Annual Student Journal, founded by Master of Urban Planning students at the Harvard Graduate School of Design
City Branding in the Environmental Era BY AMAYA BRAVO-FRANCE April 8, 2019 In a quest to demonstrate their environmental friendliness, cities across the world are competing for sustainability accolades as metrics of their small ecological footprints. But measures of cities’ environmental sustainability are misleading and incomplete until they incorporate measures of social equity and
Protest Art in Palestine BY RADHIKA SINGH April 8, 2019 From Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, the Separation Barrier looks innocuous. Covered up with pretty beige stone and blending into the background, it snakes along flat, grassy lands, curving over hills and dipping behind buildings. The Barrier in the West Bank, however, could not be
Home: Writing About Place BY KIRTHANA SUDHAKAR April 8, 2019 Author’s Note Set in the city of Bangalore, India, this essay describes the complexity of urban relationships, first through the lens of space, and then as they manifest between people. Much of what may seem like urban fantasy, is simply a way of life
Urbanization in the Amazon Forest: Indigenous Practices as a Framework for Resilience BY LORENA GALVAO April 8, 2019 Representing close to 60% of the rainforest in the world, the Amazon is being deforested at a rate of 5.000 square kilometers² per year. In space of pristine forests are cattle ranches, mining and rapid urbanization,
Public Housing in Hong Kong: The Challenge of Housing the World’s Most Populated Region BY JEREMY PI March 30, 2019 Introduction Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated regions of the world, and through a combination of factors including historical patterns, geographic conditions, and public policy is facing severe challenges regarding its
The Forgotten Politics of Aesthetics BY RUI SU March 30, 2019 The Problem The point of studying theory is to interrogate, to go beyond understanding grand philosophies and use those theories as a lens to illuminate and reexamine ourselves and our local contexts. At a place like the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD),
State Simplifications and the Changing Landscapes of the Globalizing South BY TIMOTHY RAVIS March 30, 2019 “…one might conjure up an exacting state official aspiring to a perfectly legible population with registered, unique names and addresses, living in grid settlements, pursuing single occupations, owning rectangular lots and planting a single crop, all of whose
Why Megaprojects Aren’t the Answer BY KEVIN BORJA March 30, 2019 Abstract This paper is framed by a course entitled Mega-projects in Global Cities, taught by Adam Lubinsky of WXY Architecture at the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation in the fall of 2018. The course sought to critically examine the shift
A City in a Thousand Steps BY HK DUNSTON March 30, 2019 If you can make it here Getting to Fort Tryon Park isn’t easy. The park sits on one of the highest points in New York City, and even neighbors who live nearby must walk uphill a few blocks. For others coming from
An Economic Success, A Complicated Legacy: Austin’s Smart Growth Initiative BY ETHAN LEVIN March 30, 2019 Abstract This urban study reviews how Austin City Council’s 1998 Smart Growth Initiative (SGI) valued eco-friendly building and the emergence of a rising tech economy over racial equality and economic diversity. Under a newly elected mayor who eased
