Intergenerational housing isn’t a niche idea anymore—it’s emerging as a powerful response to soaring housing costs, social isolation, and gaps in care.
Thanks to Krista Sykes @gsd.harvard.edu for a great article about our recent Living Together by Design event:
www.gsd.harvard.edu/2026/04/inte...
Next Tuesday at 6:30 PM ET: Join us for a lecture by Jacques Herzog, Founding Partner of Herzog & de Meuron, in conversation with Grace La, Chair and Professor of Architecture at the Harvard GSD.
Please note: Registration is required for in person attendance at this event!
https://bit.ly/3OlydfN
Wonderful feature on the Walking Festival of Sound, curated by @loebfellowship.bsky.social recipient Jacek Smolicki! Listen to the sounds of Boston and Cambridge in several events going until May 3.
A person walking past a doorway under bright sunlight. Another person approaches a dark doorway on the left. A large yellow poster with Chinese characters and the film title "Pagoda" is displayed. The image has a text mentioning "A Film by Betty Chen" and a label that says "Best Documentary Design Student Film Festival 2026".
An individual walks down an alley carrying a plastic bag. Parked cars and the entrance to Bao Bao Bakery are visible in the background.
Two people sitting at a table outdoors, engaged in a card game. Both are wearing jackets and hats, with attention focused on the cards. The background features a dark-colored wall.
A person is standing near a flock of pigeons on a city sidewalk. In the background, another person walks past a large potted plant. The building behind them has a small window and a black tiled wall.
Congratulations to Betty Chen (MArch '27), whose film Pagoda won Best Documentary at the 2026 Design Student Film Festival!
The film was created in Fall 2024 for the class Architecture of Time, taught by Clara Kraft Isono. Chen worked with Sun Woo Byun (MAUD '26) and Emanuel Cardenas (MArch '26).
TOMORROW at 6:30 PM ET: Join us for a lecture by Michael Wang, whose work explores the intersection of nature and technology, asking: Can a river become a machine, a species a cultural product, or a swamp a sculpture?
https://bit.ly/4cbaHtD
Ana Maria Durán Calisto invites you to a two-panel series and the launch of her book "The Future of Oil Boom Towns in Amazonia,” which she began working on during her Loeb Fellowship in 2010-11.
When: April 20, 6:30 pm
Where: Room 109, Harvard GSD
This article from @newyorker.com features the work of Kongjian Yu (DDes '95), who pioneered the concept of "sponge cities."
TOMORROW at 6:30 PM ET: Join us for a lecture by Nancy Fraser titled “Against the Environmentalism of the Rich”
https://bit.ly/4vkXAyM
TOMORROW at 6:30 PM ET: Join us for a lecture by Deborah Archer on her recent book, Dividing Lines: How Transportation Infrastructure Reinforces Racial Inequality, and its relevance to designers and planners.
https://bit.ly/41kivV5
Next Thursday at 6:30 PM ET: Join us for a lecture by Michael Wang, whose work explores the intersection of nature and technology, asking: Can a river become a machine, a species a cultural product, or a swamp a sculpture?
https://bit.ly/4cbaHtD
Next Wednesday at 6:30 PM ET: Join us for a lecture by Nancy Fraser titled “Against the Environmentalism of the Rich”
https://bit.ly/4vkXAyM
A ginger cat stands on a round architectural model made of white structures. People are sitting on a sofa in the background, and several papers and another model are scattered nearby.
A ginger cat is sitting on a scale model of a cityscape, featuring numerous small white building structures. A person is sitting in the background with legs crossed, and papers are scattered on the model.
A cat walks across a large scale model of a city layout, consisting of multiple interconnected circular sections. Several people are seated around the model, engaging with their devices or watching the cat. The room appears to be a workspace or studio.
It's National Pet Day, which is a good excuse to post some photos of Remy being a kaiju in Elizabeth Whittaker's section of the Architecture Core IV: Relate studio
📸: Autumn Chu
Next Tuesday at 6:30 PM ET: Join us for a lecture by Deborah Archer on her recent book, Dividing Lines: How Transportation Infrastructure Reinforces Racial Inequality, and its relevance to designers and planners.
https://bit.ly/41kivV5
Call for papers text.
📍 The call for papers is out for the @cga-harvard.bsky.social 20th Anniversary Annual Conference and we'd love to see you here! Harvard's pretty nice in autumn and we expect a fabulous lineup of keynotes, panels, talks, and workshops...plus lots of time to catch up and network! #CGA20
The late Kongjian Yu (DDes ’95)'s work on "sponge cities" mentioned in the @newyorker.com: "For centuries, he said, engineers had tried to turn cities into funnels. By contrast, the 'sponge city' concept was, he said, a way of 'doing Tai Chi with water.'"
Live now: @jenmolinsky.bsky.social, director of our Housing an Aging Society Program, moderates the first panel of our intergenerational housing event @gsd.harvard.edu.
Tune in:
www.gsd.harvard.edu/event/living...
Today @ 1pm ET, still time to register and join us online as we discuss innovative models of intergenerational housing @gsd.harvard.edu!
Join us TOMORROW at 1 PM ET for the symposium "Living Together by Design: Housing to Connect Generations," exploring intergenerational housing, social isolation, and community resilience through design & policy.
https://bit.ly/47F9fhX
TOMORROW: Our afternoon event @gsd.harvard.edu will bring together leaders from architecture, planning, homebuilding, environmental gerontology, public health, and related fields to explore innovative models of intergenerational housing.
mailchi.mp/harvard/tomo...
Hanif Kara in an excerpt from MASS's new book, Seeking Abundance, in The Architect's Newspaper: "Architects and related professionals must diversify their approaches, remain adaptable, and take responsibility for the damage we have historically caused."
supported by the GSD, the GSAS Graduate Student Council, the Harvard Culture Lab, and @weatherheadcenter.bsky.social
Poster for "Cambridge Talks 2026: Surfacing" at Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Features event details, including dates April 24-25, scheduling times, speaker names, and panel topics. The background is styled in blue with white text and overlayed graphic elements.
Join us on April 24-25 for “Surfacing,” the 2026 symposium organized by students in the PhD program in Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning. This year, scholars were invited to reflect on histories of surface-making and surface-breaking. https://hgsd.us/4tBPws1
we love this
Join us TODAY for Kate Orff's lecture, where she draws "Throughlines" across 30 years of work since her time at the GSD, linking research, publications, and landscape projects along a trajectory of thought and action.
https://bit.ly/4tteB8s
With strategically placed cuts in the landscape, they are encouraging beavers to engage in their innate excavating behaviors, creating dams, canals, and ponds that enhance water quality, reshape hydrology, and support a range of wildlife, from birds to bears.
Happy International Beaver Day! Here's our recent video about how GSD faculty and students are working with beavers to improve wetland health and biodiversity.
I made a short thread 🧵 for international beaver day 🦫
Enjoy!
Social housing shouldn’t just be about unit counts—it should be about the pleasure of living. In a new blog, @magdamaaoui.bsky.social argues for renovation over demolition, designing for difference and everyday life, and for resident-led design. @gsd.harvard.edu
www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/pleasur...
This Fri, Apr 3: 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 offer powerful ways to reduce social isolation, improve affordability, and strengthen supports. Join us in person @gsd.harvard.edu or online for 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗼𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝘆 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻: 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻s.
www.jchs.harvard.edu/calendar/liv...