WHEN:
Thursday, November 2nd, 2017
3:30 – 4:45 PM

WHERE:
Room 124, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138

EVENT DESCRIPTION:
Throughout 2017, the world witnessed, yet again, the devastating effects of ever-present hazards at multiple scales of the built and social environment. It is now impossible to overlook facts, and interdisciplinary engagement is imminently needed. This scenario is evident in Mexico, who presently struggles with the aftermath of three quasi-consecutive devastating earthquakes that stressed the nation’s ubiquitous challenges.

Please join the Risk and Resilience student cohort and faculty members to discuss the issues that the recent earthquakes in and around Mexico City have raised.

Diane E.Davis

Charles Dyer Norton Professor of Regional Planning and Urbanism. Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design. Co-Director, Risk & Resilience Master in Design Studies. Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Diane E. Davis’ published works examine the relations between urbanization and national development, comparative international development, the politics of urban development policy, and conflict cities. She has explored topics ranging from historic preservation, urban social movements, and identity politics to urban governance, fragmented sovereignty, and state formation to planning theory. Her current research focuses on the transformation of cities of the global south, particularly the urban social, spatial, and political conflicts that have emerged in response to globalization, informality, and political or economic violence.

Rosetta S. Elkin

Assistant Professor, Landscape Architecture and Co-Director, Risk + Resilience Master in Design Studies, Harvard University Graduate School of Design / Associate, Harvard Arnold Arboretum.

Rosetta Sarah Elkin is Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and an Associate at Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum. Her teaching and research focus on an expanded consideration of plant life. The work derives from a conviction that plants can reestablish a central position in a landscape architectural discourse. As co-director of Master in design Studies in Risk and Resilience, her work exposes the biological complexity of global greening projects, implicit in recovery, retreat and preemptive environmental programs.

Santiago Aurelio Mota Sosa

Master of Design Engineering Candidate (’18), Harvard University Graduate School of Design

Architect by training and with previous studies in economics, Santiago is currently engaged in his graduate studies as part of the inaugural cohort of the Master in Design Engineering program at Harvard University. Understanding design as a research tool, his current work focuses on open and inclusive models for the majority world while focusing on the development of feasible new modes of intervention for complex issues regarding the contemporary built environment. His research addresses the linkages between food, energy and water to understand the major implications of urbanization and the emerging externalities while challenging widespread notions permeating disciplinary practices regarding energy conservation, sustainability, ecology and resiliency. He has lectured at various academic, cultural, private and governance institutions, including the Latin GSD at Harvard, the Cité de l’Architecture et Patrimoine in Paris, Saint Gobain´s Regional Director Summit, UN-Habitat and the Inter-American Development Bank 2nd Latin American and Caribbean Forum on Adequate Housing and the MIT Enterprise Forum.

Elena Tudela Rivadeneyra

Master of Architecture in Urban Design, Harvard University Graduate School of Design / PhD Candidate + Professor, National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Elena studied architecture at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and graduated with a Master’s degree in Architecture in Urban Design from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. She carried out research and urban design work for Hyperbina Design Group (Bing Wang) in Cambridge, and was a research assistant at OPSYS (Pierre Belanger) in the same city. She was a workshop instructor in urban design at Harvard University. She is a professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the UNAM. She carried out the design and the museographic production of the exhibition “Citadinos” by Spencer Tunick. In 2012, she was a finalist for the 2012 Druker Traveling Fellowship of Harvard University. In 2004 she won the two first places in the First National Contest of Wood Housing, in the Rural and Emerging categories (among other distinctions). Her work has been exhibited at Harvard, the city of Veracruz, Morelia, as well as on the esplanade of the Museum of Fine Arts

Special Guest (Via Skype).

This event is hosted by MDes Risk & Resilience.

Featured Image by: Edgard Garrido