The Penny White Project Fund annually awards up to $50,000 in project funding for student-submitted research proposals. The call is open to all graduate, postgraduate, and doctoral students at the GSD, including collaborations across programs and disciplines.

2024 Schedule

  • Application Deadline

    February 5th, 2024, 11:59 pm EST.

    Applicants must complete the online proposal form linked here.

    Late or incomplete proposals will not be accepted.

     

  • Announcement of Recipients

    Recipients of the 2024 Penny White Project Fund will be announced early in the Spring semester.

  • Final Report Submission

    September 22, 2024

    Winners will receive further guidelines as to final report formats from the Department of Landscape Architecture and the Frances Loeb Library nearer to the due date in September 2024. Please review the outline of the final report requirements below.

    Awardees must submit both a hard copy and a digital copy of their final report to:

    Department of Landscape Architecture
    48 Quincy Street, Room 312
    Cambridge, MA 02138

    [email protected]

    One-fourth of awarded funds will be held back and released upon submission of the final report. See instructions for details.

ABOUT

Winifred G. (Penny) White had just completed her second year of the MLA program when she died suddenly of leukemia in 1976. In her memory that same year, her family established this fund to offer financial support for student projects. The goal was to “carry forward Penny’s ideal of a culture which emphasizes a close relationship between people and nature in a cohesive living environment.”

All students across the GSD at the graduate and doctoral levels are eligible for support for any project that addresses the broad objectives of the fund. Past awards have ranged from $200 to $4,500.

The objectives of the Penny White Student Project Fund are:

  • Promote creative thought by providing students with an opportunity to pursue their own original projects.
  • Promote the development of a land ethic, which integrates the preservation and enhancement of natural systems through studies of design, ecology, and natural science
  • Provide opportunities for students to diversify their graduate study in areas both within and outside the normal curriculum, for example, such fields as geomorphology, microclimatology, and soil mechanics.

ELIGIBILITY AND CRITERIA

ELIGIBILITY

All students enrolled in the Harvard Graduate School of Design are eligible to submit project proposals that address the objectives of the Penny White Project Fund. Although all GSD students are eligible, according to the Fund terms: “…it is expected that preference will be given to students in the Department of Landscape Architecture.” The Committee looks favorably upon collaboration between students in Landscape Architecture with other design disciplines.

Note that the GSD cannot support travel to locations considered high risk. Please review the risk ratings on the Harvard Global Support Services page.

JOINT APPLICANTS

Students may work individually or in teams, and in conjunction with or independently from their coursework.

PROPOSAL EVALUATION

Proposals are evaluated on several criteria, including:

  • Quality and clarity of the project
  • Originality of research
  • Feasibility of the budget and schedule
  • Relevance to the Fund’s objectives
  • Nature of the outcome
  • Contribution to the field of landscape architecture

The Committee will pay special attention to the:

  • Focus and quality of the proposals
  • Relationship project objectives and proposed travel (if applicable)
  • Relevance to the field of landscape architecture

The Fund welcomes projects that promote research at the intersection of systemic inequity and social and environmental justice, and that focus on the advancement of the political agency of landscape architecture as an activist, collaborative, and participatory practice.

APPLICATION CYCLE

The yearly deadline for proposal falls at the beginning of the Spring semester. Late or incomplete proposals will not be considered. The Committee will meet following the submission of proposals, and final awards will be announced before Spring Break. Projects must be completed and final reports must be submitted to the Department of Landscape Architecture by September of the same year.

It is strongly recommended that, in the preparation of their proposals, applicants consult the Scholarly Pursuits: A Guide to Professional Development during the Graduate Years, a guide written by Cynthia Verba, Fellowships Advisor at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. The guide offers valuable recommendations on how to: construct and polish arguments in the development of a grant application; write an abstract; and compose the general organization of ideas.

PROJECT PERIOD

Only one grant may be awarded per student, either individually or in group. Collaboration with students that have already received an award from the Penny White Project Fund is not allowed. No additional funding will be provided after the award date.

FINAL-YEAR STUDENTS

The Fund accepts proposals from GSD students currently in their final year, with conditions. Final-year applicants will be required to explain in their proposals the very specific dates in which they plan to travel or develop other activities associated with their research, how they plan to complete the project beyond graduation, and how they plan to report and submit their work by the deadline.

ADVISORS

Applicants will be requested to submit the names of two project advisors, including an Internal Faculty Advisor from the GSD and an External Project Advisor, who are aware of the project and support its potential outcomes. Please note that the Internal Faculty Advisor should not be someone on the Faculty Jury Committee who reviews the proposals. Applicants are strongly encouraged to start working in consultation with a project advisor as soon as possible.

Selection Committee

  • Faculty

    Gareth Doherty, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture (Committee Chair)

    Jungyoon Kim, Assistant Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture

    Rosalea Monacella, Design Critic in Landscape Architecture

    Amy Whitesides, Design Critic in Landscape Architecture

  • Advisory Board

    Karen Janosky, Director of the Master in Landscape Architecture Program & Lecturer in Landscape Architecture

    Ann Whiteside, Librarian & Assistant Dean for Information Services

     

Application Instructions

Below are guidelines for what to include in your proposal submission form. Submissions that do not adhere to these instructions will be disqualified.

Proposal Instructions

PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS AND REQUIREMENTS

ABSTRACT

A brief of the main objective and scope of the project, including proposed method, and expected outcome. The abstract should clearly identify if the project is a case study, site investigation, a prototypical experiment, or any other form of research.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

3A. Project Description: a clear and comprehensive description of the project, its objectives, main tasks and outcomes. The description includes conditions addressed, questions asked, or hypotheses tested. The description must also describe if a similar project of this type has been done before, how it is different, what is aims to accomplish, and what is the substantive contribution to the field of landscape.

3B. Project Background: a succinct outline of the project’s specific spatial, ecological and geographic context. The project background should also outline the historic, theoretical, scientific, representational, or practical discourse of the project, in relation to research and design in landscape architecture. Background information should be supported by relevant sources which might include reference literature, case studies, precedents, past projects. Clear and concise graphic illustration of the project background is encouraged.

PROJECT METHODS

A short explanation that describes the method that will be used to accomplish the main project tasks. In this section, precedents, historic case studies, earlier work with methods like those suggested in the proposal may be cited and will be used to clearly frame the discourse and the type of project in question. The project might be also identified in this section with specific modes of landscape architecture practice. The methods section should also describe if travel is essential for the coherent development of the research project and why.

The Landscape Architectural Research: Inquiry, Strategy, Design by M. Elen Deming and Simon Swaffield (2010) is a helpful guide regarding research methods in landscape architecture.

There might be human subjects involved in the content of the research. In such cases, research needs to be guided by the ethical principles set forth in the Belmont Report, which seeks the Protection of Human Subjects of Research. For research projects that deal with human subjects, it is strongly recommended that awarded students send their proposal to the Harvard’s Committee on the Use of Human Subjects for revision. Visit the Committee on the Use of Human Subjects page for more information.

VISUAL MATERIAL

Additional graphic material in the form of maps and diagrams may be provided to support the project proposal by illustrating the area of research, the content of the research, visual methodologies, and examples of the outcomes. All project imaging should be high resolution, with captions and sources.

PROJECT SCHEDULE AND ITINERARY

A detailed description of the project timetable, start and end dates, timeline for main tasks, travel itinerary (if applicable) and sequence of deliverables. Please note that reasonable time must be dedicated to advance the definition of the project itself, to the preparation of the logistics of the trip (if applicable), and to the completion of the deliverables. If traveling, you may consider including a map of the area in which the project is to be developed, particularly if there are specific itineraries within the area that would help the committee understand the nature of your trip.

PROJECT BUDGET

A detailed itemization of all anticipated expenses including:

  • Travel (air and ground travel)
  • Accommodations (hotel)
  • Equipment and Resources (supplies, fuel, power, documentation, reproduction, copy)
  • Incidentals (security, visa, guide, translation)

Although expenses for food and normal per diem costs are not covered by the Fund, project budgeting must demonstrate a clear understanding of project expenses and regional incidentals. The budget should not underestimate costs that might adversely affect the outcomes of the project. Any additional funding sources from other grant agencies must be disclosed.

Any equipment purchased with the funds remains the property of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and must be returned to the Department of Landscape Architecture upon completion of the project.

ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES AND PROJECT DOCUMENTATION

A description of tangible benefits, findings, and contributions of the project to the discipline of landscape architecture and fields of design. Provide a definition of actual outcomes (a conference, a paper, a map, a presentation, an interview, an installation) with relevant dates, as applicable. Outcomes and deliverables must be tangible, substantive, and feasible.

CURRICULUM VITAE

Applicant(s) must submit a maximum 2-page CV outlining their education, experience, and other relevant background to demonstrate capability and responsibility. For proposals developed by teams, each student can include an individual 2-page CV.

LITERATURE AND REFERENCES

A brief list of references, books, websites from preliminary research that demonstrates knowledge of the project discourse, area, and scope.

PROJECT ADVISORS

List 2 project advisors, including an Internal Faculty Advisor from the GSD, and an External Project Advisor related to the project tasks. List names, positions, and contact information, including email address and mailing address. Advisors may be contacted during the Selection Process.

The Internal Faculty Advisor should not be someone on the Faculty Jury Committee who reviews the proposals.

GSD faculty advisors can be from any department.

SUBMITTING APPLICATION

The deadline to submit proposals is February 5th, 2024, 11:59 pm EST.

Applicants must complete the online proposal form here.

Late or incomplete proposals will not be accepted.

Final Report Instructions

The Final Report should consist of the following contents compiled:

  • Revised Project Summary: summary of the main objectives and scope of the investigation, the method and approach that has been followed, the learnings and outcomes (1 page)
  • Revised Project Description: elaborated, clear, and comprehensive description of the project, also looking at the main objectives and scope, method and approach, learnings and outcomes of the investigation as it occurred  during the research process (1-2 pages)
  • Revised Schedule and Itinerary: include maps of the itinerary followed, and the research conducted and tasks accomplished in each phase of the schedule and location in the itinerary
  • Project Images: between 5-10 photographs, maps, or diagrams
  • Project Photography: 5-10 site photographs
  • Learning Outcomes: What has been learned? What was initially expected and what was actually found? How did the project evolve during the preparation of the field work, during the trip, and afterwards? How has this opportunity impacted your understanding of design as a form of research? (1-2 pages)
  • Conclusions: explain your conclusions, both partial and general, and whether, why, and if/how this project will be continued (1-2 pages)

Questions?

Contact the Department of Landscape Architecture at [email protected].

Past Projects

Students may review past projects as listed below. To review completed projects, please contact the Loeb Library Archives.

Past Projects 2009-2013

2009

Lana Cohen (MLA I) – Experiential Mapping of Bicycle Infrastructure: Interpreting Cyclist Movement through Biking, Barcelona

Sean Corriel (MArch I) – Mixing and Testing Soil-Based Paving Systems

Anthony Di Mari (MArch I) – Catching the Camanchaca: Water Collection Methods in Norte Chico, Chile

Angeliki Evripioti (MAUD) and Sarah Thomas (MLA II) – Murs a peches: a resilient agricultural enclave

Charles R. Howe (MLA I) – The Paraguayan Frontier: Land in Transition

Saehoon Kim (MDesS) – Villages in Transition: Water Scarcity in Rural Landscape China

Wanda Liebermann (DDes) – Reconsidering the Universal Landscape: Het Dorp, The Netherlands

Erik Prince (MLA II) – Ogallala Aquifer/High Plains

Leah Rominger (MLA I) – The Montado: Portugal’s Landscape of Economy, Ecology, and Regional Identity

Justin Scherma (MLA I) – Allotment Gardens in the Stockholm Urban Region

Max Hooper Schneider (MLA I) – Therapeutic Gardens for Children in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Shannon Simms (MLA I) and Vanessa Cheung (MLA I) – Urban Agricultural Systems in Cuba: How farms fit into Havana, Cienfuegos, and Santa Clara

Sharma Abhishek (MLA I AP, MAUD) and Richa Shukla (MAUD) – GREENHOUSE agriCulture: Campo de Dalias, Almeira Province, Spain

Yonathan M. Cohen (MAUD) – Sacred Geographies – Typologies of Pilgrimage in Tamil Nadu

Anthony Di Mari (MArch I) – Methods of Regenerative Bamboo Shoot Harvesting in Southern Japan

Jianhang Gao (MAUD) – A Well Preserved Ancient Productive Landscape

Dan A. Handel (MArch II) – Checkerboard Cascades: A Journey into the Wilderness of Land Grants and Timber Corporations of the America Northwest

Laura Harmon (MLA I) – After Impact: Bomb Crater Reclamation in Vietnam

Taro Narahara (DDes) – Simulating Informal Settlements: Understanding Correlation between Landform, Environment, and Human Habitations in Yemen

Megan Forney Panzano (MArch I) – Self Storage: A New Infrastructural Surface for Landscape Urbanism

Ryan Shubin (MLA II) – Dhaka’s West Embankment: Infrastructure of Fortification in a Climate of Change

Meghan Spigle (MLA I AP) – Green Walls of Paris: An Ecological Analysis

Dorothy Tang (MLA II) and Andrew Watkins (MAUD) – All That Glitters is Not Gold

Sarah Thomas (MLA II) – Concrete Habitat: Bats in Bridges

Rikako Wakabayashi (MArch I AP) – The Aswan Dam and Its Influences on the River Nile

 

2010

Aidan Acker (MLA I) – From Policy to Practice: Xeriscape Grant Program in Cathedral City, CA

Jennifer Cooper (MLA II) – Port + Marsh + City

Catherine de Almeida (MLA I AP) – Landscapes of Embedded Energy: The Life-Cycle and Use of Geothermal Energy in Iceland

Elisa Benitez Garcia (MLA I AP) – Slate/Global flows: From China to US and Brazil and Vice Versa

Kimberly Garza (MLA II) – Landscape Quick-Stop: Re-conceptualizing the Rest Areas of a Form of American Cultural Identity

Erin Kelly (MLA I) – The Big Stink: Aguas Negras in the Mexico City Metropolitan Zone

Emily Lesk (MUP) and Emily Schlickman (MLA) – Mapping the Hydrological Spatial, and Social Dimensions of Indonesia’s Batik Industry

Jonathan Linkus (MAUD) and Jonathan Scelsa (MAUD) – Shikoku 88, The Reforestation of a Cultural Ecosystem

Ryan Madson (MLA I) – Satoyama and the Metropolitan Edge: The “Slow Landscapes” of Tokyo

Christina Milos (MLA I) – From Wadi to Dust: Adaptive Responses to Desertification in the Lake Chad Basin

Alpa Nawre (MLAUD) – Rhaetian Railway in the Albula/Bernina Landscapes

Nancy Seaton (MLA I) – Trees in a Treeless Land

Vera Shur (MArch I) and Julian Wu (MArch I) – The Lemons of the Sorrentine Peninsula: An Integrated Cultural Landscape

Justin D. Stern (MUP) – The Development of China’s Frontier: Ürümqi and Xinjiang Across Multiple Geographic Scales

Stephanie Tam (MArch I) – An Ecology of Vulnerability: The sewerage Crisis in Ahmedabad, India

Andrew Zientek (MLA II) – The Ecology of Pilgrimage: A Journey to Muktinath, Nepal

Julia Africa (MDesS) – Community Gardens as Healing Spaces: Addressing the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina In New Orleans

Ted Baab (MArch I) and Nicole Huang (MArch I) – The Bonneville Salt Flats: Geo-Mythology in the Desert

Hans Baumann (MLA I) – Designing for the Unknown: The Transformative Potential of Mine Clearance on the Falkland Islands

Cristina Brodu (MDesS) – Farming and Flooding: The Flourishing Connection of Men and Nature in Mekong River Basin

Jorge Colon (MDesS) – Urban Identity and the Andes Mountains: Mapping a Cultural Geography of Bogota

John Davis (MArch I AP) – Proving Ground: The Landscape of American Automobile Testing

Yao Dong (MAUD) and Di Xia (MArch II) – Bostans: Agricultural Generators for Istanbul’s Urbanization

Kenya Endo (MLA I) – Landscape Point of View in Revitalizing Shrinking Cities II

Kimberly Garza (MLA II) – Revealing Truths at the New Jersey Turnpike: Cataloging Invisible Networks and Flows at the Turnpike

Sara Jacobs (MLA I) – Generating Aquaculture: Hydropower Development and Food Security in the Lower Mekong Basin

Laura Janka (MAUD) and Victor Sanz (MAUD) – 196,925 meters: Mapping the Border of Mexico City as an Event in the Physical and Virtual Landscape

Tiffany Lau (MArch I) – Human-Scaled Innovation in the Growing “Waste” lands of India

Forbes Lipschitz (MLA I) – Meat Matters: Examining the Global Poultry Industry in Northwest Arkansas

Aisling Marie O’Carroll (MLA I AP) – Urban Innovations in Soil Mechanics

Conor O’Shea (MLA II) – Surveying Chicago’s Infrastructure at the NEwberry Library Map Collection

Natalia Polunina (MLA I) – Modification of Geomorphology

John Todd (MArch I) and Tiffany Way (MArch I) – Reclaiming Al Badia: Sustainable Soil Management in Rural Damascus

 

2011

Anne Clark Baker (MLA I AP) – Rocky Coast, Constructed Edge: Tracing Portland’s Land-Sea Habitat Typologies

Rebecca Bartlett (MLA I) – Disaster Resiliency through Water Purification; Sri Lankan Mangrove Ecosystem Services

Travis Bost (MDesS) – Adaptive Opportunism of Infrastructural Landscapes in the Mississippi Delta

Lindsay Chandler-Alexander (MArch I) – Children in the Landscape: The Alternative Playgrounds of Denmark

Michael Clement (MLA I) – Back to the Earth: Reinventing the Burial Ground

Emily Gordon (MLA I) – Everyman’s Rights: Foraging Finland

Brendan Kellog (MArch I) and Bea Camacho (MArch I) – Farming a Landscape in Crisis: The Design and Construction of Raised Fields in the Beni Region of Bolivia

Dongsei Kim (MDesS) – The Demilitarized Zone : Redrawing the Border Between North and South Korea

Kees Lokman(MDesS) – In Search of Niagara

Fadi Masoud (MLA II) – Deir E’lla – Border Town – Jordan River Valley

Marcus Owens (MDesS) – Animal Infrastructure, Moscow

Jason Rebillot (DDes) – Experimental Field: Urban Practice in the Rhineland

Emily Schlickman (MLA I) – The Ghost Fleet Landscape

Anne Schmidt (MLA I) – Recording Deviations – Drawing a Section of America

Alec Spangler (MLA I) – The Longest Shortcut: The Trans-Siberian Railway and the Representation of Unimaginable Extent

Amy Whitesides (MLA I) – The Flying Fox in the Royal Botanical Gardens: Urban Ecology in Two Australian Cities

Steven Chen (MAUD) and Xiaowei Wang (MLA I) – Nomadology of the City: Rural-urban Transhumance in Ulaan Baatar

Lucas Correa-Sevilla (MAUD) and Michelle Ha (March I AP) – Inscribing Water on City: An atlas of access in Iquitos, Peru

Laurent Corroyer (MDesS) – Wasteshed Infrastructure [Margins]

Aneesha Dharwadker (MDesS) – Shifting Grounds: Urban morphologies in the Yamuna Riverbed

Natalya Egon (MArch I) – Salt & Water: The hidden geological infrastructure of two basins

Michael Ezban (MLA I AP) and Jana Vandergoot (MLA I AP) – Exhuming the Rust Belt: Metrics and Ecologies at Pointe Mouillee

Daniel Ibanez (MDesS) – Productive Urban Landscapes in Cuba

Lisl Kotheimer (MLA II) – Visualizing Boundaries in the Las Vegas Valley

Xiaoxuan Lu (MLA I AP) – The Art of Touching the Ground Lightly: Mapping the crater-field in Xieng Khouang province, Laos

Xinpeng Yu (MLA I) – Engineered Morphology: The role of hydrodynamic models in coastal ecological restoration

Sara Zewde (MLA I) – Designing Black Space in the Zona Portuaria

 

2012

Anna Cawrse (MLA II) – Paper Streets of Pittsburgh

Rachael Cleveland (MLA I) – Spontaneous Urban Vegetation and the Shrinking City: Refiguring the urban ground in Berlin, Dessau-­Rosslau and the Ruhrgebiet

McKenna Cole (MLA I AP) and Ellen Garrett (MLA I AP) – Hydrologic Impact of Maritime Industry: A case study | Ingalls Shipyard Pascagoula, MS

Tracie Curry (MLA I) – Thawing Frozen Infrastructure: The cultural, environmental and commercial challenges of climate change and arctic infrastructure along the Northern Sea Route

Carolyn Deuschle (MLA I), Emily McMillan (MLA I), and Nicolas Rivard (MAUD) – Border Urbanism: Understanding public space in the Texas Colonias

Alexia Friend (MLA II) – Runoff Landscapes: A critical study of ancient and contemporary water catchment strategies in the Negev

Karyssa Halstead (MLA I AP) and Mara Katherine Smaby (MLA I) – Pistil Whip: Spatializing networks in the ecuadorian floriculture industry

Connie Migliazzo (MLA I ) – Economies of Waste: Industrial hog farm infrastructure in rural Netherlands

Mark Pomarico (MLA I AP) and Judith Rodriquez (MLA I AP / MAUD) – Post Tsunami Satoyama: Restoring Mosaics from Mountain to Sea

Nathan Shobe (MArch I) and Emmet Truxes (MArch I) – Cloudscapes + the Geomorphically Constrained City: Timelapse photography in La Guajira Peninsula and Medellín, Colombia

 

2013

Christopher Alton (MDesS ULE) – Wood / Buffalo: Treaty 8 in the Century of Bitumen

Erik Andersen (MLA I) and Senta Burton (MLA I) – Rangelands: Expanding Frontiers for Bison bison bison

Alexander Arroyo (MLA I) – Terra in Extremis Toward ‘the Ends of the Earth’: Oceanic Urbanization in the Aleutian Archipelago

Naz Beykan (MDesS E&E) and Venkata Krishna Kumar Matturi (MDesS ULE) – Atolls of Waste: Investigating waste networks of island nation of Maldives in the context of Indian Ocean

Jennifer Corlett (MLA I) – Food Security & Resilience: Reclaiming the Acequia Landscapes of New Mexico

Carolyn Deuschle (MLA I)- Darjeeling Tea: How Geographic Indication in a Global Marketplace Affects the Ground

William DiBernardo (MLA II) – The Satellite and the Sensor: Dry Data and the Sensing Paralax

Vineet Diwadkar (MLA I AP) and Tamer Elshayal (MDesS RR) – Coastal Membrane: Engineered Flows Across the Nile Delta Estuary

Lauren Elachi (MLA I) and Lindsey Nelson (MLA I) – Concealing the Past, Projecting the Deep Future: Experiments in Environmental Forecasting at the Onkalo Nuclear Waste Repository

Judy Fulton (MArch I) and Hokan Wong (MArch I) – The Terrestrial Data Cloud: on Digital-Infrastructural Territories in Northern Europe

Jason Hoeft (MArch II) and Will Lambeth (MArch II) – Landscapes of Disappearance: Addressing Emerging Design Challenges in the Rapidly Changing Landscape of Greenland

Justin Jackson (MLA I AP)- Material Implications: Brick Fields + Rapid Urbanization in Bangladesh

Kelly Murphy (MLA II) – Sown Together: Mapping the edge between Ljubljana and the Barje

Hope Strode (MLA I AP) – The Geography of Strip Mining: Mapping the Effects of Strip Mining in Central Appalachia

Marrikka Trotter (PhD in Landscape and Urbanism) – Planetary Risk in the Urban Imaginary: Lisbon After 1755

Anne Weber (MLA I) – Imaging the Invisible: Documenting the Post-Nuclear Landscape

Past Projects 2014-2019

2014

Dalal Alsayer (MDes ULE) – Hidden Space | Social Space: Migrant Workers and their Spaces in the GCC

Rebekah Armstrong (MLA I) and Vanessa Moon (MLA I AP/MUP) – Green Desert: Acacia saligna and Atriplex nummularia in Region IV, Chile

Christopher Bennett (MDes ULE) – DredgeShed: Sand as Landscape, Sand as Commodity, Sand as Gold

Jasper Campshure (MArch) – Papas chilotas: The Agricultural Crop as the Basis for Establishing Hereditary Land Rights in the Chiloé Archipelago

Dane Carlson (MLA II) – Descent: following the kali gandaki down from the roof of the world

Manuel Colon Amador (MLA I AP), Michalis Pirokka (MLA I AP), and Hector Tarrido-Picart (MLA I AP/MAUD) – Urban Wild Lab: Remote Sensing Landscapes and Urban Ecologies

Danika Cooper (MLA I AP/MDes ULE) – Dust Kingdom: A Description of Dust in the American Southwest

Anya Domlesky (MLA I) – Surveying Environmental Landscape Modeling: Three Physical Modelers of Coastal Processes

Michelle Franco (MLA I) – We Ground Things Now, On Moving Foundations: Landscape Film in Theory & Practice

Christina Geros (MLA I AP/MAUD) and Zannah Matson (MLA I) – Redefining Urban: Kotzebue, Alaska as a Case Study for the dual influences of settlement and junction

Stephanie Hsia (MLA I) – The Almond and the Bee: Investigating Landscape Interventions for the Greatest Pollination Quandary on Earth

Christopher Johnson (MArch I AP) – Recreational Squatting: Skate Culture and the Appropriation of Infrastructural Landscapes

Mikaela Pearson (MLA I AP) and David Pearson (MArch II) – Unearthing Larrea tridentate: Micro-Mapping Extensive Fibrous Root Structures

Pablo Perez Ramos (DDes; GSD MLA I AP ’12) – Gardens of Impossibility: Comparative Study of Agricultural Landscape Morphologies in Arid Environments

Craig Reschke (MLA I AP) with Ann Lui (MIT MArch) – Grafted Fields: Wrestling Dirt and Data from the Combine CommandCenter

Jennifer Saura (MLA I) – Landscapes of Resistance: Re-mapping Occupation in Post-crisis Spain

Phoebe White (MLA I) – Revealing Territories: The Historic and Projective Role of the Image in the Post-Glacial Swiss Alps

 

2015

Weaam Alabdullah (MLA I AP) – The Pearl Roundabout: Monumentality of a Political Landscape

Amin Alsaden (PhD in Architecture, Landscape & Urbanism) – FRONTIERS OF POSSIBILITY: MAPPING BAGHDAD’S IMPOSSIBLE DIVISIONS

Larissa Belcic (MLA I) – ROBOTIC COLONIZATION: Sensory Experience and the Planetary Analog as Design Strategy for Outer Space Occupation

Sarah Bolivar (MLA I) and Jessica Booth (MLA I) – Ascent: An Inland Response to Coastal Resilience in Japan

Azzurra Cox (MLA I) – ALTITUDINAL PORTRAITS: Transect as Ethnographic Map in Urban Bolivia

Ghazal Jafari (DDes) – EXTENDED LANDSCAPE OF MILITARIZATION: The Next Canadian Arctic

Mary Miller (MLA I AP), with Joseph Watson (University of Pennsylvania) – Wild Interfaces: The Western Wildlands Network and a New North American Territoriality

Marianne Potvin (PhD in Urban Studies) – HUMANITARIAN URBANISM AND THE CHANGING GEOGRAPHIES OF REFUGE

Chella Strong (MLA I) – Harvesting in the Interstices: An Investigation of Urban Vegetation Foraging in Three American Cities

Emily Wettstein (MArch I/MLA I AP), with Jacob Lipton (Harvard Law School) – tehm foh it: food insecurity in Sierra Leone

Longfeng Wu (MDes ULE) – Cybernetic Organism: The Intervention of Mechanization in Traditional Dike-pond Landscape, Pearl River Delta, China

 

2016

Oliver Curtis (MDes ’17; Energy & Environments concentration) Wildfires at the Wildland-Urban Interface: Adaption and Feedback

Alberto Embriz de Salvatierra (MLA/MDes ’17; Urbanism, Landscape, Ecology MDes concentration) Reed Urbanism: Grass Infrastructures in the Floating City of Uros

Ellen Epley (MLA ’17) Lay of the Land: Visualizing the Permitting Structure for Surface Mining and Reclamation in the United States and Canada

Kent Hipp (MLA ’17) Drought in Melbourne: Surveying a Landscape of Water Scarcity

Jia Joy Hu (MLA ’17) Iceland Afforestation: Envisioning Value in a Treeless Landscape

Justin Kollar (MArch/MUP ’17) Landscape Colonization/Cultivation: Collective Memory and Politics of the Taiwan Sugar Corporation

Qi Xuan (Tony) Li (MLA ’17) Landscape of the Unreal: An Evaluation and Projection of the Hudson River’s Virtual Landscape

Sophie Maguire (MLA ’17) The State of Play: Reimagining the Role of Design in London’s Adventure Playgrounds

Kira Sargent (MLA ’17) Dynamic Climate/Dynamic Engagement: Precedents and Opportunities for Designing with Tidal Flux in a World of Rising Seas

Julia Smachylo (DDes ’19) Nature State: Managed Forest in Southern Ontario

Jonah Susskind (MLA ’17) Urban Lumber Resource Management: An Investigation of New Growth Along the American Rust Belt

Jane Zhang (MDes ’17; Urbanism, Landscape, Ecology concentration) Food as a Carrier of Cultural Memory: Mapping the Vernacular Landscapes of Stone Oak Tofu in Zhejiang, China

 

2017

Madeleine Aronson (MLA ’18): Wild Mushroom Economies and Landscape Disturbance: Leveraging the Social and Ecological Potential of Wild Mushrooms in the Pacific Northwest

Tami Banh (MArch/MLA ’18): Engineered Nature: Studying the History of Ecological Intensification in Lower Mekong Basin through Critical Cartography

Michelle Benoit and Matthew Wong (both MLA ’18): Alternate Futures

Emily Drury (MLA ’18): Representing Representation: The Voting District & Redistricting as Grounded Site of Inquiry

Gideon Finck (MLA ’18): Untrammeled by Design

Yousef Hussein (MArch ’18): Kuwait’s Urban Landscape: The Aerial View of Modernist Colonial Planning

Charlotte Leib (MLA ’18) Surveying Sites Unseen: Trees, Representation, and Power in the 19th Century American Preservation and Conservation Movement

Alison Malouf (MLA ’18) Great Expectations: Designing for Privacy in the Smart City

Stacy Passmore (MLA ’18): From Drain Age to Retain Age: The Beaver’s Tale of Arid Landscapes: An Illustrated Catalogue

Estello Raganit (MLA ’19): Queering Landscapes: Cruising, Sexual Performance, and Social Liberation in Dongdan Park, Beijing, China

Phia Sennett (MLA ’19) Piscary: Impressions of Fishing Gear in the Salish Sea

 

2018

Joan Chen (MLA ’19) for “Duplicity of Landscape: Re-imaging Design Interventions in Rural Southwest China”

Lanie Cohen (MLA ’19) for “Recession Ecologies in Las Vegas, Nevada: A case for how economic latencies and themed casinos provide a new model for ecological urbanism”

Mark D. Heller (MLA/MUP ’19) for “Slash and Burn: Reconciling Riau’s Illegal Palm Landscape Through Mapping”

Emily Hicks and Melody Stein (both MLA ’19) for “Upstream: Wild Rice, Food Sovereignty, and 10,000 lakes in the Northern Minnesota Watershed”

Jenjira Holmes (MLA ’19) for “Hydrophyte Invasion: Mapping Chao Phraya’s Aquatic Ecological Structure with Water Hyacinth”

Danica Liongson (MLA ’19) for “Beauty & Bounty: The Threatened Legacy of Olive Trees in the Mediterranean”

Deni Lopez (MDes/MAUD ’19) and Nadyeli Quiroz (MLA ’19) for “Disaster as an Opportunity: Alternatives for Debris Management at Los Perros’ Riverbank in Oaxaca, Mexico”

Grace Suthata Jiranuntarat (MArch ’19) and Sonny Xu (MArch/MLA ’18) for “Chemical Valley: Site Investigation of Sarnia, Aamjiwnaang First Nation and CN Rail”

Isaac Stein (MDes/MLA ’20) and Maggie Tsang (MDes ’19) for “Lines in the Sand: Submerged Property and the Paradoxical Landscapes of Gulf Coast Barrier Islands”

Amanda Walker (MLA ’19) for “Red Dirt – Patterns of Exploitation: The Case of Bauxite Mining in Jamaica”

Anson Ting Fung Wong (MLA ’19) for “Stone Wall Trees: ‘Unconventional’ Urban Landscape in Hong Kong”

Courances Design Residents:

Mariel Collard (MLA/ MDes ’19)

Juan David Grisales (MLA/ MDes ’20)

 

2019

Colin Chadderton (MLA ’20) for “Sensors in the Landscape: A Literature Review of Current Sensor Deployment in Landscapes, and Three Case Studies of their Application in Peatlands”

Kira Clingen (MLA ’20) and Edyth Jostol (MLA ’20) for “Falling Stands: The Role of Climate Change, Cultivation and Culture surrounding Cryptomeria Japonica in the 21st century”

Armida Fernández (MDes RR ’20) and Luis Enrique Flores (MLA ’19) for “Designing with Communities of the Agricultural Industry in Mexico”

Dana Hills (MLA ’20) for “Newborn Lakes in Glacier National Park: Investigating the Succession of Lakes Created by the Acceleration of Glacial Melting”

Zoe Holland (MLA ’20) and McKenna Mitchell (MLA ’20) for “Earth, Wind, and Fiber: Imaging Marseille’s Digital Landscape”

Cecilia Huber (MLA ’20) for “Patchwork Horizon: Patterns of Resource Conservation and Farm Subsidies in the American Prairie Landscape”

Kimberley Huggins (MLA ’20) for “River as a Person”

Malika Leiper (MUP ’19) and Connie Trinh (MLA ’20) for “Urban Fabrics: Garments, Textiles and Urbanization in Cambodia”

Ting Liang (MLA and MAUD ’19) for “The Socialist Utopia: Reconciliation Between City and Countryside Field Investigation of Preexisting People’s Communes in Rural China”

Jeffrey S. Nesbit (DDes ’20) for “Soil for Space: A Critical History of Earthmoving at Cape Canaveral”

Adam Kai Chi Ng (MLA ’19) and Qiaoqi Dai (MLA ’19) and Xiwei Shen (MLA ’19) for “Eco-Immigrant”

Stefano Romagnoli (MLA ’19) and Soledad Patiño (MAUD ’20) for “Fracking Landscapes: The Vaca Muerta Case during the World’s Energy Transition”

Kari Roynesdal (MLA ’20) for “Queer Ecologies: Controversial Human + Plant Communities”

Zishen Wen (MLA ’19) for “Brownfield on Extraterritoriality: Waste Disposed of in Global, Recycled in Rural China”

Chohao Victor Wu (MLA ’19) for “Camouflage Island: Re-Imagining the Contested Landscape of Kinmen”

Ziwei Zhang (MDes ULE ’20) for “Whose Maps are These? Mapping versus Indigenous Forest Spatiality in West Kalimantan, Indonesia”

Courances Design Residents:

Michael Cafiero (MLA ’20) for “Regenerative Connections”

Yoni Angelo Carnice (MLA ’20) for “The World Was My Garden”

Past Projects 2020-2023

2020

Lamia Almuhama (MLA I AP ’20) and Sarah Fayad (MLAUD ’20) for “Fragile Landscapes: The Effect of Temporal Habitation on the Arabian Desert’s Ecosystem”

Kuan-Ting Chen (MDes EE ’21) and Yun-Ting Tsai (MLA I AP ’20) for “Pioneering Watersheds: Shifting Culture of Hydrological System in Taiwanese Hakka Settlements”

Bert De Jonghe (MDes ULE ’21) for “Greenland in Transit”

Isabella Frontado (MLA I and MDes ADPD ‘20) for “Maintained Future Histories of Disappeared Ground”

Brittany Giunchigliani (MLA I ’21) for “Inundate: Visualizing Boundaries of Contamination in the Greater Houston Area”

Alana Godner-Abravanel (MLA I ’21) for “Rebuilding Paradise: Living with Fire in Northern California”

Juan David Grisales (MLA I AP and MDes ULE ’21) for “Re-Mapping Humboldt’s 1807 ‘Tableau Physique’ Through Climate Change: An Upslope Biogeographical Migration on the Tropical Andes”

Shira Grosman (MLA I AP and MDes ULE ’21) and Jonathon Koewler (MLA I AP ’20) for “Extraction in the Public Domain: Projecting Environmental Repercussions of Greens Creek Mine in Tongass National Forest”

Saeb Ali Khan (MAUD ’20) and Supriya Ambwani (MLA I ’22) for “City of Memories: Mapping and Reconstructing Hyderabad’s Water Network”

Esther Kim (MLA I ’21) for “Thawing Edges: Capturing Subarctic Permafrost Temporal Dynamism through Photogrammetry”

Gena Morgis (MLA II ’21) for “Flood from Within: Mapping Systemic Failures and Future Opportunities for Water Infrastructure in the Mississippi River Basin”

Alykhan Neky (MLA I AP ’21) for “A Dying Tradition”

Maxwell Smith-Holmes (MLA I ’21) for “Landscape, Infrastructure, and Traces of ‘Total Planning’ in St. Petersburg, Russia”

Alysoun Wright (MLA I AP and MUP ’21) for “Forest Management in ‘Feral Forests’: The Social Transformation and Afforestation of Rural Portugal”

Courances Design Residents:

Caroline Craddock (MLA I ’21) for “Balancing Historic Conservation and Climatic Adaptation at the Château de Courances”

Dominic Riolo (MLA I ’21) for “Courances as Sustaining, Proto-Modernist Garden”

 

2021

Ayami Akagawa (MLA I ‘21) for “Feeling Rooted: Recovery from Natural Disaster and Identity Expression in New Home through Incremental Green Infrastructures in the Philippines”

Chun Chen (MLA I AP ‘21) & Sohun Kang (MArch I ‘21) for “Landscapes of Women of Seas: Ama and Haenyeo”

Echo Chen (MLA I ‘21) for “Cultural Identities in Intangible Heritages: An Ethnologic Study of the Rural Communities Featuring the Covered Bridge in Southeast China”

Jake Deluca (MLA I AP ‘22) for “Un-Living Record: In Analysis of Our Social and Psychological Relationship to the Cemetery”

Ian Erickson (MArch I ‘24) for “On Becoming Productive: Representing Shifting Regimes of Value Extraction in the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Territory”

Lianliu Guo (MLA I AP ‘22) & Tianyu Su (DDes ‘23) for “How Healthy Are They Doing in the Parks?: Understanding Urban Parks’ Perceived Health Impacts on Visitors Using Large-Scale Spatial Data”

Aijing Li (MUP ‘22) & Claire Wang (MUP ‘22) for “Parks on the Edge: Big Data Analytics on Park Visits in Segregated Neighborhoods”

Alison Maurer (MLA I ‘22) for “Renewal and Reciprocal Labor: Exploring Iceland’s Ecologically Driven Economic Recovery”

Caleb Negash (MArch I ‘22) & Sam Valentine (MLA II ‘21) for “Hope in the Dismal: Interpreting Landscapes of Self-Determination and Self-Liberation in the Great Dismal Swamp”

Lara Prebble (MLA I ‘23) for “Learning Through Play: Exploring the Roles of Outdoor Learning Environments in Finnish and Sámi Finland”

Julia Rice (MLA I ‘22) for “Perspectivist Agriculture: Reimagining Modern Food Systems through Indigenous Knowledge”

Polly Sinclair (MLA I ‘21) & Ada Thomas (MLA I ‘21) for “The Spatial Imagination of Satoyama: Engaging Field Methods for Expanded Knowledge Production in Landscape Architecture”

Shi Tang (MLA II ‘21) & Xiaoji Zhou (MLA II ‘23) for “Deaf Space in Landscape Design: Making Deaf Visible Through Spatial Investigation and Community Engagement in Wuhan, China”

Michele Turrini (MLA II ‘21) for “Sacrificial Land: Working with Peripheral Communities in Bangkok’s Decision-Making Watershed”

Morgan Vought (MLA I ‘22) for “If You Don’t Build Anything, You Don’t Exist: Redefining Tribal Recognition in Western Courts through Critical Ethnobotanical Cartography”

 

2022

Catherine Auger (MLA I AP ’23) for “Noise1”

Matthew Gorab (MLA I ’23) for “Rest Stopping Across America: An Investigation of Northeast and Midwest Rest Stops”

Diana Guo (MLA I ’22) & Tianwei Li (MLA I ’22) for “Berries of Abundance: Renewing Lifeways Through Cultural Foodscapes in Arctic Canada”

Julia Hedges (MLA I ’24) for “Immaterial Earth: Kentucky Karst Above and Below”

Yazmine Mihojevich (MLA I ’23) for “Recovering Roger Young Village”

Dora Mugerwa (MLA I ’24) for “Luganda and the Land: How Language Reimagines Landscape”

Chandani Patel (MLA I AP ’23) for “Environmental Commoning in Loktak Lake, Manipur”

Marina Recio (MLA I ’22) for “Seeing Through Lichen: Making Air Pollution Visible in Mexico City”

Scarlet Rendleman (MLA I ’22) for “Animate Entanglements: Spiritual Ecologies of Native Hawai’ian Land-based Ethics and Practices”

Kevin Robishaw (MLA I ’23) for “Never the Same River Twice: Un-Damming and Re-Designing America’s Rivers”

Berit Schurke (MLA I ’22) for “Of Shifting Coastlines: Articulating Arctic Coastal Adaptation Strategies in Anticipation of the Deep Thaw”

Rebecca Shen (MLA I AP ‘23) for “Tending Sanctuary: Exploring Entanglements of Land Stewardship and Multispecies Community at Vine Sanctuary”

Liwei Shen (MLA I ’22) & Ying Zhang (MLA I ’22) for “Atlas of Post-Afforested Desert Landscape: An Ecological Study of the Mu Us Desert’s Greening Effort in China’s Three-North Shelter Forest Program”

Elaine Stokes (DDes ’24) for “Dammed Landscapes: Riparian Infrastructure at the Mississippi’s Headwaters”

Juan Villalon (MAUD ’22) & Kawthar Marafi (MLA I AP ’23) for “Aceituna/Zaytoon landscapes: Olive Tree Cultivation Atlas across the Trans-Gibraltar Region”

Erin Voss (MLA I ’23) for “The Implication of Cultural Seascapes for the Design and Management of Polynesian Islands”

Rachaya Wattanasirichaigoon (MAUD/MLA I AP ’24) for “The Lightscapes of Fireflies”

Sijia Zhong (MLA I AP ’22) for “Land the Void”

 

2023

Angelica Oteiza and Arty Vartanyan, “Bottled at Source? Sources, Infrastructures, and Cultures of Water in Monterrey, Mexico”

Caroline Koh Smith, “Oranges, Cameras, Aqueducts: Constructing the Image of Los Angeles”

Crane Sarris, “Solastalgia: Re-envisioning Our Landscapes of Destruction”

Cynthia Zhuge, “Measuring Deer-Vehicle Conflict Risk using streetscapes: Habitat Connectivity Study in California”

Eric Schwartz, “American Chestnut, Unbound: A Site Anthology of the Past, Present, and Future of Castanea Dentata”

Gracie Meek and Jialei Tang, “Bandelier National Monument”

Hana Cohn, “Hidden in Plain Sight: Crude Extraction in Los Angeles”

Justin Booz, “Omnipresence: Atmospheres and Emergening Political Ecologies in New York City”

Kai Walcott, “Victorian Parks of the Colonial West Indies: Exploratory Case Studies of Two Historical Urban Parks in Kingston, Jamaica”

Miguel Lantigua Inoa, “Living with Water Ecologies: Rejuvenating the Hybrid Waterbodies of North India”

Nick Gray and Hana Kim, “Batdam: The Projective Ecologies of Stone Culture on Jeju Island”

Olivia Poston, “Provisional Landscapes of Industry: compositions of sub-arctic inhabitation”

Rocio Alonso and Elaine Zmuda, “Pairing the Paisajes: Understanding the Entanglements of Wine Culture and Landscape Across Argentina’s Wine Producing Regions”

Rose Van Grinsven, “Landscapes of Abundance: Sustainable Systems for Emerging Economic Landscapes in Lilongwe, Malawi”

Ruijie Liu and Shuyue Liu, “Landscape Palimpsest of Hidden Labor: Uncovering the Hidden Labor Landscape of Chinese Workers in the Transcontinental Railroad”

Sakiko Isomichi, “Identifying Barriers to Planting Native Species: Residential Properties on Martha’s Vineyard”

Tanushri Dalmiya, “Parched: Living in a Lithium Landscape”

Vanessa Harden, “Designing the Fungal City: A framework for connecting mycorrhizal networks in the built environment”

Yuqi Zhang and Xinran Ma, “Wonderland of Weeds: An interactive picture book of Boston spontaneous plants”

Courances Design Resident:

Anne Field, “Field to Forest: Land Management Practices as Tools for Resilience”