O B L / Q U E

NATALIA ESCOBAR CASTRILLÓN is a licensed architect and a professor of Architecture and Social Justice at Carleton University. She holds a PhD in Architecture and a Master in Design from Harvard University, as well as a Masters in Architecture from the University of Seville.  Prior to Carleton, Escobar Castrillón taught graduate courses at Harvard University, Boston University, Chile Catholic University, and São Paulo University. Prof. Escobar Castrillón’s research and teaching work addresses questions of spatial justice, social equity, collective identity, displacement, and representation in the built environment. Her publications unpack the complexities of contested buildings and sites worldwide, and discuss the role of design and narrative-making in supporting or silencing social groups. She has taught courses on these topics engaging local communities. She has been awarded grants from the Spanish Ministry of Education (TALENTIA), the Jorge Paulo Lemann Foundation, the David Rockefeller Foundation, the Harvard Asia Center, and the São Paulo Academic Research Foundation (FAPESP), among others, which allow her to pursue fieldwork in Europe, Latin America, and Asia, where she studied the intersection of architecture with questions of power, gender, race, and social class through the work of architects Lu Wengyu and Wang Shu, and Lina Bo. More recently, Prof. Escobar Castrillón was awarded a Carleton University International Research Seed Grant to produce visualizations of oppression and resilience of migrant populations in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank. This work has been accepted for publication at the Journal for the Study of Canadian Architecture.

natalia.escobar@carleton.ca

MICHAEL HAYS is Eliot Noyes Professor of Architectural Theory at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, as well as Interim Chair for the Department of Architecture. Hays joined the Faculty of Design in 1988, teaching courses in architectural history and theory. Hays has played a central role in the development of the field of architectural theory and his work is internationally known. His research and scholarship have focused on the areas of European modernism and critical theory as well as on theoretical issues in contemporary architectural practice. He has published on the work of modern architects such as Hannes Meyer, Ludwig Hilberseimer, and Mies van der Rohe, as well as on contemporary figures such as Peter Eisenman, Bernard Tschumi, and the late John Hejduk. Hays was the founder of the scholarly journal Assemblage, which was a leading forum of discussion of architectural theory in North America and Europe. From 1995 to 2005 he was Chair of the PhD Committee and Director of the GSD’s Advanced Independent Study Programs. In 2000 he was appointed the first Adjunct Curator of Architecture at the Whitney Museum of American Art, a position he held until 2009. Hays received the Bachelor of Architecture degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1976. From MIT he received the Master of Architecture degree in Advanced Studies in 1979, and the Doctor of Philosophy in the History, Theory, and Criticism of Architecture and Art in 1990.

mhays@gsd.harvard.edu

RAYSHAD DORSEY is a designer from South Carolina who is currently a Master Candidate of Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He is a recent recipient of the Araldo A. Cossutta Prize, which is given to a student of merit who has successfully completed the core program for the professional degree of Master in Architecture and whose design work consistently shows outstanding promise. Rayshad is the founder and President of Harvard GSD National Organization of Minority Architecture Students and served as a student member on the Dean's Diversity Cabinet. At Harvard he has held teaching assistant positions for Iman Fayyad of Project IF, Eric Howeler of Howeler + Yoon, John Peterson curator of the Loeb Fellowship and founder of Public Architecture, and Cory Henry of Atelier Cory Henry. He recieved a Bachelor of Arts degree in Architecture from Clemson University, where he received the Blue Key Leadership and Academic Award, Ray Huff Award for Excellence, and the Student Award for Best Project for his synthesis project. Rayshad has previously worked at Howeler + Yoon Architecture in Boston, Atelier Cory Henry in Las Angeles,  WW Architecture in Boston, Context in Boston, and Patterhn-Ives in St. Louis, Missouri.  His research interest is at the intersection of critical conservation, race, and spatial planning, exploring how these intersections can begin to interrogate the built environment and its relation to systemic racism.

rdorsey@gsd.harvard.edu

LUISA BRANDO is dedicated to producing visual art and architecture projects sensitive to heritage conservation and dichotomies between nature and culture, tradition and development. Working between disciplines and geographies, her site responsive work invites to reflect upon the territory and the poetics of habitation. Brando is currently teaching at Universidad de los Andes, designing a holistic school in Bogotá, a Master Plan in Ibague, and continuing her work on the geopolitics and symbolism of water. Brando holds a Bachelor in Architecture from Universidad de los Andes (2013) and a Master in Design Studies in Critical Conservation from Harvard University (2018). She has been granted the Harvard Asian Center Grant (2017), and a Fulbright Scholarship (2016). Has been a fellow at UNION DOCS Summer Lab (NY-2019), participant in Center for Art Design and Social Research (Mexico-2019), and did an artist in residence at NAHR (Italy-2018). Brando has participated in group exhibitions in Galeria La Cometa (2019), Galeria el Museo (2016), Espacio Odeon (2015), and Feria del Millón (2015) in Bogota, and individual exhibitions in Kura Gallery (Tokyo-2017). Recently with 2Latiutudes won first price for Landscape Architecture Idea Competition (Denmark-2020). Born in Bogota, now based in Madrid.

GABRIELLE ARGENT is an architectural designer based in Ottawa, Canada. She recently completed her Master of Architecture (2020) at Carleton University and also holds a Bachelor of Arts Honors (2015) in the History of Art, Design and Visual Culture from the University of Alberta. Her graduate thesis entitled “Mobility, Voice and View: Unpacking the Future of Cape Town’s District Six,” explores the role of agency and design activism in architecture, especially in the context of race, segregation, politics and identity. Her thesis will be featured in an upcoming publication from the online architectural platform kooZA/rch (2021).Gabrielle currently works as a Communications Coordinator and as part of the Teaching Team for a first-year architectural theory course at the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism. Recently, she also worked with Natalia Escobar Castrillón as a Research Assistant, compiling, analyzing and critiquing information on plantations in the American south, which set the groundwork for a third-year critical conservation design studio. Her philosophical approach to architecture is one which critically examines the role of the architect in regards to agency and the built environment. She hopes to further explore this topic through the lens of race relations and spatial justice.  

FRANCISCO COLOM JOVER is a practicing architect and urbanist. He is a Master in Design Studies candidate at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and Teaching Assistant in the Department of Architecture. He received his Master of Architecture degree with honors from the University of Alicante and was appointed as Honorary Professor of the Department of Architectural Design thereof. During his professional career, Francisco has worked on a diverse range of architectural and urban projects in the Netherlands, Spain, Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States. At Harvard, Francisco’s research as part of the Critical Conservation group focuses on embedded and temporal cultural systems, the tensions between progress and tradition, and the way clashes of meaning and identity are registered by the built environment. He is editor at More Than Green, a project directed by a platform of professionals and academicians that promotes a holistic understanding of sustainability in the urban environment. Francisco has received the Fundacion La Caixa Fellowship, the European Union Tempo Project Scholarship, the Harvard GSD Eduard Sekler Fellowship, and the Harvard GSD Community Service Fellowship, among other grants for academic research. His work has been exhibited at the 15th and 16th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2016 and 2018, respectively. He is an ASA partner (Sustainability and Architecture Association).

fcolom@gsd.harvard.edu

ENRIQUE AURENG SILVA ESTRADA is an architect. He received his Bachelor of Architecture from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in 2012, graduating with honors and winning the first prize of the Red Alvar in Ecuador and the second prize of the Premio TIL in Argentina for his undergraduate thesis. Before starting the Master of Design Studies in Critical Conservation at Harvard GSD, Enrique practiced architecture in Mexico and in the US, curating Tatiana Bilbao Estudio pavilion at the 2015 Chicago Architecture Biennial. He has collaborated with the Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative doing historical research in Mumbai, India, and has received scholarships and grants from Fundacion Jumex Arte Contemporaneo and the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies. His work has been published in various architectural publications, including Archdaily and Int|AR Journal. His current research focuses on the intervention, transformation and reuse of historic buildings in Latin America, especially in post-disaster scenarios. He has expanded his academic interests into the editorial world, being co-editor of Open Letters, bi-weekly publication, and of Platform XI, the annual compendium of student work at the GSD.  When not thinking architecture or editing texts, he writes fiction in the form of short stories.

silvaestrada.e@gmail.com

ERICA ROTHMAN is a graduate of the Master of Urban Planning program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in American Studies with honors from Yale, where she completed a senior thesis on the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair.  Erica works for the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission and lives in Brooklyn. Erica previously worked as a marketing coordinator for new business acquisition at Ennead Architects (formerly Polshek Partnership), the designer of projects including The Standard, High Line hotel in New York City and the William J. Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. She has also completed internships with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the Urban Design Forum, and the New Haven City Planning Department. Erica’s research interests lie at the intersection of critical theory and planning practice, determining how theory-based investigations into the urban environment both influence and reflect changes in contemporary development practices and physical city form. 

erothman@gsd.harvard.edu

JAVIER ORS-AUSIN is an Architect, Researcher and a Graduate Student in Critical Conservation at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He holds a Master in Architecture from the School of Architecture of Valencia, and a Bachelor in Construction Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Valencia in Spain. Javier has developed his professional experience as an architect between Spain, the United States and India, and more recently as a Historic Sites Fellow at the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington, DC. His research work has been the recipient of many awards and fellowships, including the Real Colegio Complutense at Harvard Fellowship, Master in Design Research Award, and the Community Service Fellowship, among others. He is currently Teaching Assistant at Harvard in two graduate seminars with Professors Susan Nigra Snyder and George E. Thomas, and has co-edited with them the publication: Power & Place. Culture and Conflict in the Built Environment. His line of work focuses on cultural challenges emerging from the pressures of globalization and tourism in non-Western contexts. His intellectual interest includes the processes of identity formation, self-recognition and representation in the built environment, the mechanisms of differentiation from external influences, as well as the processes of cultural homogenization arising from this interaction. In particular, he analyses the British Empire footprint in Mumbai’s built environment.

FRANCESCA ROMANA FORLINI is a current MDes Critical Conservation student at Harvard Graduate School of Design and an Italian Fulbright Scholar. Born in Rome, she received her bachelor degreewith distinction in Architecture and Civil Engeneering at Sapienza University, where she also held the position of Teaching Assistant. Francesca has lived in Paris, where she studied as Erasmus student at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris-Belleville and worked in the firm 5+1AA Agence d’Architecture. She has also studied at the Architectural Association in London as MPhil student in the program of Architecture and Urban Design “Projective Cities.” At the AA she focused her research on the theme of post-war housing complexes in both Italy and France. Francesca is now working as Research Assistant at Harvard GSD and her writings will be included in various publications from both Harvard and the GSD. She recently curated the first Critical Conservation exhibition titled "Research Itineraries, a Photographic Inquiry from the CC students." Her interests include history and theory of architecture, cultural studies, issues of time, memory and identity, the interiors, the process of appropriation of the architectural space and self-expression through things. Her research is currently delving in the contemporary condition of dwelling within the layout of modernist estates, its socio-cultural implications and the role that objects play within the domestic realm. 

YOONJEE KOH is an architect and a graduate from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, where she completed a Masters in Architecture and a Masters in Design Studies in History and Philosophy. Yoonjee received her Bachelor in Architecture from Cornell University with a concentration in Architectural Theory. Her research on cultural studies and conservation of Buk-Chon, Seoul, Korea, has been awarded recognitions. She has invited to present this work at the Ironbridge International Institute for Cultural Heritage and the International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments, among others. Working across sites, her design for the preservation and revitalization of the Swiss Alps of Les Diablerets was selected for presentation by the Congress for presentation at the Eco-Villages Forum in Switzerland and Swiss-Nex, driven by VisionArc and the Bloomberg Foundation. Yoonjee currently instructs an Architecture core studio at the Boston Architectural College. She also designs, curates, and publishes public art and architectural installations as part of the Janet Echelman Design Fellowship and CultureNOW project team. Yoonjee has taught Architecture studio at the Harvard College, and has held research and teaching assistant positions in the Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure and within the Critical Conservation Department at Harvard GSD. Yoonjee has served as a guest critic at Cornell University, Harvard GSD Career Discovery, Boston Architectural College, and Northwestern University.