Weitzman Architecture Faculty Present New Research on Urban History and Biomaterials to International Audiences

Professor of Architecture Fernando Lara gave the opening keynote speech on October 24 at a conference organized by Stanford University and FLACSO (Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciências Sociales), in Quito Ecuador. La Ciudad Latinoamericana, de la dependência a la fragmentation [The Latin American and Caribbean city: From dependency to fragmentation], a three-day conference, brought together authors from the recently published Routledge Handbook of Urban History in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Lara's keynote was a long-term historical analysis of sites in Latin America, from 1500 BCE to the present, “in search of concepts that define those territories in opposition to our canonical Eurocentric theories.”

On October 26, Assistant Professor of Architecture Laia Mogas-Soldevila was honored as a recipient of the Johnson & Johnson Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, Manufacturing, and Design (WiSTEM2D) Scholars Award. Launched in 2017, the Award aims “to support and inspire female STEM2D leaders at crucial career stages.” Chosen from over 520 nominees worldwide, Mogas-Soldevila was one of six winners.

During a virtual symposium that was part of the event, Mogas-Soldevila presented the groundbreaking research underway at Weitzman’s DumoLab. In her presentation at the symposium, Mogas-Soldevila described how researchers in her lab “work together to scale methods from implants and diagnostics, that are used to heal the human sciences, to find ways for these to heal the planet with a regenerative way of building.” The Award will support the lab’s focus on design and manufacturing of bio-concrete and bio-lattice material systems.