed before the end of the next regular term. If students are cross-registered in Schools where the grading system does not use letter grades, they should ask the course instructor to issue letter grades.

Faculty Advisor and Student's Graduate Committee

The chair of the PhD committee will assign a faculty member as the student’s advisor at the time of registration in the program. This advisor will assist in planning the student’s academic program. In addition, not fewer than two faculty members, appointed by the chair in consultation with the student, will be made available for consultation regarding the general examination, prospectus, and the dissertation.

Master of Arts (AM)

The department does not admit candidates for a terminal AM degree. PhD candidates, after having completed eight four-credit courses with satisfactory grades, may apply for a master’s degree. The degree may also be offered to students unable to complete the PhD.

Teaching Fellowships

Teaching fellowships are considered important for a student’s professional training and are guaranteed in the third and fourth years. Normally a student teaches two to four sections per year.

General Examination

Students are expected to take the general examination in the fifth term of residence and no later than one year after completion of the required coursework. The examination is given only during the fall and spring terms of the academic year. The examination tests the student’s mastery of their general field of scholarship, specific interpretive problems within that field, and their ability to research and write a dissertation.

At least two months prior to the date of the examination, the student should meet regularly with the examination committee and, with its help, should formulate a proposal describing the general and specific fields to be covered in the examination and possible examination questions.

The examination comprises a general and a specific field. The general field is ordinarily a broad area of history and theory of architecture, landscape architecture, or urban planning (for example, “modern architecture from 1750 to the present”). The specific field is a narrower area of study chosen by the student and subject to faculty review; in principle it should comprise a coherent and clearly defined area of scholarly inquiry that may be interdisciplinary in nature. The examination will normally consist of both an oral and written exam. The expectation will be that the oral will be used for the general field and the written for the specific. This may be inverted if the student and committee feel it is of more value to do it in that manner. Two or three written essays (total eight hours) will be assigned for the specific field. Within one week of the written examination, the student and the examination committee will meet to evaluate the entire examination and discuss plans for the dissertation. Students whose performance on the examination is not satisfactory will be given one opportunity to repeat all or part of it. 

Dissertation

The dissertation will be directed by a committee consisting of one primary advisor and at least two secondary advisors or readers.

Two readers must be from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences or the Standing Committee on Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning; one reader will normally be from the area of the student's disciplinary minor; and one reader must be from the Graduate School of Design. No later than five months (within the academic calendar) after the successful completion of the general examination, students will submit to the chair a written dissertation proposal and the names of the faculty persons who will supervise it. The student will confer with the examination committee to discuss and develop the proposal. The committee will conduct an oral examination of the dissertation proposal the purpose of which is to provide for the student a formal occasion to discuss and gain approval of the dissertation topic. 

The completed manuscript of the dissertation must be submitted to the director and readers no less than six weeks before the formal defense. The degree recommendation of the dissertation committee is due at the Registrar’s Office per its assigned completion deadlines. The final copy of the dissertation must conform to the requirements described in  Dissertations .

Length of Program

Students are normally expected to complete their program (including approval of the dissertation) within seven years of entering the program. Students who require more than five years to complete the dissertation after passing the general examination must petition the Committee on the PhD Program in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning to extend their time. 

Contact Info

Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning Website

Margaret Moore de Chicojay   Programs Administrator  617-495-2337   Send Email

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MA & PhD in Architecture

Ucla architecture and urban design offers two academic graduate degrees: the master of arts in architecture (ma) and doctor of philosophy in architecture (phd)..

The programs produce students whose scholarship aims to provoke and operate within architecture’s public, professional, and scholarly constituencies. Both programs are supported by the Standing Committee, made up of five faculty members: Michael Osman (interim program director), Cristóbal Amunátegui , Dana Cuff , Samaa Elimam , and Ayala Levin . A number of visiting faculty teach courses to expand the range of offerings.

Applications for the MA/PhD program (Fall 2024 matriculation) are completed via the UCLA Application for Graduate Admission , and are due January 6, 2024. Candidates will be notified of decisions in March 2024; admitted candidates who wish to accept the offer of matriculation must submit their Statement of Intent to Register (SIR) by April 15, 2024.

All MA and PhD students are required to enroll in a two-year colloquium focused on methods for writing, teaching, and researching in the field of architecture. The six courses that constitute the colloquium train students in the apparatus of academic scholarship. Over the two-year sequence, students produce original research projects and develop skills in long-format writing.

Research Opportunities

The intellectual life of the students in the MA and PhD programs are reinforced by the increasing number of opportunities afforded to students through specialized faculty-led research projects. These include cityLAB-UCLA and the Urban Humanities Institute .

MA in Architecture

This program prepares students to work in a variety of intellectual and programmatic milieus including historical research, cultural studies, and interdisciplinary studies with particular emphasis on connections with geography, design, art history, history of science and literary studies, as well as studio and design based research.

Beyond the core colloquium, MA students take a series of approved courses both at UCLA AUD and across campus. The MA program is a two-year degree, culminating in a thesis. The thesis is developed from a paper written by the student in their coursework and developed in consultation with the primary advisor and the standing committee. In addition to courses and individual research, students often participate in collective, project-based activities, including publications, symposia and exhibitions.

The program is distinguished by its engagement with contemporary design and historical techniques as well by the unusual balance it offers: fostering great independence and freedom in the students’ courses of study while providing fundamental training in architectural scholarship.

Recent MA Theses

• Jacqueline Meyer, “Crafting Utopia: Paolo Soleri and the Building of Arcosanti.”
• Joseph Maguid, “The Architecture of the Videogame: Architecture as the Link Between Representational and Participatory Immersion.”
• Meltem Al, “The Agency of Words and Images in the Transformation of Istanbul: The Case of Ayazma.”
• Courtney Coffman, “Addressing Architecture and Fashion: On Simulacrum, Time and Poché.”
• Joseph Ebert, “Prolegomena to a Poiesis of Architectural Phenomenology.”
• Jamie Aron, “Women Images: From the Bauhaus Weaving Workshop to the Knoll Textile Division.”
• Gustave Heully, “Moldy Assumptions.”
• Brigid McManama, “Interventions on Pacoima Wash: Repurposing Linear Infrastructure into Park Spaces.”

MA Typical Study Program

Phd in architecture.

This program prepares students to enter the academic professions, either in architectural history, architectural design, or other allied fields. PhD students are trained to teach courses in the history and theory of architecture while also engaging in studio pedagogy and curatorial work. In addition to the colloquium, PhD students take a series of approved courses both at UCLA Architecture and Urban Design and across campus. They select these courses in relation to their own research interests and in consultation with their primary advisor. The priorities for selection are breadth of knowledge and interdisciplinary experience that retains a focused area of expertise. To this end, the students identify Major and Minor Fields of study. The Minor Field is generally fulfilled by satisfactorily completing three courses given by another department and the Major Field by five courses offered by UCLA Architecture and Urban Design.

Once coursework is completed, PhD students move to the Comprehensive Exam, Qualifying Exam, and the writing of a dissertation, and final defense, if deemed appropriate by the doctoral committee. In the transition from coursework to exams, PhD students work on one paper beyond its original submission as coursework. The paper begins in the context of a departmental seminar, but often continues either in the context of an independent study, summer mentorship, or a second seminar with faculty consent. Upon the research paper’s acceptance, students begin preparing for their comprehensive exam. Before their third year, students must also satisfactorily complete three quarters of language study or its equivalent according to University standards. The particular language will be determined in consultation with the Standing Committee. The Comprehensive Exam is administered by at least two members of the Standing Committee and at most one faculty member from another Department at UCLA, also a member of the Academic Senate.

The Comprehensive Exam tests two fields: the first covers a breadth of historical knowledge—300 years at minimum—and the second focuses on in-depth knowledge of a specialization that is historically and thematically circumscribed. Students submit an abstract on each of these fields, provide a substantial bibliography, and prepare additional documentation requested by their primary advisor. These materials are submitted to the committee no less than two weeks before the exam, which occurs as early as the end of the second year. Students are encouraged to complete the Comprehensive Exam no later than the end of their third year of study.

The Comprehensive Exam itself consists of two parts: an oral component that takes place first, and then a written component. The oral component is comprised of questions posed by the committee based on the student’s submitted materials. The goal of the exam is for students to demonstrate their comprehensive knowledge of their chosen field. The written component of the exam (which may or may not be waived by the committee) consists of a written response to a choice of questions posed by the committee. The goal of this portion of the exam is for students to demonstrate their research skills, their ability to develop and substantiate an argument, and to show promise of original contribution to the field. Students have two weeks to write the exam. After the committee has read the exam, the advisor notifies the student of the committee’s decision. Upon the student’s successful completion of the Comprehensive Exam, they continue to the Qualifying Exam.

Students are expected to take the Qualifying Exam before the beginning of the fourth year. The exam focuses on a dissertation prospectus that a student develops with their primary advisor and in consultation with their PhD committee. Each student’s PhD committee consists of at least two members of the Standing Committee and one outside member from another department at the University (and a member of the Faculty Senate). Committees can also include faculty from another institution. All committees are comprised of at least three members of UCLA Academic Senate. The prospectus includes an argument with broad implications, demonstrates that the dissertation will make a contribution of knowledge and ideas to the field, demonstrates mastery of existing literature and discourses, and includes a plan and schedule for completion.

The PhD dissertation is written after the student passes the qualifying exam, at which point the student has entered PhD candidacy. The dissertation is defended around the sixth year of study. Students graduating from the program have taken posts in a wide range of universities, both in the United States and internationally.

Recent PhD Dissertations

• Marko Icev, "Building Solidarity: Architecture After Disaster and The Skopje 1963 Post-Earthquake Reconstruction." ( Read )
• Anas Alomaim, "Nation Building in Kuwait, 1961-1991."
• Tulay Atak, “Byzantine Modern: Displacements of Modernism in Istanbul.”
• Ewan Branda, “Virtual Machines: Culture, telematique, and the architecture of information at Centre Beaubourg, 1968–1977.”
• Aaron Cayer, "Design and Profit: Architectural Practice in the Age of Accumulation"
• Per-Johan Dahl, “Code Manipulation, Architecture In-Between Universal and Specific Urban Spaces.”
• Penelope Dean, “Delivery without Discipline: Architecture in the Age of Design.”
• Miriam Engler, “Gordon Cullen and the ‘Cut-and-Paste’ Urban Landscape.”
• Dora Epstein-Jones, “Architecture on the Move: Modernism and Mobility in the Postwar.”
• Sergio Figueiredo, “The Nai Effect: Museological Institutions and the Construction of Architectural Discourse.”
• Jose Gamez, “Contested Terrains: Space, Place, and Identity in Postcolonial Los Angeles.”
• Todd Gannon, “Dissipations, Accumulations, and Intermediations: Architecture, Media and the Archigrams, 1961–1974.”
• Whitney Moon, "The Architectural Happening: Diller and Scofidio, 1979-89"
• Eran Neuman, “Oblique Discourses: Claude Parent and Paul Virilio’s Oblique Function Theory and Postwar Architectural Modernity.”
• Alexander Ortenberg, “Drawing Practices: The Art and Craft of Architectural Representation.”
• Brian Sahotsky, "The Roman Construction Process: Building the Basilica of Maxentius"
• Marie Saldana, “A Procedural Reconstruction of the Urban Topography of Magnesia on The Maeander.”
• David Salomon, “One Thing or Another: The World Trade Center and the Implosion of Modernism.”
• Ari Seligmann, “Architectural Publicity in the Age of Globalization.”
• Zheng Tan, “Conditions of The Hong Kong Section: Spatial History and Regulatory Environment of Vertically Integrated Developments.”
• Jon Yoder, “Sight Design: The Immersive Visuality of John Lautner.”

A Sampling of PhD Alumni and Their Pedagogy

Iman Ansari , Assistant Professor of Architecture, the Knowlton School, Ohio State University

Tulay Atak , Adjunct Associate Professor, Pratt School of Architecture

Shannon Starkey , Associate Professor of Architecture, University of San Diego

Ece Okay , Affiliate Research, Université De Pau Et Des Pays De L'adour

Zheng Tan , Department of Architecture, Tongji University

Pelin Yoncaci , Assistant Professor, Department Of Architecture, Middle East Technical University

José L.S. Gámez , Interim Dean, College of Arts + Architecture, UNC Charlotte

Eran Neuman , Professor, School of Architecture, Tel Aviv University

Marie Saldana , Assistant Professor, School of Interior Architecture, University of Tennessee - Knoxville

Sergio M. Figueiredo , Assistant Professor, Eindhoven University of Technology

Rebecca Choi , Assistant Professor of Architecture History, School of Architecture, Tulane University

Will Davis , Lecturer in History, Theory and Criticism, Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore

Maura Lucking , Faculty, School of Architecture & Urban Planning, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

Kyle Stover , Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, Montana State University

Alex Maymind , Assistant Professor of Architecture and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Architecture, University of Minnesota

Gary Riichirō Fox , visiting faculty member at Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) and lecturer at USC School of Architecture

Randy Nakamura , Adjunct Professor, College of Arts and Sciences, University of San Francisco

Aaron Cayer , Assistant Professor of Architecture History, School of Architecture + Planning, University of New Mexico

Whitney Moon , Associate Professor of Architecture, School of Architecture & Urban Planning, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

Todd Gannon , Professor of Architecture, the Knowlton School, Ohio State University

Dora Epstein Jones , Professor of Practice, School of Architecture, the University of Texas at Austin

Sarah Hearne , Assistant Professor, College of Architecture and Planning, University of Colorado Denver

PhD Typical Study Program

*The choice of language to fulfill this requirement must be discussed with the Ph.D. Standing Committee

Our Current PhD Cohort

AUD's cohort of PhD candidates are leaders in their fields of study, deepening their scholarship at AUD and at UCLA while sharing their knowledge with the community.

Adam Boggs is a sixth year Ph.D candidate and interdisciplinary artist, scholar, educator and Urban Humanist. His research and teaching interests include the tension between creativity and automation, craft-based epistemologies, and the social and material history of architecture at the U.S.-Mexico border. He holds a BFA in Sculpture Cum Laude from the Ohio State University, and an MFA in Visual Art from the State University of New York at Purchase College. Prior to joining the doctoral program at UCLA he participated in courses in Architecture (studio and history) at Princeton University and Cornell University. His dissertation analyzes the history of indigenous labor during the Mexican baroque period to form a comparative analysis with the 20th century Spanish revival architecture movement in Southern California and how the implementation of the style along the U.S.-Mexico border might function as a Lefebvrian “thirdspace” that disrupts binary thinking. In Spring 2024 he will teach an undergraduate seminar course at AUD on the history of architecture at the U.S.-Mexico border as part of the CUTF program.

Hanyu Chen is a second-year doctoral student at UCLA AUD. Her research focuses on the intersection between (sub)urban studies, heritage conservation, and the genders of the space. Specifically, it concerns the dynamics of genders in (sub)urban areas and how these dynamics are conserved as heritage. Born and raised in China for her first 18 years, Hanyu chose the conservation of comfort stations in China as her master's thesis at the University of Southern California, where she earned her master’s degree in Heritage Conservation and officially started her journey in architecture. Her thesis discusses the fluidity and genders of comfort stations and how they survive in contemporary China’s heritage conservation policies.

Hanyu also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in AMS (Applied Mathematics and Statistics) and Art History from Stony Brook University.

Yixuan Chen

Yixuan Chen is an architectural designer and a first-year doctoral student in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design at UCLA. Driven by an impulse to demystify both the grand promises and trivial familiarities of architecture, her research embarks on the notion of everydayness to elucidate the power dynamics it reveals. She investigates the conflicts between these two ends and focuses on modernization across different times and places.

Prior to joining UCLA AUD, she was trained as an architect and graduated from the University of Nottingham's China Campus with a first-class honors degree. Her graduation project “Local Culture Preservation Centre,” which questioned the validity of monumental architecture in the climate crisis, was nominated for the RIBA President's Medal in 2016.

She also holds a Master of Arts degree with distinction in Architectural History from the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. Her dissertation, “Shijing, on the Debris of Shijing,” explores the vanishing shijing places, or urban villages, where rural migrant workers negotiate their urban identity in Chinese cities, revealing shifting power relations. Additionally, she authored an article in Prospectives Journal titled "Architectural Authorship in ‘the Last Mile,’" advocating for a change to relational architectural authorship in response to the digital revolution in architecture.

Pritam Dey is an urban designer and second-year doctoral student at UCLA AUD. His research interest lies at the intersection of colonial urbanism, sensorial history, and somatic inquiries. His architecture thesis investigated the crematorium and temple as sensorial infrastructure, and was presented at World Architecture Congress at Seoul in 2017. Previously Dey worked in the domain of urban design, specifically informal markets, as a shaper of urbanism in Indian cities. Prior to joining the AUD doctoral program, his past research focused on investigating the role of informal and wholesale markets in shaping up urbanity in the Indian city cores and co-mentored workshops on Urbanity of Chitpur Road, Kolkata with ENSAPLV, Paris which was both exhibited at Kolkata and Paris. He also co-mentored the documentation of the retrospective landscape of Hampi with the support of ENSAPLV and French Embassy. His investigations on the slums of Dharavi title ‘The tabooed city’ was published in the McGill University GLSA Research series 2021 under the theme: the city an object or subject of law?

An urban designer and architect, Pritam Dey pursued his post graduation from School of planning and Architecture, Delhi. During his academic tenure at SPA, he was the recipient of 2018 Design Innovation Center Fellowship for Habitat design allowing him to work on the social infrastructure for less catered communities in the Sub Himalayan Villages. In 2022 He mentored a series of exhibitions on the theme of Water, Mountains and Bodies at Ahmadabad.

He was the 2022-23 Urban Humanities Initiatives Fellow at UCLA and recipient of 2023 UCLA Center for India and South Asia fellowship for his summer research.

Carrie Gammell

Carrie Gammell is a doctoral candidate working at the intersection of architectural history, property law, and political economy. Her research focuses on claims, investments, and intermediary organizations in the United States, from the Homestead Act of 1862 to the Housing Act of 1934.

Carrie is also a Senior Research Associate at cityLAB UCLA, where she studies state appropriations for California community college student housing. In the past, she contributed to Education Workforce Housing in California: Developing the 21st Century Campus, a report and companion handbook that provides a comprehensive overview of the potential for land owned by school districts to be designed and developed for teachers and other employees.

Prior to joining AUD, Carrie worked as an architectural designer in Colombia and the United States, where she built a portfolio of affordable housing, multi-family residential, and single-family residential projects as well as civic and cultural renovations and additions. She holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Rice University and a Master in Design Studies (Critical Conservation) from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Anirudh Gurumoorthy

Anirudh Gurumoorthy is a PhD candidate at UCLA AUD. His dissertation, tentatively titled (Un)Certain Tropics and the Architecture of Certain Commodities, 1803-1926, focuses on the spatial and environmental histories of natural history/sciences in the long-nineteenth century as it related to the political economy of empire within South Asia. He is interested in the ways the materiality of commodity extraction and production contends with how, where, and why certain ‘tropical’ animals, vegetables, and minerals are attributed with a metropolitan sense of ‘value’. Moving from the United States to Britain (and back) through various parts of the Indian Ocean world as markets for singular forms of ice, rubber, and cattle form, peak, and collapse, the dissertation ultimately aims to reveal interconnected spatial settings of knowledge, control, regulation, display, and labor where knowledge systems, technical limits, human and nonhuman action/inaction, differentiated senses of environments and value continually contend with each other to uphold the fetishes of the world market. Gurumoorthy holds a B.Arch. from R.V. College of Architecture, Bangalore, and an M.Des in the History and Philosophy of Design and Media from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Chi-Chia Hou

Chi-Chia Hou is a doctoral candidate in his sixth year at UCLA AUD. His working dissertation, “New Frontier: Architecture and Service 1893-1960,” explores his interest in architecture and wealth, changing ideas of profit and management, and social scientific discourses for measuring work and worker, self and others, and values of landed property.

His research locates moments of theorizing methodologies to manage income-generating properties in schools of agriculture, home economics, and hotel studies. The schools taught their students theories, while instilling the imminence of faithful direction of oneself, of self-as-property. The pedagogies, existing beyond the purview of Architecture, were of immense architectural consideration.

Chi-Chia Hou took a break from school in the previous academic year to learn from his daughter and has now returned to school to learn from his brilliant cohorts.

Adam Lubitz

Adam Lubitz is an urban planner, heritage conservationist, and doctoral student. His research engages the intersection of critical heritage studies and migration studies, with an emphasis on how archival information can inform reparations. His community-based research has been most recently supported by the Columbia GSAPP Incubator Prize as well as the Ziman Center for Real Estate and Leve Center for Jewish Studies at UCLA.

Prior to joining AUD, Adam worked at World Monuments Fund within their Jewish Heritage Program, and taught GIS coursework at Barnard College. His master's thesis applied field research with experimental mapping techniques in the old town of a municipality in Palestine. Adam holds MS degrees in Historic Preservation and Urban Planning from Columbia University and a BA in Urban Studies from New College of Florida.

José Monge is a PhD candidate in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design. His dissertation, titled Maritime Labor, Candles, and the Architecture of the Enlightenment (1750-1872) , focuses on the role that whale-originated illuminants, specifically spermaceti candles and oil, played in the American Enlightenment as an intellectual project and the U.S. as a country. By unravelling the tension between binaries such as intellectual and manual labor–the consumers that bought these commodities and the producers that were not able to afford them–the project understands architecture as a history of activities that moved from sea to land and land to sea, challenging assumptions about the static “nature” of architecture.

Kurt Pelzer

Kurt Pelzer is a fourth-year PhD candidate at UCLA AUD. Their research explores the relational histories, material flows, and politics of land in and beyond California in the long nineteenth century during the United States parks, public lands, and conservation movements.

Their current scholarship traces the settler possession and exhibitionary display of a Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) in the 1850s; an act that contested the ways Miwok peoples ancestral to California's Sierra Nevada knew and related to life and land. Their broader interests include histories of colonialism and capitalism in the Americas, environmental history, and Blackness and Indigeneity as a methodological analytic for political solidarities and possibilities.

Prior to arriving at UCLA, Pelzer worked at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in the Architecture and Design Curatorial Department participating in exhibitions, programming, and collections work. Pelzer completed a Master of Advanced Architectural Design in the History, Theory, and Experiments program from California College of the Arts in San Francisco, and earned their Bachelor's degree in Landscape Architecture from the College of Design at Iowa State University.

Shota Vashakmadze

Email Shota Vashakmadze

Shota Vashakmadze is a sixth-year PhD candidate at UCLA AUD. His dissertation traces the conjoined histories of architectural computing, environmental design, and professional practice in the late 20th century, adopting critical approaches to architecture’s technical substrates—the algorithms, softwares, and user protocols of computation—to examine their social and political dispositions. In his scholarship and pedagogy, he aims to situate forms of architectural labor within the profession’s ongoing acculturation to environmental crisis. Most recently, he has been leading the development of the interdisciplinary “Building Climates” cluster, a year-long course sequence at UCLA, and co-organizing an initiative dedicated to fostering discourse on climate change and architecture, including a two-day conference entitled “Architecture After a Green New Deal.”

His research has been supported by the Canadian Centre for Architecture and appeared in journals including Architectural Theory Review , The Avery Review, and Pidgin Magazine. He is currently completing a contribution to a collection on landscape representation and a chapter for an edited volume on architecture, labor, and political economy.

Shota holds an MArch from Princeton University and has a professional background in architecture, landscape, and software development. Before coming to UCLA, he researched methods for designing with point cloud data and wrote Bison, a software plugin for landscape modeling.

Alexa Vaughn

Alexa Vaughn (ASLA, FAAR) is a first year PhD student in Architecture + Urban Design and a Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellow , from Long Beach, California. She is a Deaf landscape designer, accessibility specialist, consultant, and recent Fellow of the American Academy in Rome (2022-23). She is a visionary speaker, thought leader, prolific writer and researcher, and the author of “ DeafScape : Applying DeafSpace to Landscape,” which has been featured in numerous publications.

Her professional work is centered upon designing public landscapes with and for the Deaf and disabled communities, applying legal standards and Universal Design principles alongside lived experience and direct participation in the design process. She is an expert in designing landscapes for the Deaf community (DeafScape) and in facilitation of disabled community engagement. Prior to joining the A+UD program, Alexa worked for several landscape architecture firms over the course of six years, including OLIN and MIG, Inc.

Through a disability justice lens, her dissertation will seek to formally explore the historical exclusionary and inaccessible design of American urban landscapes and public spaces, as well as the response (activism, policy, and design) to this history through the present and speculative future. She will also actively take part in activist- and practice-based research with cityLAB and the Urban Humanities Institute .

Alexa holds both a BA in Landscape Architecture (with a minor in Conservation and Resource Studies) and a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture (MLA) from the University of California, Berkeley, with specialization in accessible and inclusive design. Much of her work can be found at www.designwithdisabledpeoplenow.com and on Instagram: @DeafScape.

Yashada Wagle

Yashada Wagle is a third year PhD student in Critical Studies at UCLA AUD, and a recipient of the department's Moss Scholarship. Her research focuses on imperial environmental-legislative regimes in British colonial India in the late nineteenth century. She is interested in exploring questions around the histories of spaces of extraction and production as they network between the metropole and the colony, and their relationship with the conceptions of laboring bodies therein. Her master's thesis focused on the Indian Forest Act of 1865, and elucidated the conceptualization of the space of the ‘forest’ through the lenses of its literary, legislative, and biopolitical trajectories, highlighting how these have informed its contemporary lived materiality.

Wagle holds a Bachelor in Architecture (BArch) from the Savitribai Phule Pune University in India, and a Master in Design Studies (History and Philosophy of Design and Media) from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She was previously a Research Fellow at the Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture and Environmental Studies (KRVIA) in Mumbai, India.

In her spare time, Wagle enjoys illustrating and writing poetry, some of which can be found here .

Dexter Walcott

Dexter Walcott is a registered architect currently in his fifth year with the Critical Studies of Architecture program at UCLA. His research focuses on the Latrobe family and early nineteenth century builders in the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys. He is interested in the role of the built environment in histories of labor, capitalism, steam-power, and industry.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Joy is a fifth-year PhD student in architecture history. Her research explores geology as antiquity from early 19th – 20th century British colonial Hong Kong and China. She holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature with a focus in German from Middlebury College in 2017, and is a graduate of The New Normal program at Strelka Institute, Moscow in 2018. Previously, she has taught in the Department of Architecture at University of Hong Kong, as well as the Department of Design at Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

After working as a curatorial assistant at Tai Kwun Contemporary in 2019, she has continued the practice of art writing and translation, collaborating with many local Hong Kong artists as well as international curators such as Raimundas Malašauskas. In her spare time, she practices long-distance open water swimming. In 2022, she completed a 30km course at the South of Lantau Island, Hong Kong.

The MA and PhD programs welcome and accept applications from students with a diverse range of backgrounds. These programs are designed to help those interested in academic work in architecture develop those skills, so we strongly encourage that you become familiar with fundamental, celebrated works in the history and theory of architecture before entering the program.

Applicants to the academic graduate programs must hold a Bachelor’s degree, or the foreign equivalent. All new students must enter in the fall quarter. The program is full-time and does not accept part-time students.

Applications for the MA and PhD programs (Fall 2024 matriculation) will be available in Fall 2023, with application deadline of January 6, 2024; please revisit this page for updates. Accepted candidates who wish to enroll must file an online Statement of Intent to Register (SIR) by April 15, 2024.

How to Apply

Applying to the MA and PhD programs is an online process via the UCLA Application for Graduate Admission (AGA).

Completing the requirements will take some time, so we strongly recommend logging in to the AGA in advance to familiarize yourself with the site and downloading the documents and forms you will need to complete your application.

You can also download this checklist to make sure you have prepared and submitted all the relevant documents to complete your application.

Your Statement of Purpose is a critical part of your application to the MA and PhD programs. It is your opportunity to introduce yourself and tell us about your specific academic background, interests, achievements, and goals. Our selection committee use it to evaluate your aptitude for study, as well as consideration for merit-based financial support.

Your statement can be up to 1500 words in length. Below are some questions you might want to consider. You don’t need to answer every question; just focus on the elements that are most relevant to you.

• What is your purpose in applying to the MA or PhD program? Describe your area(s) of research interest, including any areas of concentration and specialization.
• What experiences have prepared you for this program? What relevant skills have you gained from these experiences? Have your experiences led to specific or tangible outcomes that would support your potential to contribute to this field (e.g. performances, publications, presentations, awards or recognitions)?
• What other information about your past experience might help the selection committee in evaluating your suitability for this program? E.g. research, employment, teaching, service, artistic or international experiences through which you have developed skills in leadership, communication, project management, teamwork, or other areas.
• Why is UCLA Architecture and Urban Design the best place for you to pursue your academic goals?
• What are your plans for your career after earning this degree?

Your Personal Statement is your opportunity to provide additional information to help the selection committee evaluate your aptitude for study. It will also be used to consider candidates for UCLA Graduate Division fellowships related to diversity. You can read more about the University of California Diversity Statement here .

Your statement can be up to 500 words in length. Below are some questions you might want to consider. You don’t need to answer every question; just focus on the elements that are most relevant to you.

• Are there educational, personal, cultural, economic, or social experiences, not described in your Statement of Purpose, that have shaped your academic journey? If so, how? Have any of these experiences provided unique perspective(s) that you would contribute to your program, field or profession?
• Describe challenge(s) or barriers that you have faced in your pursuit of higher education. What motivated you to persist, and how did you overcome them? What is the evidence of your persistence, progress or success?
• How have your life experiences and educational background informed your understanding of the barriers facing groups that are underrepresented in higher education?
• How have you been actively engaged (e.g., through participation, employment, service, teaching or other activities) in programs or activities focused on increasing participation by groups that have been historically underrepresented in higher education?
• How do you intend to engage in scholarly discourse, research, teaching, creative efforts, and/or community engagement during your graduate program that have the potential to advance diversity and equal opportunity in higher education?
• How do you see yourself contributing to diversity in your profession after you complete your academic degree at UCLA Architecture and Urban Design?

A Curriculum Vitae (résumé of your academic and professional experience) is recommended but not required.

Applicants must upload a scanned copy of the official transcripts from each college or university you have attended both in the U.S. and abroad. If you are accepted into the program you will be required to submit hard copies. These can either be sent directly from each institution or hand-delivered as long as they remain in the official, signed, sealed envelopes from your college or university. As a general rule, UCLA Graduate Division sets a minimum required overall grade-point average of 3.0 (B), or the foreign equivalent.

As of this Fall 2023 cycle, the GRE is NOT required as part of your application to UCLA AUD. No preference will be given to those who choose to submit GRE scores as part of their application.

However, if you do take the GRE exam and wish to include it as part of your application: More information on this standardized exam can be found at www.ets.org/gre . In addition to uploading your GRE scores, please direct ETS to send us your official score sheets. Our ETS codes for the GRE are below:

UCLA Architecture and Urban Design Institution Code: 4837 Department Code: 4401

We recommend you take the exam at least three weeks before the application deadline as it usually takes 2-3 weeks for ETS to send us the test scores.

If you have received a Bachelor’s degree in a country where the official language of instruction and primary spoken language of daily life is not English, you must submit either a Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or an International English Language Testing System (IELTS). Exempt countries include Australia, Barbados, Canada, Ireland, Jamaica, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. This is a requirement that is regardless of your visa or citizenship status in the United States.

To be considered for admission to the M.Arch. program, international students must score at least a 92 on the TOEFL or a 7 on the IELTS exam. Because processing, sending, and receiving TOEFL and IELTS scores can take several weeks, international students must schedule their exam no later than October 31 in order to meet UCLA deadlines. TOEFL scores must be sent to us directly and uploaded as part of the online submission. Our ETS codes for the TOEFL are below:

UCLA Architecture and Urban Design Institution Code: 4837 Department Code: 12

If your score is less than 100 on the TOEFL or 7.5 on the IELTS, you are also required to take the English as a Second Language Placement Examination (ESLPE) on arrival at UCLA. The results of this test will determine any English as a Second Language (ESL) courses you need to take in your first term of residence. These courses cannot be applied towards your minimum course requirements. As such, you should expect to have a higher course load than students not required to take ESL courses.

If you have earned a degree or completed two years of full-time college-level coursework in the following countries, your TOEFL / IELTS and ESLPE requirements will be waived: U.S., U.K., Canada (other than Quebec), Australia, and New Zealand. Please provide official transcripts to demonstrate course completion. Unfortunately, we cannot accept any other documentation to demonstrate language proficiency.

Three (3) letters of recommendation are required. These letters should be from individuals who are familiar with your academic and professional experiences and can evaluate your capacity to successfully undertake graduate studies at UCLA. If you do not have an architecture background please note that we are looking for letters that evaluate your potential as a graduate student, not necessarily your architecture experience.

Letters of recommendation must be sent electronically directly to UCLA by the recommender. When logged in, you can enter the name and email address of each of your recommenders. They will be contacted by email with a request to submit a letter on your behalf. You can track which letters have and have not been received. You can also send reminders to your recommenders to send their letters.

Writing samples should illustrate an applicant’s capacities for research, analytical writing and scholarly citation. Texts may include seminar papers, theses, and/or professional writing.

Please complete and submit the Department Supplement Form to confirm your intention to apply to the MA or PhD program.

Harvard GSD Design Discovery

A 3-week in person program at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, MA for individuals interested in gaining knowledge within a single design discipline – Architecture, Landscape, or Urban Planning + Design. This program uses hands-on physical modeling, fabrication, and assembly to engage the material and scale of a selected design discipline.

This year Harvard’s Graduate School of Design will be renovating Gund Hall, our building in Cambridge, MA. For summer 2024, we are only offering Design Discovery Virtual .

Design Discovery (DD) is a 3-week in person academic program that takes place at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) in Cambridge, MA and engages an audience of individuals 18 years old to mid-career professionals interested in gaining knowledge within a single, selected design discipline.  Participants enroll in either Architecture, Landscape, and Urban Planning + Design.  The program explores the potentials of design to impact the built environment and the active conditions it choreographs through the material and scale specific to a particular design discipline.  Program participants direct design to contemporary issues with an emphasis on hands-on physical modeling, material capacities, fabrication, and assembly, in complement to the Design Discovery Virtual program’s digital media emphasis.  Students are taught by Harvard GSD faculty and masters and doctoral degree program graduates in addition to engagement with a broad and diverse network of design talent, across the three disciplines, invited to serve as guest lecturers and critics. 

Successful participants receive a program certificate, student evaluation, and produce a draft portfolio of design work that can be shared with design program admission committees, potential design employers, clients, collaborators, or home school programs for course credit consideration. 

Program Summary

• 3 weeks, in person format in Cambridge, MA 
• Audience ages 18 to mid-career professionals
• Introduction to single selected design discipline of focus:  Architecture,  or  Landscape,  or  Urban Planning + Design
• Fabrication and physical model making focus
• Instruction by Harvard GSD faculty and advanced GSD masters and doctoral students

Need some help deciding between the GSD’s Design Discovery programs? See this FAQ:

Q: How do I choose between Design Discovery Virtual and Design Discovery In-person?      

A: As suggested guidance for how to choose:  If this academic program would be your earliest direct engagement with design, you might benefit from enrolling in our Design Discovery Virtual (DDV) program which provides an overview of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning + Design and how these disciplines involve distinct material, take different approaches to design, and follow different methodological steps in the making of a project.   If you already have some knowledge about the similarities and differences between the three design disciplines, you might benefit from enrolling in Design Discovery In-person (DD), as this program requires you to select a discipline you want to study with more singular focus.  

We encourage participants to consider carefully what they hope to take away from engagement with Design Discovery.  You might also make a selection between the programs by evaluating what media (digital or physical) you might be most interested in learning about and making with.    

Q: Can I enroll in both programs? 

A: Yes, you can enroll in both programs!  Please note that a valid visa for study within the U.S. is required to be supplied by international citizenship participants of the Design Discovery in-person program. We can only accept valid visas of international students who will be returning to their domestic home school to complete their study after the conclusion of the in-person program. Application and tuition processes and fees would have to be followed for each program you’d want to participate in, as our program webpages describe in more detail:  Design Discovery Virtual and Design Discovery In-person.   The two programs are designed to be complementary to one another, so that participants of both would have little to no redundancy in their educational experience.  The programs also do not overlap with their timing to allow for enrollment in both. 

Q: Is there a fixed sequencing to the two Design Discovery programs? 

A: No, there is not a prescribed sequencing to these programs.  Participants may enroll in them as singular design experiences or as a pair in an order that suits the individual.  The two programs are designed to be complementary to one another, so that participants of both would have little to no redundancy in their educational experience.    

Q: What are the differences in format between the two programs? 

A: Design Discovery Virtual (DDV) allows participants to join from anywhere in the world, while Design Discovery in-person (DD) requires participants to temporarily reside in the Boston area to attend the program held in the Harvard Graduate School of Design’s main studio space, Gund Hall, in Cambridge, MA, USA. Please note that a valid visa for study within the U.S. is required to be supplied by international citizenship participants of the Design Discovery in-person program. Our program is not able to sponsor a new F-1 or I-20 visa for participants of this program. We can only accept valid visas of international students who will be returning to their domestic home school to complete their study after the conclusion of the DD program. DDV engages digital software to bring a diverse global community together to share ideas about the world and explore ways to introduce positive change through design.  DD invites participants to address these aims at a studio desk in Gund Hall with in-person lectures, pin-up conversations, and design reviews. 

Q: What if I’m an international student without a valid visa for study in the U.S.?

A: We invite you to join us for the Design Discovery Virtual (DDV) program! No visas are required with this program. It has been designed to address and engage an international audience. Design Discovery Virtual is just as robust, rigorous, and inspiring as our in-person program.  We’ve worked hard to ensure that community is built within the virtual environment through the program format and pace and that design and technical skill with digital media tools are taught in an engaging and accessible manner through our custom workshops.  The Design Discovery Virtual program is fantastic and we hope that you’ll strongly consider participating in this program.  It has a lot to offer!

Q:  Is housing an additional expense of the Design Discovery In-person program? 

A:   Yes.  The cost and reservation of Boston area housing for the Design Discovery in-person program is up to each participant to arrange.  Our Design Discovery Virtual program allows for participants to join from wherever they are with no additional housing costs.

Q: What are the differences in design content between the two programs? 

A: Design Discovery Virtual (DDV) instructs how all three disciplines (Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning + Design) address global issues through design during the program. Design Discovery in-person (DD) asks participants to select a particular discipline among these three to closely study through a series of relevant design questions posed.

Q: What are the differences in the material that I will engage between the two programs? 

A: Design Discovery Virtual (DDV) uses digital media (Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Rhino, 3D modeling software) to provide experience with the relationship between 2D images and 3D form and space across Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning + Design.   Design Discovery in-person (DD) emphasizes physical modeling, exploring a selected discipline’s material capacities and scale as a means to learn design methods through questions posed over a series of assignments.

original video score by Shaka Dendy

Who attends

Design Discovery students represent a broad range of ages, lifestyles, and training (most have no previous design experience), and this contributes to a stimulating environment. Many are college students or recent graduates, but the program is also helpful to professionals in their 30s, 40s, or older who are interested in learning about design and/or who are considering a career change. We host an average of 225 participants per year. In our 2023 program, participants from 19 different countries and 33 U.S. states joined us to discover design.

Please note that a valid visa for study within the U.S. is required to be supplied by participants of the Design Discovery in-person program with international citizenship. We can only accept valid visas of international students who will be returning to their domestic home school to complete their study after the conclusion of the Design Discovery program. Harvard will not sponsor visas for enrollment in the Design Discovery in-person program. We invite international students who do not hold such visa status to enroll in our fantastic Design Discovery Virtual program. Please see more information about our virtual program at this link !

Alumni profiles

Anjerrika Bean

“We all came to the studio at Design Discovery with such different perspectives. We only see what we know as individuals, so our viewpoints enriched one another. In the end, we were all richer for sharing the experience together. In addition to working with a diverse group of students, it was amazing to interact with many great instructors and have access to stakeholders, including local city officials, to whom we presented our final projects.” · Attended: After first year of doctoral studies · Design background: None · Interest: Urban Planning + Design · Today: Research Assistant, Howard University Department of Sociology and Criminology; community builder and co-founder of an organization to help rebuild inner-city neighborhoods in Baltimore, MD.

Marcus Mello

“Design Discovery is intense — and completely worthwhile! Its structure and options appealed to me, and the projects were very challenging, but in a good way. I had to stay focused. I learned about design and the grad school experience, and it opened my eyes. Sketching at my desk and out in the field, near Fenway, I started seeing Boston and Cambridge with an entirely new perspective, through the lens of design. Design Discovery also revealed a broader spectrum of design careers. The experience helped me start a portfolio and build a network that advised me when I applied to design schools and pursued a career in architecture. I highly recommend the program.” · Attended: After sophomore year in college · Design background: None · Interest: Architecture · Today: GSD graduate with dual Master degrees in architecture and urban planning; works as an architect at Boston Planning and Development Association; has taught at Design Discovery

Svafa Gronfeldt

“When I was young, I wanted to be an architect, and when I turned 50, I revisited this idea through Harvard GSD’s Design Discovery. The experience was even better than I had imagined. Design Discovery promotes design as a way of thinking, a way of approaching decisions, that’s applicable to all aspects of a design-centered career. I’m not aiming to become an architect in a firm, but I don’t have to — I can still be engaged in design. As an instructor at MIT, I help innovators launch and grow their ventures by combining business principles with the principles of design and planning. This new journey integrates my educational background and career experience with the design mentality, which is about problem solving and the constant search for improvement through iteration. This approach is applicable to just about any profession or field.” · Attended: Mid-career · Design background: None · Interest: Architecture · Previous career: Education and university leadership · Today: EVP at Alvogen and Entrepreneur-in-residence at MIT’s designX innovation accelerator

“From Design Discovery, I learned that design is not only about drawing or making beautiful models but more about thinking. Studio art involves the exchange of cultures, values, and concepts, which takes design far beyond what we see on floor plans and textbooks. Design is everywhere, and it is influenced by government, law, businesses, and NGOs. Design Discovery helped me understand that architects, landscape architects, and urban planners are leaders in society who cooperate and innovate to improve or even revolutionize that society. As participants in this program, we learned how to design things that are “good” — things that support positive changes in the way people interact, think, and live.” · Attended: After junior year in college · Design background: None · Interest: Architecture · Today: College graduate, working in the design sector.

Christian Long

“The ideal Design Discovery candidate is someone who seeks an intense experience exploring how the design mindset can apply to all fields and challenges. The program gave me a tangible opportunity to intensely explore the field of architecture as I was contemplating a career shift. While it helped me realize that I actually didn’t want to become a traditional architect, it did lead me toward significant strategy and visioning roles in the field of school design and architecture. Since then, I’ve started four design studios and have been designing schools and universities around the world.” · Attended: Mid-career, after graduate school · Design background: None · Interest: Architecture · Previous career: Education · Today: Co-founder at Wonder and founder of a national design camp for young creatives

Learning Format

Participants in our program commit themselves fully to a path of intensive thinking through making within the studio of Gund Hall at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. The program pairs studio design time at the desk with a series of lectures and workshops on the process of design, representation of ideas and intentions, as well as fabrication and modeling demos. Deeply immersed in a culture that is both challenging and rewarding, participants experience what education and work are like in the design and planning professions. Many emerge inspired by design, with a more profound understanding of the possibilities ahead and with more information about their own interests in design in order to inform their choices.

If you are participant with a disability or medical condition who would like to request accommodations, please contact  [email protected] . To avoid delay in services, we ask that requests be made at least two weeks in advance of the program start.

Studio Format

Design Discovery studios focus on short, intensive projects similar to first-year graduate school projects within one of three selected areas of concentration – Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning + Design. Studios involve one-on-one guidance from design instructors, group discussions and reviews about design work, training sessions in graphics and model making skills, and individual presentations to instructors and guest professionals. Participants have direct access to select spaces within the GSD’s Fabrication Lab and Frances Loeb Library — one of the country’s foremost design and planning libraries.

Concentrations

As a Design Discovery student, you will engage in an iterative exploratory design process of drawing, fabrication and model making within the context of a design studio. This process will help build your ability to translate observations about the world into a visual and spatial language. We ask all Design Discovery in-person participants to select a single concentration for their study among three possible disciplines described below. Within 3 weeks of the program start date, we cannot make changes to a selected concentration. You will receive instruction in the fundamental design methodologies specific to the discipline that you select as your program concentration:

• Architecture  is the design of individual buildings and their contexts, with the understanding that, through the scale of elements that comprise them, buildings are the choreographers of dynamic conditions both inside their walls and within their local surroundings.

• Landscape Architecture  is the design and preservation of built and natural landscapes, from rural landscapes to urban parks and infrastructure projects.

• Urban Planning + Design  is the analysis and synthesis of forces that shape and reshape the built environment at the scale of the city, with a focus on envisioning and illustrating places that reflect and support the diverse needs of society.

To see more examples of student design work and the life of this program, follow us @designdiscoveryharvardgsd on Instagram.

Below is a sample schedule for the program. Most students work evenings and weekends in the studio.

Evaluation + Certificate

Each successful Design Discovery participant receives a written evaluation from his or her instructor and a certificate from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Although the GSD cannot offer undergraduate academic credit for Design Discovery, some colleges and universities will award academic credit for a student’s participation in our program.

Requesting a copy of your evaluation

Participants will receive a digital copy of the written evaluation following the conclusion of the program.

Although we cannot provide an official transcript of your work in the program, we can send a letter explaining the nature of the Design Discovery program. If you would like to request this letter, please email  [email protected] , including the following information:

• Email Address
• Year attended CD/DD
• Documents requested: written explanation of program
• Brief description of how you intend to use these documents

Faculty + Staff

Section instructors.

Design Discovery sections are taught by graduating or advanced GSD students who have a professional and academic specialty in the design discipline they are teaching. Sections strive for a maximum of ten students per instructor. Each section is coordinated by current GSD faculty.

2022 Coordinating Faculty

Architecture, urban planning + design, landscape architecture, program director.

Jenny French

Kira Clingen

Megan Panzano

Design Discovery invites exceptional professionals and academics to give lectures and join career panel discussions on design, history, theory, office practice, and other aspects of each profession. Speakers are often available for informal conversations afterward.

Past speakers have included:

• Chana Haouzi and Matthew Okazaki of Architecture for Public Benefit
• Alice Brown of Boston Harbor Now
• J Jih of studio J.Jih
• Alex Anmahian, Principal of  Anmahian Winton Architects
• Maurice Cox, director of planning and development for the  city of Detroit
• Gary Hilderbrand; partner at  Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture
• D’Wayne Edwards, footwear designer and founder  Pensole Footwear Design Academy
• Seth Gordon,  Film Director  and Producer
• Alex Krieger,  professor in Practice of Urban Planning and Design  at Harvard Graduate School of Design
• Christian Long:  Design Share
• Kathryn Madden, Critic in Urban Planning and Design at Harvard University Graduate School of Design; Principal of  Madden Planning Group
• Thomas Lyons Mills , Professor of Foundation Studies at the Rhode Island School of Design
• David Saladik:  MASS Design Group
• Kirk A. Sykes, Senior Vice President and  President of Urban Strategy America Fund
• Maryann Thompson, Adjunct Professor at Harvard University Graduate School of Design; Founder of  Maryann Thompson Architects
• Charles Waldheim,  John E. Irving Professor of Landscape Architecture  and Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design

tuition + Financial Aid

Tuition for the 2024 Design Discovery Program is $2,700. Please expect to purchase additional materials and supplies for projects throughout the course of the program. Depending on the work you choose to take up, this could be as much as an additional 250.00 USD.

Payment Policy

A nonrefundable application fee of $85 be be paid in full for each application before the application deadline in order to be considered for admission to our 2024 program.

Financial Assistance

Financial aid takes into account many factors; however, as a guide, if the applicant and/or parents (if appropriate) have a combined gross income that exceeds $40,000, an aid award is unlikely.

To apply, please submit a Financial Aid Application Form along with the required documentation by the program application deadline. Please see the application for more information. This form will be available to complete within your program application.

Please Note:  Design Discovery financial aid is not federally subsidized and is available to U.S. citizens and permanent residents only. International students are not eligible to apply. Requests for aid will not be considered without a completed program application. Late applications will not be considered.

Tuition and Financial Aid FAQ

A:  Yes. Further payment instructions will be provided in your admittance letter. Tuition payments must be completed online via the online system by the deadline of May 8, 2023.

A:  Tax forms from parents are required for every applicant under the age of 30.

A:  No. We are unable to waive the application fee.

A:  No. Design Discovery financial aid is not federally subsidized and is available to U.S. citizens and permanent residents only. International students are not eligible to apply for financial aid.

A:  Yes. The Design Discovery Virtual financial aid application form is part of the program’s online application. Once you indicate an interest in applying for aid, the aid application application form will appear for filling out. In order to apply for aid, submit this form and supporting documents online with the rest of your application by the application deadline.

A:  Design Discovery financial aid funds are need-based awards, which means that funding is based on the financial situation of the student. Financial aid takes into account many factors; however, as a guide, if the applicant’s and parents’ (if appropriate) combined adjusted gross income exceeds $40,000, an aid award is unlikely.

A:  Yes, you need to complete the Design Discovery online application in order to access the financial aid application form. We advise submitting the financial aid application form prior to receiving your admissions decision letter.

A:  Yes, we will notify all aid applicants of their admission along with their aid award by email by May 1, 2023.

A:  We cannot accept applications for financial aid beyond the program application deadline.

A:  Awards only apply towards tuition and possible support for a computer device. Aid for Design Discovery in-person does not cover housing, which is up to each student to arrange. See this link for more information.

COVID-19 Health + Safety Information

Due to the impact of the global pandemic, participants of the Design Discovery in-person program at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design will be required to follow Harvard University protocols with respect to health and safety when convening on campus for the summer.

On May 11, 2023  the Commonwealth of Massachusetts  and  the federal government  will end their Public Health Emergency for COVID-19. This will change the response to COVID-19 and will end many COVID-related requirements affecting communities and institutions. Both locally and nationally, reported cases and COVID-related hospitalizations and deaths have declined. However, COVID-19 has not disappeared.

• Students, faculty, staff, and researchers should continue to  follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines  if they test positive for COVID-19. This includes isolating from others for five days and masking until day 11. Persons at high risk for complications should consult with a health care provider about antiviral treatment.
• If you test positive, please adhere to the  CDC’s isolation guidance  and do not attend in-person events until the guidance has been followed in full.

As a participant of the Harvard GSD Design Discovery in-person program, you are required to have health insurance that covers major illnesses and accidents within the United States. If you do not have such coverage with a US or other carrier, you are required to purchase it to match these requirements. Upon acceptance of your application, you will be asked to verify that you have insurance to match the above coverage requirements.

Please check back for more current information, as updates occur on a rolling basis.

The cost and reservation of Boston area housing for the Design Discovery in-person program is up to each accepted participant to arrange.  Neither Harvard nor the GSD have dorms to offer to Design Discovery participants. Upon acceptance of your application to the program, we encourage you to review the housing resources we have collected for you here and make your housing arrangements for the duration of the program as early as possible.

Things to consider when looking for housing:

• Location: You will be spending many nights in the studio. Be sure to take into consideration how far your rental is from the school and if transportation is easily accessible.
• Budget: Apartments in the Cambridge area can be costly. Take into consideration what amenities you absolutely need and which ones you can live without.
• Roommates: Do you want to share a room with another person for the program? If so, with whom? A GSD student or another Design Discovery participant? The GSD Housing Facebook Group is a great way to connect with other Harvard Students looking for roommates, sublets, and rooms.

Housing Resources

• Harvard GSD Housing Facebook Group 
• Harvard Off-Campus Housing
• ApartmentList
• Craigslist 
• Padmapper  
• Massachusetts Tenant Rights, Laws, and Protections

To apply for the Design Discovery Virtual program, please submit the following required materials with your online application:

• Application Fee : A non-refundable $85 application fee is due upon application submission.
• Statement of Intent Please tell us (in 250 words or less) what you hope to achieve by attending this design program.
• Resume or CV (PDF) which includes the following information: employment; education; extra-curricular collegiate and community activities (note whether an office held was elected or appointed); honors; awards; professional registration; professional societies; publications; avocations; hobbies; travel. If you served in the military, indicate rank on entry and rank on separation.
• Academic History
• University Transcripts (upload scanned copy, does not need to be official) Transcripts should be submitted with the program application from all colleges and universities from which the applicant has received credit. When uploading a transcript, please make sure the scanned version is legible. Transcripts that are not in English must be accompanied by a certified English translation. If the university or college does not issue transcripts, a certified letter and certified English translation must be provided. It should list courses and examinations taken, grades, and degrees and dates of degrees received. Admitted students who have attended a school outside of the U.S. may be asked to submit a WES (World Education Service) certified transcript, at the applicant’s expense.
• Upload .jpg, .tiff, or PDF image files of your original design work or photography (optional)
• Financial Aid Application (optional, U.S. applicants only)

Application Deadlines

Applications and application fees are due by the program application deadline . Early completion of the application and application fee are encouraged! Please see below for the detailed deadlines for the upcoming program cycle.

*Contact Design Discovery to cancel your enrollment by this date to receive a full (100%) refund of the $2,700 program fee.

**Contact Design Discovery to cancel your enrollment by this date to receive a partial (50%) refund of the program fee (amounting to $1,350).

Frequently Asked Questions

A:  Admissions and aid decisions will be emailed to applicants on May 1, 2023.

A:  No, the Design Discovery program does not grant deferrals. If you are admitted but unable to attend, you would need to reapply in another year.

A:  No. Any former applicant wishing to reapply to the GSD Design Discovery Program must resubmit all forms and documentation.

A:  Applicants must be at least 18 years old and must have a high school diploma or the equivalent. A high level of academic skill is necessary to take full advantage of our rigorous program.

A: A valid visa for study within the U.S. is required to be supplied by international citizenship participants of the Design Discovery in-person program. We can only accept valid visas of international students who will be returning to their domestic home school to complete their study after the conclusion of the DD program. Harvard will not sponsor new visas (F-1 or I-20) for enrollment in this program. We invite international students who do not hold such visa status to enroll in our Design Discovery Virtual (DDV) program. DDV is just as robust, rigorous, and inspiring as our in-person program. Please see more information about that program at this link .

A:  Transcripts should be submitted electronically through the online application. Applicants should scan a copy of their transcript(s) and upload these documents into the online application. During the application process, it is not necessary to send an official transcript.

A:  Scanned transcripts can be unofficial or official. If we need further information, we may ask for an official transcript to be sent to our office for review.

A:  Please contact the Design Discovery office by emailing us at [email protected] .

A:  Yes. Design Discovery is a program designed to introduce Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning + Design to those who have interest in the areas but have little to no experience with design.

A:  Participants of the program are exposed to all three concentrations through lectures, but your studio work will focus on only one chosen concentration. Within 3 weeks of the program start date, we cannot make changes to a selected concentration.

A:  That is exactly what we teach. The program is as much about the ‘mindset’ as it is about the ‘toolset’ of designers. Many of our students have gone on to other disciplines, taking with them what is now called ‘design thinking’; the processes, mental habits, and methods of research and collaboration that are second-nature to designers which can be beneficially applied to all fields and areas of study.

A:  The cost and reservation of Boston area housing for the Design Discovery in-person program is up to each accepted participant to arrange.  Neither Harvard nor the GSD have dorms to offer to Design Discovery participants. Upon acceptance of your application to the program, we encourage you to review the housing resources we provide on our website here and make your housing arrangements for the duration of the program as early as possible.

A:  Participants are given access to all programs on the GSD network. It is required that all participants bring a laptop. Wireless internet is available in Gund Hall as well.

A:  To request a copy of your evaluation please follow the instructions here .

A:  To unsubscribe from our mailing list, email a request to  [email protected]   with your name and address as they appear on the mailing label.

Do you want to be kept informed about the Harvard GSD’s Design Discovery programs? Please join our newsletter here to get the latest updates!

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Harvard GSD To Host Exhibition Exploring 'Dualisms' In Architecture

• Written by James Taylor-Foster
• Published on February 09, 2015

A new exhibition at the Harvard Graduate School of Design by Iñaki Ábalos and Renata Sentkiewicz ( Ábalos+Sentkiewicz ) will explore Dualisms in architecture: the notion that most historic architecture takes its "composite tension from two theoretically incompatible morphological organisations that correspond to different disciplines or languages." Suggesting that these organisations can possess elements of "compatibility and incompatibility" simultaneously, the appearance of "a kind of hybrid 'Frankenstein's monster'" is characterized by dualism in architecture. For the curators, Dualisms act not only performatively, but also in a creative and composite way. "They are, at once, constraints and formative opportunities."

According to Iñaki Ábalos and Renata Sentkiewicz :

Only recently, when bringing together the sections of two projects in the publication of a monograph about Logroño Intermodal Station and its urban park, did we see the similarities in a design technique that was corroborated by introducing a third element—the section of Huafa Art Museum in Zhuhai. This use of a dualistic system that spans not only lexical and iconographic territories but also tectonics and thermodynamics multiplies its public collective functionality. These examples maintain a tension that is applied to the composite and typological elements that exist between the public and the private domains, between energy demand and the need for dissipation, between their position inside and their need to emerge to the exterior. The result is a conflict of compatibilities between lightness and mass, natural elements and thermal devices, form and performance. We like to think that this dualistic combination not only serves to generate prototypes that contribute to a new notion of quality, but also provides some answers to the shortcomings facing the new metropolises and their inhabitants.

Watch a lecture by Iñaki Ábalos and Renata Sentkiewicz , plus a conversation with Enrique Walker, below:

The exhibition will run until the 8th March 2015 at the Harvard Graduate School of Design .

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Harvard and Columbia claim the top spots once again in BAM’s ranking of postgraduate architecture programs

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Coming Out On Top (Again)

The 2021 edition of Spain-based architectural education platform Best Architecture Master’s ( BAM ) Ranking has been released, with a (not entirely surprising) repeat performance at the top of the list: Harvard Graduate School of Design ( GSD )’s Master of Architecture II and Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP)’s Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design programs hold their places at number one and number two, respectively, for the second year in a row . Harvard has placed first all four years that the ranking has been in existence.

Other American universities and schools that made the cut this year include Princeton University (sixth place, Post-Professional Graduate Program in Architecture); Cornell University (ninth place, Post-Professional Master of Science, Advanced Architectural Design), the Southern California Institute of Architecture/SCI-Arc (15th place; M.Arch 2); and the University of California Los Angeles/UCLA (tied for 17th place; M.S. Architecture and Urban Design). Like with Harvard and Columbia, all of these schools also appeared in the 2020 ranking with Princeton and UCLA being new additions that did not appear in 2018 and 2019 . One American program that took the number five spot last year (and ranked as having the number three and number two top program in 2018 and 2019, respectively) is MIT’s Master of Science in Architecture and Urbanism, which disappeared altogether from this year’s edition.

Pointedly international in scope, the 2021 BAM Ranking invited a  15-person committee  composed of architecture professors from around the globe to conceive a list of the 22 top master’s degree programs offered by a range of different universities that appear on the latest QS World University Rankings in the  Architecture/Built Environment  category. (The 2021 list is shorter than in 2019 and 2020 years in which 30 and 29, respectively, programs were ranked.)

These programs were then compared, evaluated, and ranked using BAM’s point system-based methodology  which includes 11 educational performance indicators and 42 sub-indicators. The programs are ultimately ranked according to how many evaluation points they received on a one to 100 scale. Among the 11 key indicators in 2021 were Consolidation in Time, Teaching Approach & Program, Publications, Faculty Competence, Job Opportunities & Networking, and all-important Affordability & Length.

The top tier of all 22 programs evaluated and ranked for the BAM Ranking 2021 are below, while the full list can be found here .

• Harvard University,  Cambridge, Massachusetts | Master of Architecture II
• Columbia University,  New York City| Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design
• Delft University of Technology (TUDelft), Delft, the Netherlands| The Berlage Post-master degree in Architecture and Urban Design
• Universidad Politécnica de Madrid / ETH Zurich, Madrid | Master of Advanced Studies in Collective Housing (MCH)
• Tsinghua University , Beijing | English Program for Master in Architecture
• Princeton University , Princeton, New Jersey | Post-Professional Graduate Program in Architecture
• Architectural Association School of Architecture (AA) , London | MArch in Architecture & Urbanism (DRL)
• University College London | Architectural Design MArch (B-pro)
• Cornell University , Ithaca, New York | Post-Professional Master of Science, Advanced Architectural Design
• Technische Universität München (TUM) , Munich | Master of Arts MA in Architecture

Billie Faircloth, former KieranTimberlake partner and research director, is joining Cornell AAP

A biography of Vincent Scully documents the historian’s life, work, and American architecture from the postwar period to the present

Dr. Bing Wang, a GSD associate professor, files lawsuit against Harvard, MRE director Jerold Kayden, and dean Sarah Whiting

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University News | 11.2.2020

A Design School Redesign

The gsd introduces changes meant to “rebalance” the master of design studies program..

M.Des. program director and Noyes professor in architectural theory K. Michael Hays (left) and Graduate School of Design dean Sarah Whiting in a file photo from 2019 Photograph by John Rosenberg/ Harvard Magazine

On October 23 , the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) announced a restructuring of its master of design studies (M.Des.) program—a curriculum shift intended in part, wrote its dean, Sarah Whiting, in a letter to the community, to bolster the focus on issues like social justice, climate, and housing. 

An interdisciplinary program, the M.Des., unlike other GSD courses of study, does not lead to a professional certification in architecture or landscape architecture or planning; instead it has traditionally allowed for other kinds of exploration, critique, and careers, and its graduates often go on to work in public service, academia, nongovernmental organizations, and other fields and institutions. 

The biggest change to the degree program is organizational: instead of eight formal concentration areas, students will choose among four flexible “domains” of inquiry: ecologies, mediums, narratives, and publics. Each will involve a set of shared courses, including on research methods. “The domains are really just envelopes, or umbrellas, of general knowledge that give them a foundation,” explains K. Michael Hays, M.Des. program director and Noyes professor in architectural theory. Layered on top of that more general coursework will be individualized “trajectories”—curricular paths that students define for themselves. In her letter, Whiting offered a few examples of possible themes for trajectories: resilience and climate change; housing densities; responsive environments and technologies; historical chronicles that can incorporate new technology and narrative genres—images, podcasts, animation. And on top of these thematic trajectories, one final curricular layer: a directed, collaborative research project, which students can finish in a single, final semester. 

Whiting’s letter also spelled out the basic parameters of each of the four domains: 

• Ecologies, “which will pursue advanced studies in topics related to climate resiliency, obsolete industries, territorial infrastructures, migration, and other critical issues within the broader contexts of our global social and natural environment”;
• Mediums, “which will develop and deploy computational and analogue tools and technologies across fields of interactive design, human interfaces, and artistic and responsive environments”;
• Narratives, “which will offer students the opportunity to advance a broad array of visual and verbal discursive genres, furthering historical and theoretical investigations into the social, cultural, technical, and political contexts of design”; and
• Publics, “which will consider what constitutes the global public realm, focusing on how design facilitates urban justice, on where policy and publics intersect, and on what defines resilient communities, cities, and regions.”

(The eight, more traditionally named, concentration areas being phased out include: risk and resilience; art, design, and the public domain; critical conservation; history and philosophy of design; real estate and the built environment; energy and environments; technology; and urbanism, landscape and ecology.) 

This new structure is set to take effect next fall (though nothing will change for currently enrolled students), and although Hays notes that the planning process for this overhaul began several years ago, the details came together with unexpected speed after  Whiting became dean in July 2019 . To some students and alumni, the announcement of the curriculum change came as an abrupt surprise, and an unwelcome one. More than 200 students and alumni signed an open letter to Whiting, published online Tuesday, pressing for more details on the restructuring process and calling for an open discussion with the M.Des. community and a reconsideration of its decision to drop the traditional concentration categories. Some students worried that the changes would mean decreased educational resources for the program, or would abrogate their own study and coursework; the letter criticized the decision-making process as opaque.  

Noting that the entire senior faculty and administration were consulted in the planning, Hays nevertheless says he understands student and alumni concerns. “I think some folks thought that the name changes had eliminated their courses of study. But those categories haven’t gone away—they’re just folded into the new program. Students can still study ‘critical conservation,’ for example.” 

Whiting says one major motivation for the change was a need to rebalance the program, which had outgrown its original parameters during the past decade, tacking on several new areas of study in response to widening topical needs and student interests. “We wanted to draw a little more coherence around the program,” she says. “And also we were looking for a way to balance out the cohorts, because right now in the eight tracks, some of them are very, very small and others are very big, so there’s an imbalance that means some of the eight tracks aren’t large enough to support a methods class. And so this restructuring really was a way of finding an stronger way to offer a foundation for independent work. Because you need the methodological training to do that, and then you need the freedom to chart your own path.” One ambition for the new structure, she says, is to give students more autonomy and encourage greater interdisciplinary study. The move is not “a belt-tightening,” she adds. “Actually, it doesn’t save us any resources. It is just a way of reconfiguring the program to make it more potent.” 

Nimble Design for Real-World Demands

Both Whiting and Hays describe how the increasingly urgent real-world demands on design also helped propel the reorganization forward. Concerns like climate change and the Black Lives Matter movement, and even the social inequalities of COVID-19 pandemic, influenced the shape and timing of administrators’ decisions.

“It wasn’t that long ago that we just didn’t think about these things as belonging in our school or in our program,” Hays says. But designers are becoming more and more aware, he adds, of how “the things they make happen—whether it’s shopping malls or hospitals or urban outdoor spaces or objects that we use—how these affect real people’s lives. And they can do it in ways that are gendered or racial; certain design outcomes can be discriminatory.” He offers an example: “So, the whole concept of climate justice—the response to something like Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico—has political implications; there are issues of planning and issues of policy, but there are also physical properties: buildings and spaces. That’s something designers should respond to.” 

The M.Des. program, he says, is uniquely positioned to consider such issues. It cuts across all GSD departments—architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning and design—combining courses and curricular streams. And because the program doesn’t lead to professional accreditation, it doesn’t have to answer to institutions and certification requirements, “and so it has a little more freedom, and can be a little more nimble,” he notes. “And so, in some ways, the M.Des. can stand as a critique of the professions, or stand on the edge of the professions, or in between them.”

That notion of critique and of standing slightly apart influenced the names given to the four new domains. “For example, the ‘narratives’ domain, we could have called it ‘history’ instead—in the old program, there is a track called, simply, ‘history.’ But renaming it ‘narratives’ causes you to rethink the concept.” Certain communities—refugees, for instance, or migrants—don’t leave documents behind, or don’t have archives to store their histories. “So, how do you tell their story? How do you narrate that condition? And also, you can tell stories not just through written histories, but through exhibitions. So, a student might come into the narratives domain with a desire to become a curator.… Just by adjusting the vocabulary, I think you force people to rethink their course of study. And, again, this is part of the critique of over-professionalization. It’s a critique of conventional history to call it a narrative. Narratives are symbolic, they’re social, and they have readers and writers, but it’s just a little more open.”

A similar thought process, he says, went into the domain titled “mediums.” The more conventional name would have been “technology.” “But a medium is a form of expression,” Hays says. “And so, you study a technology as it achieves an expressive form. I think that’s a richer and more robust topic.” 

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Harvard GSD tops graduate school ranking

Harvard GSD's Master in Architecture 2 program has been ranked number one on the 2018 BAM (Best Architecture Masters) Ranking . Different postgraduate study programs have been selected from the best architecture schools in the world in this year edition of the  QS Ranking by Subjects – Architecture / Built Environment . Out of these, 20 programs were selected in this year's BAM Ranking, reflecting the best masters programs from around the world. 

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Toxic mortgage securities were rated AAA, too.

Am sincerely interested in the criteria for Arch education studies like this. Most notably, the "faculty competence" being measured by [phd] vs. the amount of built work, and the "faculty internationality" ... seems aimed mostly at elite European and Ivy League and against smaller local schools that produce most of the people that actually build buildings. PhDs are nice for history, but irrelevant as criteria for competence. But what else is new... 

Or one could go to the ncarb website and compare which schools have the highest a.r.e. pass rates. you may be surprised.

I've never heard of BAM. Are we not doing DI anymore?

We need a ranking of the best rankings of the best design programs.

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Programming functional fabrics

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Encouraged by her family, Lavender Tessmer explored various creative pursuits from a young age, particularly textiles, including knitting and crocheting. When she came to MIT, she figured that working with textiles would remain just a hobby; she never expected them to become integral to her career path.

However, when she interviewed for a research assistant position in Self Assembly Lab , it just so happened that the lab had recently received funding from the Advanced Functional Fabrics of America, one of the manufacturing institutes launched during the Obama administration , for a textile-based project.

Tessmer, now a fifth-year doctoral student in design and computation within the School of Architecture and Planning, took on the project, working with Skylar Tibbits , associate professor of design research, and Caitlin Muller , associate professor in building technology. “At MIT, my interest in textiles really exploded and became the center of everything,” Tessmer says.

While textiles may appear commonplace, the Covid-19 pandemic underscored the need for textile products in safeguarding our general health and safety, particularly through the filtration necessary for masks. Recognizing the importance of manufacturing capabilities for textiles, Tessmer’s research has focused on programming textiles with specific functional properties while also considering the feasibility of large-scale manufacturing of such products.

A nonlinear path to MIT

Tessmer studied music as an undergraduate student at Duquesne University, pursuing a passion that bloomed as a high schooler. One assignment opened her eyes to a different career path: She was told to compare a piece of music to some other artistic medium. Through this assignment, she discovered the world of architecture by underscoring the systematic nature of both disciplines, emphasizing the need for repetition and structure to unleash creativity. “I immediately realized that’s what I want to do,” she says.

Tessmer switched gears and decided to devote the year after college to architecture, instead of auditioning for music ensembles. She says, “I always liked making things, and then, with architecture, I realized that you can make things as part of your profession.” She relied on the basic drafting skills that her father had taught her, and channeled these into building her architecture portfolio.

Ultimately, she decided to pursue a master’s degree in architecture at Washington University in St. Louis. She graduated with her master’s at the end of the 2007 economic recession, a time when jobs in architecture were scarce. She eagerly accepted a part-time role teaching at WashU. Over the next five years, this role evolved into a full-time lecturer role, where she taught students while also independently establishing her own design practice and leading various installation design projects. Fittingly, all of the installations were inspired by textiles. “They were these high-performance carbon-fiber braided structures that we hand-made into large-scale braided nets with specific geometries,” Tessmer explains.

“Squeezing everything” out of graduate school

Teaching at WashU was a great experience, but the practice-oriented nature of the architecture department motivated Tessmer to seek complementary perspectives on design. “I wanted a totally new venue that was supportive of research and pushing the boundaries of design. I wanted to see what other approaches were out there,” she says. As her interests continued to grow in that direction, she learned that MIT has some renowned researchers in the field. She decided to apply for a master’s degree in architecture studies, and ultimately a doctorate in design and computation, within the School of Architecture and Planning.

MIT’s program stood out to Tessmer because of the interdisciplinary approach of the architecture department. She says, “If you are an architect or designer, it is not strange to end up in a class full of people who are not architects, and that’s totally normal and even expected.” The integrated nature of her program is a shift from her previous academic experiences, where each discipline had been distinct and separate. She also values the lack of hierarchy between different disciplines within the architecture department here. “There is respect across disciplines for the contribution from each participant,” she says.

As an older student, Tessmer has a slightly different approach to graduate school, compared to her peers. She says, “MIT is amazing because there is so much variety and so many things that you can get involved in. But my style is to be hyperfocused on my interests. For me, there have been huge benefits to focusing on this specific thing and squeezing everything I can out of it, even in the face of all of these other opportunities.”

Tessmer has devoted herself to several projects throughout grad school, but all share a common thread: an emphasis on fiber development and textile programming. As a master’s student in the Self Assembly Lab, she utilized the inherent properties of materials and optimized their configurations for specific functions by integrating computation into the material itself. “At MIT, I learned a much broader definition of computation,” she says. “For example, in the Self Assembly Lab, we believe that material is a storage format of information and that you can program material to behave in certain ways.”  

The first project Tessmer worked on was designing a fiber that could respond to temperature fluctuations. Another project focused on embedding many different properties within a single fabric, potentially for astronauts. “The human body is so varied in the number of properties that you need to match,” she says. In conjunction with collaborators across multiple MIT departments, she designed a spacesuit sleeve with embedded padding, stretchable areas, a compression gradient, and various sensors. Her third project has focused on embedding shapechange behavior into fabric structures to enhance human comfort or fit, as an alternative to manual tailoring. Finally, in a return to her architectural roots, she is also working on designing a reinforced concrete beam using textiles, a more sustainable solution to building with concrete, which has a significant carbon footprint.

Another crucial aspect of Tessmer’s research is her focus on the feasibility of large-scale manufacturing for a product. She regularly relies on industrial-scale machinery and consults with manufacturing partners. She says, “The way research is being conducted in the lab is a close parallel to how it would be made in real life. The potential for a direct bridge between one and the other is a high priority for me and a constraint that I have tried to layer on to all of my projects.”

Dabbling in entrepreneurship

Tessmer says with a laugh, “My entire hobby [textiles] has now been absorbed into my research. So I am in the market for a new hobby.” For now, that hobby has taken the form of entrepreneurship. She has been exploring the commercialization potential of her technologies, having filed multiple patents and completed the Blueprint program with The Engine Accelerator. She hopes that one day her method for embedding properties in textiles, while also reducing manufacturing process steps, will be used for commercial fabrics.

As an example, she points to shoe manufacturing. “Your shoes are normally an assembly of lots of different materials and lots of different layers. Instead, my proposal to The Engine focused on embedding all of these properties in an automated way, eliminating the need for an extensive assembly process.” Tessmer envisions entrepreneurship as one of her potential future paths.

For the time being, however, she plans to remain in academia. “From the outside, being a professor seems like an unattainable position. However, I keep being surprised at my ability to get to the next level of the academic hierarchy.” She aims to integrate all her past experiences into a future research career, designing textiles within an architectural context, while also weaving in the constraints of manufacturing scalability.

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Rice Invests in Center for Environmental Studies

Rice University is refocusing its efforts on the Center for Environmental Studies (CES) to enhance and advance the center’s research goals and initiatives regarding environmental issues in our society. The center, based in the School of Humanities in partnership with the School of Architecture, also translates scholarship into resources for the public. It serves as a cross-campus connector hosting conversations and events for a broad, multidisciplinary audience.

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Longzhi Tan, PhD

The assistant professor of neurobiology has been named a recipient of the MIND Prize by the Pershing Square Foundation. The MIND [Maximizing Innovation in Neuroscience Discovery] Prize supports and empowers early-to-mid-career investigators to rethink conventional paradigms. Tan will receive an award of $250,000 a year for three years in support of his work, focused on building the next generation of DNA sequencing-based “biochemical microscopes” to precisely measure and manipulate the genome architecture of individual cells to uncover the fundamental principles of how DNA folds and regulates gene expression.

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Graduate Education Offers Fellowships to HASS, Architecture Students

April 15, 2024

The Office of Graduate Education, in cooperation with the schools of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, and Architecture, have presented the 2024-25 Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences and Architecture Fellowship to the following students:

These competitive fellowships are sponsored by the Dean of Graduate Education, Dorit Nevo, and offer the opportunity for advanced Ph.D. students to produce exemplary dissertation research in Architecture and Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences.

Alexander Betsos, “Addiction Science and the State:  Crafting Canadian Drug Las in the Late 20th Century.”

Adviser: Nancy Campbell  

Jaehoon “Jason” Choi, “Formulating a unique conception of technics through the  Brushing Project. ”

Adviser: Matthew Goodheart 

Milena Jonas Bem “Designing Museums as Audiovisual Spaces.” 

Adviser: Jonas Braash 

Pratama Pradheksa, “Greening Ashes:  The Sociotechnical Governance of Waste to Energy (WTE) Incinerators.”

Adviser: Abby Kinchy

Li Zheng, “Enhancing Episodic Future Thinking in Children with ADHD: A Virtual Reality Gaming Therapy Approach.”

Adviser: Mei Si  

Students interested in applying to fellowship programs are encouraged to contact Betty Madigan, fellowship adviser, at  [email protected] .