One Prize Design Competition

Introducing the One Prize: Award $10,000
CALLING ALL FUTURE-FORWARD ARCHITECTS, URBAN DESIGNERS, PLANNERS, ENGINEERS, SCIENTISTS, ARTISTS, STUDENTS AND INDIVIDUALS OF ALL BACKGROUNDS: How would you reinvent the American garden?
Select Jury:
Margaret Crawford, Dickson Despommier, Margie Ruddick, Cameron Sinclair, Kate Stohr, Bruce Lindsey, and more TBA.
Please see updates and further information at www.oneprize.org

MEx: A Design Cooperative Grows in Brooklyn

Architectural Record: archrecord2 Oct. 2009.
By Murrye Bernard
Together, Al Atarra and Interboro Partners established The Metropolitan Exchange (MEx), “an architecture, urban planning, and research cooperative” with the goal that members would “collaborate on architecture and planning projects, pursue development opportunities, and sponsor lectures, film screenings, and exhibitions.”
Word spread to friends and colleagues about the affordable studio space, attracting other emerging sole practitioners and small partnerships such as Decker Yeadon, MAN Architecture, Kaja Kuhl, and slo.vis, who find the space a much more productive environment than their living rooms. Aside from traditional architectural practices, other MEx tenants include Patten Studio, which provides design technology for interactive media; Terreform1, a non-profit philanthropic design collaborate; and Meredith TenHoor, who researches and writes on contemporary urbanism and politics.
http://archrecord.construction.com/archrecord2/work/0910/slide_23.asp

Reshaping Cities on CNBC

The Business of Innovation hosted by Maria Bartiromo
RESHAPING CITIES - Premiered Monday, October 5th
Each year, we add the equivalent of seven New Yorks to the planet, creating strains our ageing cities are struggling to handle. The intelligent city won't just survive under this strain - it will flourish. Touching upon public safety, traffic, “self-aware” buildings, and smart grids, this show introduces the systems that will make the cities of the future both successful and sustainable.

Thought Leaders:

Mitchell Joachim, PhD, Urban Architect

Paul Romer, PhD, Senior Fellow at Stanford University.

Michael Chernoff, former US Secretary of Homeland Security.

Special Thanks: Terry Murphy, Jessica Gerstle, Sarah Orenstein.
see video http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1285639918&play=1#

Design Jazz at Pratt Manhattan Gallery

Design Jazz: Improvisations on the Urban Street
Inspired by the newly created department of Academic Sustainability at Pratt Institute, this exhibition in two parts will document both theoretical and creative approaches to the design of urban streets by invited guests Amy Guggenheim, artist, writer and professor, Pratt Institute; Mitchell Joachim, architect, designer and co-founder Terreform One; and Leon Reid IV, street artist, teacher, and Pratt alumnus, as well as document the process of a local realized project.
Design and Sustainability
Pratt Manhattan Gallery September 25 - November 7, 2009
Public reception Friday, October 9, 6–8 pm 144 West 14th Street New York, NY
http://www.terreform.org/pratt.html

Carnegie Mellon's Miller Gallery: Terreform 1

29 Chains to the Moon
Artists' Schemes for a Fantastic Future
Guest curated by Andrea Grover
Aug. 28 - Dec. 6, 2009
Artists: Open_Sailing, Stephanie Smith, Mitchell Joachim/ Terreform ONE
http://millergallery.cfa.cmu.edu/

TerreFarm: Urban Design + Grow

We provide a unique opportunity for students to learn from established professionals in an experimental design/grow urban farm. The Interaction of students, builders, and architects is encouraged by the intense environment of The Metropolitan Exchange (MEx), located in downtown Brooklyn.
see more at
TerreFarm:
http://terrefarm.blogspot.com/

New Executive Director: Eliot Hodges

Eliot Hodges earned his BA from Harvard College and his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. He served as a project manager for UN- and US-funded reconstruction programs in Afghanistan from 2004-2006. These programs included included housing for Afghan returnees as well as clinic and school construction in Northern Afghanistan. In 2006, he headed a program that provided all logistical and operational support to the European Union Election Observation Mission to Afghan parliamentary and provincial elections. In 2007, he worked in Congress on Senator Chuck Hagel's foreign policy team.
http://www.terreform.org/people_eh.html

Colbert Report: Mitchell Joachim

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Mitchell Joachim
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Gay Marriage

Ecological Urbanism at Harvard GSD Podcast

Panel 1: Productive Urban Environments
Urbanism carries a carbon footprint well beyond the physical limits of the city. Future cities will need to aspire to be carbon negative, including off-setting the city’s embodied energy. What is the potential for cities to increase the production of energy, food and good public health?

Moderator: Margaret Crawford, Harvard Graduate School of Design

Speakers:
Michelle Addington, Yale School of Architecture
Dorothée Imbert, Harvard Graduate School of Design
Mitchell Joachim, Columbia University
Nina-Marie Lister, pLandform and Ryerson University
http://ecologicalurbanism.gsd.harvard.edu/2009/01/08/panel-1-productive-urban-environments/

Iron Designer

This past Thursday, April 23, four teams made up of third-year Master’s of Architecture students from Columbia GSAPP, Parsons The New School, Pratt Institute, and City College of New York (CCNY - winners) competed against each other in an hour-long design competition to propose a sustainable design solution for the DUMBO archway. After several years of being used as a storage facility, the archway has re-opened for public use. The competition challenged the students to create a link between the archway and the adjacent lot in light of it’s re-birth as a public space. The event took place in Raumlabor’s Spacebuster, an inflatable and mobile dome which has been hosting events around New York City this past week.

Jurors include: Joseph Grima (Storefront for Art and Architecture), Raumlabor, Olivia Chen (Inhabitat), Kate Kerrigan (Dumbo Improvement District), Richard Plunz, Ben Prosky and Sarah Williams (Columbia GSAPP), Meredith Tenhoor and Deb Johnson (Pratt Institute), Joel Towers (Parsons), Rafael Magrou (architecture critic, Paris), Amale Andraos and Dan Wood (workAC), Victoria Marshall (Till Design), William Menking (The Architect's Newspaper).

Iron Designer is only part of a larger scheme of events that are part of ECOGRAM: The Sustainability Question. ECOGRAM is a series of events initiated at the Columbia GSAPP by Mitchell Joachim, Ph.D. and Ioanna Theocharopoulou, Ph.D., to examine the question of sustainability in architecture and architectural education. The first conference “Ecogram: The Sustainability Question” took place in October 2008. A second large-scale conference is planned for October 2009.
Studio- X
Storefront for Art and Architecture
Inhabitat
ECOGRAM

The More the Merrier: An Open Letter for Terreforming

More non-profit charities are a good thing.
More community schools are a good thing.
More Habitat for Humanity operations are a good thing.

We are Terreform ONE (Open Network Ecology). We are a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that activates ecological principles in the urban realm. We formed the group to serve the public and created a community laboratory in Downtown Brooklyn. We invite you to please join us in assembling more Terreform organizations.

More non-profit design groups are a good thing.
Happy Earth Day!

Mitchell Joachim in Rolling Stone Magazine

"The RS 100: Agents of Change," Rolling Stone, p.63, April 2, 2009.

Mitchell Joachim; The visionary in urban planning sees stackable cars and houses in trees.
WHAT HE'S CHANGING: In a sedate field, Joachim is pushing for a radical green rethink of the American city in the 21st century. An architect and urban planner at Brooklyn's nonprofit Terreform 1, Joachim wants to open up cluttered streets by creating a soft, stackable City Car that would be shared like a Zipcar.
NEXT MOVE: Exploring inter-skyscraper blimp ferries and weaving energy-efficient houses into existing trees.
KEY QUOTE: "I give a voice for people and things that can't necessarily speak for themselves, like trees and wildlife. Or the residents of Harlem." YES Harlem speaks, but not always by way of detailed urban design drawings.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/26754176/the_rs_100_agents_of_change/3

Michael Sorkin Disclaimer

For years Michael Sorkin has distributed inaccurate and damaging claims about our organization Terreform ONE.

In 2006, Michael Sorkin and Mitchell Joachim founded a new non-profit organization called Terreform. This name they mutually agreed upon would represent their partnership and collaboration with others. A year later many of the additional partners believed that the one partner - Sorkin - was not promoting the work of Terreform. He had numerous conflicting agendas including his private practice. He also published our work under his office of twenty years; Michael Sorkin Studio. Our non-profit was sharing the same space as the profit driven Michael Sorkin Studio; this is a severe conflict of interest according to IRS 501c3 guidelines.
Terreform soon devolved into a classic example of "Founder’s Syndrome". We found it impossible to collaborate with Sorkin as an equal. We were afflicted with one member who wished to solely control our collected mission and re-define it at will. The breaking point occurred when he forcefully introduced a project outside of our charitable goals – a seven star luxury hotel in China. Therefore, we asked Sorkin to leave Terreform. Since that moment he has continued to pilfer our prior work as his own.
Terreform ONE (Open Network Ecology) has chosen its own direction without Sorkin and within the essence of our original mission statement. His brands of business methods are highly unethical. He has taken our logo and design work without any compensation or permission. We have no relationship with him whatsoever. Our name is trademarked and we legally operate under the seal of New York State.
Sorkin has used a few of his academic connections to attempt to tarnish our reputation. We are being bullied and threatened by this individual. We are in the business of providing a better future. Sorkin is in the business of promoting himself and battering others as a critic. We are wasting our valuable energy in defense from Sorkin’s tirades.

Terreform ONE:
Mitchell Joachim, Maria Aiolova, Melanie Fessel, Dan O'Connor, Oliver Medvedik


Additional FACTS:
Sorkin has misappropriated, altered and/or failed to credit many projects that were performed under the umbrella of our early Terreform partnership. The following projects were never intended to be additions to his private work at Sorkin Studio; Shanghai Main Station District in China, Riva Ring in Istanbul Turkey, Almere Hout in Netherlands, Green Brain A Smart Park for a New City in Korea, and Loisaida 2056 for the History Channel in New York. Another specific example of his unacceptable behavior was the surreptitious publication of the Coorg Houses in India for AD magazine without any credit or attribution beyond his own. For our other Terreform projects, Sorkin simply removed the cover pages and switched them to Michael Sorkin Studio LLC.

Tax Exempt Status: Terreform ONE is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. The More the Merrier.
http://www.terreform.org/sorkin

Mimi Zeiger, "Urban Renewal," Architect, March 1st, 2009.

Urban Renewal The Obama stimulus plan promises billions to transform the American city. A new generation of urban designers is ready to spend it.

cityLAB, Los Angeles The culture and politics of urban space.
Interboro Partners, Brooklyn, N.Y. Research. Document. Analyze. Repeat.
Fletcher Studio, San Francisco Harvesting the power of landscape to shape cities.
Terreform ONE (Open Network Ecology), Brooklyn, N.Y. Dreams to provoke realities.

Cover Image: Rapid Re(f)use by Terreform 1, Mitchell Joachim, Emily Johnson, Maria Aiolova, Melanie Fessel, Zachary Aders, Webb Allen, Niloufar Karimzadegan.

http://www.architectmagazine.com/urban-development/terreform-one-brooklyn.aspx

Harvard GSD Ecological Urbanism Conference

Mitchell Joachim, Terreform 1, is speaking at
ECOLOGICAL URBANISM: Alternative and Sustainable Cities of the Future Conference
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
April 3 - 5, 2009
http://ecologicalurbanism.gsd.harvard.edu/

Future North at Superlight MOCA

MOCA's 'Superlight' exhibit touches on cultural concerns in mesmerizing ways
by Steven Litt / Plain Dealer Art Critic + http://www.cleveland.com/

Art shows laden with political content were commonplace during the culture wars of the 1990s, a time when artists delighted in poking a finger in every eye.
The Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland was a proud participant in the trend, organizing exhibitions on controversial artistic uses of the American flag and the Christian cross.
MOCA is back in the game, but in a softer, more subtle way.
"Superlight," the newest major exhibition at the museum, shows how artists around the country are infusing their work with political, social and cultural content while exploring digital media, mechanical constructions and installations.
The artists in "Superlight" very definitely want to send strong messages, but they don't bang you over the head. They evoke a mesmerizing mood of relaxed awareness, which gets their points across in ways more haunting and effective than a visual harangue.
Curated for MOCA by Steve Dietz, artistic director of last summer's 01SJ Biennial, a global festival of "art on the edge" in San Jose, Calif., the exhibition sets a viewer adrift in a technological amusement park for the mind.
A few steps farther on, viewers encounter installations by Jane Marsching, an assistant professor at the Massachusetts College of Art, who treats global warming in a dreamy, languorous way.
Her 2008 video "Future North," co-produced with Mitchell Joachim of the New York architecture firm Terreform, envisions how cities from New York to Hong Kong could detach themselves from their moorings and float north to a warmed-up North Pole, destined to become hot real estate.
Marsching's "Rising North" considers global climate change by depicting future increases in Arctic temperatures during the next century through a series of colors projected on a gallery wall. The glowing fields of color are accompanied by a recording of an opera singer singing the words from news reports about rising temperatures and sea levels. The effect is oddly tranquil, suggesting, perhaps, how easily dire forecasts can have a numbing effect.
http://www.cleveland.com/arts/index.ssf/2009/02/mocas_superlight_exhibit_touch.html

The 4th NORDIC URBAN DESIGN CONFERENCE

The 4th NUDC
20th February 2009, Grieghallen - Bergen

NEW DIRECTIONS IN
SUSTAINABLE DESIGN

Professor // Dr. Matthew Carmona //BARTLETT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LONDON // united kingdom
Co-founder // Dr. Mitchell Joachim //TERREFORM ONE // united states of america
Co-founder // Cameron Sinclair //ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY // united states of america
Vice. President //Jason Prior //EDAW // united kingdom
President // Erik R Kuhne //ERIK R KUHNE & ASSOCIATES // united kingdom
Associate // Richard Hollington //OFFICE FOR METROPOLITAN ARCHITECTURE (OMA) // netherlands
Director // Jonathan Smales //BEYOND GREEN // united kingdom

Conference host: Rob Cowan, Dir. Urban Design Skills

http://www.nuda.no/

// INTRODUCTION // There is a need to stage a guide for global planning which involves new sustained environmental directions. While urban designers and architects alone cannot solve the world’s environmental problems, they are responsible for designing the future cities, and therefore in a position to influence the promotion and pursuit of energy-efficient, socially-responsible buildings and public spaces. They are also in a position to influence the future cities through new paradigms of innovation; new thoughts; new perspectives; new methods and rural and urban strategies, where increased use of new technology is a crucial part of the sustainable planning strategies developed. The current urbanisation which attracts people in great numbers from rural areas and small towns raises issues such as prospects for work; housing possibilities; improved lifestyle and education. How does this rapid urbanisation effect the environment? How will rural areas cope with the increased emigration? Is urbanisation as an isolated entity the critical factor generating these environmental issues?
The green city; the inclusive city; the social city; the walkable city; the eco-city are concepts promoted by architects and planners in their work of designing future cities and pursuing environmental solutions while at the same time trying to include a conscious approach towards the social and human aspect of the new urban context. New city concepts claim to accommodate the rapid urbanisation with design strategies enabling the city as an organism to grow accordingly to the growth of population. Is there a real demand for such new cities being planned? Might it be that the real challenge lies in sustaining the existing city, and turning the focus towards rural areas with small towns, villages and communities making them more interesting and attractive to live in so that people don’t move from these places?
Current cities are challenged by future environmental problems escalated from matters such as higher urban density; constraint of land use; rapid urbanisation; increased car use; higher global mobility; higher energy use and an extended consumption of global and cultural resources. Highlighting the concept of the future cities includes discovering the reasons behind the potential environmental disaster. Are the environmental issues our cities are facing only related to what is described in the UN Environmental report? Or could it be a consequence of people’s advanced mobility and change of lifestyle over the past three decades? I.e. new cities adjacent to waterfronts will be major influence on economic growth and tourism, leading to increased consumption of natural resources and undesirable impacts on culturally important heritage sites.

Green Architecture Opening in Prague

Photos: Dan O'Connor
Special Thanks: Dan Merta, Jaroslava Fragnera Gallery

Bioworks Institute Website Launched 2009

Co-Founders: Oliver Medvedik, Ph.D. and Mitchell Joachim, Ph.D.
Bioworks Institute
An interdisciplinary endeavor that seeks to rethink biological art and design.
www.bioworks1.com

Photo: Tony Ryan

Fab Tree Hab in Huffington Post via Web Urbanist

Web Urbanist has compiled a list of fantastic and visionary designs for "green" living. Thank You Nicholas Graham. Check out a sampling below:
HUFFINGTON POST and WEB URBANIST

WIRED: The 2008 Smart List - 15 People The Next President Should Listen To

The 2008 Smart List: "Mitchell Joachim, Redesign Cities from Scratch"
by Tom Vanderbilt
Wired, 16.10, pp. 178-9. Oct. 2008.
Photo: Bruce Gilden, Illustration: Christoph Niemann
http://www.wired.com/politics/law/magazine/16-10/sl_joachim

In Vitro Meat Habitat

This is an architectural proposal for the fabrication of 3D printed extruded pig cells to form real organic dwellings. It is intended to be a "victimless shelter", because no sentient being was harmed in the laboratory growth of the skin. We used sodium benzoate as a preservative to kill yeasts, bacteria and fungi. Other materials in the model matrix are; collagen powder, xanthan gum, mannitol, cochineal, sodium pyrophosphate, and recycled PET plastic scaffold.

Terreform 1: Mitchell Joachim, Eric Tan, Oliver Medvedik, Maria Aiolova

The Visual Rhetoric of Environmentalism at New Museum

Panel: The Visual Rhetoric of Environmentalism
for the New Museum of Contemporary Art, "After Nature," exhibition.
As scientific consensus about global warming gains traction with the public, this panel explores how such knowledge—and the environmental strategies it prompts—should be expressed visually.

Panelists: Dr. Cameron Tonkinwise, Charles M. Blow, and Mitchell Joachim.
Moderated by Brian Sholis, editor of Artforum.com.

Saturday, August 16, at 3PM
New Museum,
235 Bowery, New York, NY.
http://www.newmuseum.org/events/220

CNN: Fab Tree Hab + Mushroom House + MATscape

Just Imagine...what life will be like in 2020?
Home sweet... jellyfish!
Architects share their vision of what homes of the future will look like.
Fancy living in a home shaped like a mushroom or an edible tree house?
see our Mushroom House, Fab Tree Hab, and MATscape dwellings.
images by Mitchell Joachim
http://edition.cnn.com/
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/08/04/future.houses/index.html
Special Thanks to Lisa Botter

NextWorld premier episode Aug. 6th on Discovery Channel

See our work at Terreform 1 and many others in the premier episode of NEXTWORLD. This 14 hour documentary series on the Discovery Channel premieres Wednesday, August 6th at 8pm.After this week, the series will air every Wednesday at the same time for the following 13 weeks.
NEXTWORLD explores some of the truly amazing technologies, science, ideas and products that we will encounter over the next 20 years. What was learned doing this show has made us wonderfully optimistic about our future. So much is possible: we will grow new brain cells and end Alzheimer's, travel to Mars, drive morphing cars, watch stunningly real holographic actors on Broadway, create energy to power cities using our footsteps, and routinely live beyond a century.
http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/next-world/next-world.html
Special Thanks: Rob Cohen -Executive Producer NextWorld, Dena Goldstein, and Betty Chu.

New Design Researcher: Eric Tan

Eric is a student still entering his final year of architecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. Currently, he is researching and developing a proposal for the fabrication and genetic manipulation of a flesh based architecture - combining inVitro processes and tissue engineering with Cad/Cam prototyping. He is excited in utilizing this research as a tool to generate not only discourse but to aid in its realization.

Fab Tree Hab at MoMA, July 20-Oct 20

Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling
July 20th – October 20th, 2008.
The Museum of Modern Art Exhibition Gallery, sixth floor
Fab Tree Hab
Video installation, 2003-2008.
Mitchell Joachim, Terreform 1
Lara Greden, Javier Arbona.

QuickTime Movie: Fab Tree Hab

Special Thanks: Joey Forsyte, Velocity Filmworks, Barry Bergdoll, Peter Christensen, Graham Murdoch, Edward Ward.

Mike Silver lecture w/ LaN globallocale

Mike Silver
http://futurefeeder.com/
5PM FRI. JULY 11th
lecture at
MEx/ Terreform
Michael Silver Mike Silver holds a masters in building design from Columbia University, and is a leFevre ‘29 research fellow for the Knowlton School of Architecture in Columbus, Ohio, a Sanders Fellow at the University of Michigan, former director of digital media at the Yale School of Architecture and a studio instructor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, and faculty member at Pratt Institute. He is also the author of numerous books and articles including Pamphlet Architecture 19: Reading, Drawing, Building (Princeton Architectural Press, 1996) and IS) Mapping in the Age of Digital Media (March/April 2003). He currently directs a multidisciplinary design laboratory based in New York. Current work explores technologies such as UDAR, CFD (computational fluid dynamics) simulation, computer programming (Automason Ver 1.0) and a variety of new robotic fabrication tools including numerically controlled wire-EDM and digital foam shaping.

Thank You: Monika Wittig
LaN globallocale
http://www.livearchitecture.net/

Welcome Dan O’Connor

New Partner at Terreform 1:
Dan O’Connor received his Master of Fine Art degree in Photography from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He received his BFA in Photography from SUNY College at Buffalo. He was an Artist in Residence at the Burren College of Art in the Spring of 2004. Currently he is teaching photography at the New England Institute of Art in Boston.
www.stickphoto.com

Terreform 1 at World Science Festival

ABC News: How Will Cities of the Future Look?

Five People Who'll Make You Feel Good About the Future Wired Science from Wired.com

Future Cities and Festivals? - TierneyLab - Science - New York Times Blog

Future cities will be more like ecosystems that enrich society and the environment

Science Channel: World Science Festival: Not the Usual Doom and Gloom

Science/AAAS ScienceNOW: Future Cities

Spark: Ignite Your Life ¦ Weekends: World Science festival in NYC

Vertical farms and future cities Gristmill: The environmental news blog Grist

World Science Festival: Radically Green Future Cities Discoblog Discover Magazine

Ecotarium(s): North Pole

The Future North Ecotarium project is based on the premise that within the next hundred years our climate will be irreversible altered. Massive migrations of urban populations will move north to escape severe flooding and increased temperatures. Area inside the Arctic regions will warm up significantly, making their occupation newly desirable. Real estate values will shift to privilege northern climates that formerly had almost no human inhabitants. To underscore the intensity of such a global shift, we have moved entire cities. The reality of hundreds of millions of people relocating their respective centers of culture, business, and life is almost incomprehensible. We anticipate this polemical representation will impact our perception of tomorrow. The movie installation will premier at:
MASS MoCA Badlands: New Horizons in Landscape
and 01SJ: A global festival of art on the edge
by Jane D. Marsching and Dr. Mitchell Joachim/ Terreform
Architects: Makoto Okazaki, Maria Aiolova, Melanie Fessel
Photo Work: Dan O'Connor
Curators: Steve Dietz at SJMA and Denise Markonish at MASS MoCA

see movie: http://www.terreform.org/future_north
see images:http://www.archinode.com/Arch4float.html

Terreform at MASS MoCA

Badlands: New Horizons in Landscape
Opens May 24, 2008
Jane D. Marsching and Terreform
http://www.massmoca.org/event_details.php?id=369

Welcome Jair Laiter

Jair was Born in Mexico City in 1971. Studied architecture at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, and Urban Design at City College, NYC. Has worked in offices in Japan, and USA. His Mexico City based studio KL Arquitectos has won large competitions and completed buildings in various parts of Mexico.

Water this Segment! Fab Tree Hab

The Hour on CBC, "Water this Segment!"

Is This A Good Idea?: Fab Tree Hab

By Hilary Doyle, Oct 26, 2007.

http://goodidea.cbc.ca/2007/10/a_blossoming_home.htm

Gang of Green: DigitALL Magazine Heroes

TERREFORM, THE ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH AND ARCHITECTURE FIRM OF MICHAEL SORKIN AND MITCHELL JOACHIM, IS RIPPING UP THE PAVEMENT OF URBANPLANNING "...the ecological research, urban planning, and architecture firm of Michael Sorkin and Mitchell Joachim. These two architects’ work is full of epic ambitions and fantastical ideas, including city plans based on total urban self-sufficiency, houses made of growing trees, and soft, sheep-like cars that scrub the atmosphere clean with every drive. Of course, most architects have drawers full of unrealized blueprints. But Terreform’s architecture of ecological engagement sacrifices any pretense of pragmatism in order to reach for a realm of unbridled, futuristic innovation..."
Craig Bromberg, Samsung, p. 10/48 Fall 2007.
http://www.samsung.com/Features/BrandMagazine/magazinedigitall/2007_fall/heroes_02.htm

Relax - Interiors for Human Wellness

The Human-Powered River Gym project
by Terreform: Mitchell & Douglas Joachim
is published within:
"Relax - Interiors for Human Wellness"
with Karim Rashid, Anneke Bokern, Joeri Bruyninckx, Tim Groen, Sarah Martín Pearson, Shonquis Moreno, Stephan Ott, Chris Scott and Masaaki Takahashi.
Birkhäuser Basel; 1 edition (November 2007)
http://www.amazon.com/Relax-Interiors-Wellness-Anneke-Bokern/dp/3764383925/ref=sr_1_2/105-5757793-2651658?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192567361&sr=1-2

Extreme tree houses: Fab Tree Hab

Extreme tree houses CNET News.com - San Francisco,CA,USA
Future-forward designers are concocting tree houses that live and "breathe," such as the Fab Tree Hab. It uses high-tech computer modeling and ancient ...See all stories on this topic
http://www.news.com/2300-11395_3-6210710-1.html

GSAPP course: Tilling Education

A4746 Tilling Education: An Eco Aesthetic Approach.
Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation.
Dr. Mitchell Joachim
http://www.arch.columbia.edu/index.php?pageData=8882/23/4/3235/

Sabine Gittel: Research on Urbanism

Sabine is from Germany. She received her diploma degree in Architecture at the University of Applied Sciences in Leipzig. At Terraform she is dealing with a city research project to emphasize her interest in urban topics.

Welcome: Melanie Fessel

Meli just arrived from Germany and fell in love with New York.
She studies architecture at the Technical University of Berlin.

New Design Researchers: Ben Shepard & Patrick Collins

Ben Shepard studies Philosophy and Visual Art at The University of Chicago. He's a founder of the Chicago-based experimental-culture collective Ex-Lab, and currently researches food systems, untapped desires and the possibility of socialism in the 21st century.

Patrick R. Collins was born in the farmlands of Iowa, one man's young dreams of becoming a cowboy popped as the realization that times were a-changing and a livlihood rounding up steer just wouldn't make it in this day and age. New York City's air quality was one area in which he could make a difference. He is producing an outline of resources which could help our city further reduce air pollution emissions.

New designer: Yu Ping Hsieh w/ Trudy Giordano

Yu Ping Hsieh: Born and raised in Taiwan, family later immigrated to Canada. Completed his Bachelor's degree in Environmental Design from the University of Manitoba in 2007, and is planning to attend the M.Arch program at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-ARC) in fall of 2007.

Soft Car at Inhabitat.com

TERREFORM’S SOFT CAR
by Emily Pilloton
http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/06/14/terreforms-soft-car/

Terreform on CNET

Tree house living, the next green thing?
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9724481-7.html

Postopolis Talk on U Tube

see video for Postopolis at Storefront for Art and Architecture
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9VWD3-07Us
or
http://www.youtube.com/storefrontgallery

Terreform in Newsweek

"Terreform: Building Houses Out of Living Trees"
Newsweek, May 28, 2007 by Linda Stern.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18685383/site/newsweek/?from=rss#storyContinued

Postopolis! w/ Terreform at 6:30pm May 30th

Postopolis!
at Storefront for Art and Architecture
Featuring BLDGBLOG, City of Sound, Inhabitat, and Subtopia
Postopolis! is a five-day event of near-continuous conversation about architecture, urbanism, landscape, and design. Four bloggers, from four different cities, will host a series of live discussions, interviews, slideshows, panels, talks, and other presentations, and fuse the informal energy and interdisciplinary approach of the architectural blogosphere with the immediacy of face to face interaction. 5/29 thru 6/2, 2007.
http://storefrontnews.org/exhibitions/upcoming.html

NY Press: LES from SCRATCH

LES FROM SCRATCH
Architects re-imagine the city for the next century
By Jerry Portwood
New York Press

Vol. 20, No.16, pp. 14-16, April 18-24, 2007
http://www.nypress.com/20/16/news&columns/feature3.cfm

Welcome Maria Aiolova to Terreform

Maria Aiolova received her Master in Architecture in Urban Design from Harvard University, Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, Massachusetts, her Bachelor in Architecture from University of Sofia, Bulgaria and the Technical University of Vienna, Austria. She also holds Professional Degree in Architecture from Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, Massachusetts. Maria has a number of winning competitions including first place in the CHARLES/MGH STATION Design Competition, Boston and the Izmir Post District International Urban Design Competition in Izmir, Turkey. As a founder and director of Compost Art Center, nonprofit artists residency program, Maria has been involved in the design and construction of affordable and dynamic space for artists in the new millennium. Located in Southampton, Long Island, New York, the Center established a unique laboratory for artists, students and individuals of all ages and backgrounds to explore the creative process. In 2002, Maria formed a Design/Build Partnership focused on design and construction sustainable houses of modest scale and budget in the Hamptons. The houses she designed and built represent an appreciation of the intense beauty of the East End of Long Island; challenging the current standards of grandiosity and repetition; utilizing simple design and sustainable building strategies. In addition to her diverse design work, Maria has been a visiting critic at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, Rhode Island School of Design and Boston Architectural Center.

MIT Lecture: March 9: Mitchell Joachim

Computation Group Lecture Series
Department of Architecture, MIT
Friday, March 9th, Room 3-133, 12:30
Please be there on time if you are attending

MITCHELL JOACHIM Ecotransology:
Ecology + Mobility + Space

SUNDANCE CHANNEL Fab Tree Hab

FAB TREE HAB WILL BE FEATURED ON SUNDANCE CHANNEL’S ORIGINAL SERIES
“BIG IDEAS FOR A SMALL PLANET”™ ON TUESDAY, APRIL 24TH AT 9:00PM ET

“Big Ideas for a Small Planet,” is a documentary series presenting the forward-thinking designers, products and processes that are on the leading edge of a new green world. Each episode revolves around a different green theme as it spotlights a specific innovator or innovation that has the potential to transform our everyday lives. The individuals profiled range from scientists to fashion and product designers, entrepreneurs to first-time inventors. The series also features a cast of recurring expert commentators, including activists, scientists, writers, and environmental personalities who provide the big-picture context to each week’s stories. “Big Ideas for a Small Planet” is produced by Scout Productions (“Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” NBC/Bravo and The Fog of War).

In “Big Ideas for a Small Planet: Build,” visionary architect Michelle Kaufmann builds a Glidehouse, an ultra-sustainable modular prefab dream home, for a couple looking to enjoy life off the grid; architect Carlton Brown defies all odds and builds a low-income sustainable housing project in Harlem; and MIT genius Mitchell Joachim demonstrates his Fab Tree Hab living house made from intertwined trees, creating a spectacular living space of the future.

“Big Ideas for a Small Planet” airs as part of THE GREEN, a weekly primetime destination airing Tuesdays on Sundance Channel that focuses on environmental topics. With THE GREEN, Sundance Channel became the first television network in the United States to establish a major, regularly-scheduled programming destination dedicated entirely to the environment. THE GREEN reflects the current tipping point in public awareness about ecological issues and the trend towards environmentally sustainable approaches to modern living. The destination is designed to be both edifying and entertaining, with an emphasis on information, practical advice and community building. Presented by Robert Redford, the destination is hosted by award-winning journalist Simran Sethi and community advocate and MacArthur Fellow Majora Carter, two dynamic leaders who have distinguished themselves with revolutionary ideas in such areas as civic planning and global business practices. THE GREEN is presented by Lexus and Citi Smith Barney.

Under the creative direction of Robert Redford, Sundance Channel is the television destination for independent-minded viewers seeking something different. Bold, uncompromising and irreverent, Sundance Channel offers audiences a diverse and engaging selection of films, documentaries, and original programs, all unedited and commercial free. Launched in 1996, Sundance Channel is a venture of NBC Universal, Showtime Networks Inc. and Robert Redford. Sundance Channel operates independently of the non-profit Sundance Institute and the Sundance Film Festival, but shares the overall Sundance mission of encouraging artistic freedom of expression. Sundance Channel’s website address is www.sundancechannel.com.
# # #
Press Contacts:

Sundance Channel
Katie Lanegran
Sr. Director, Public Relations
Sundance Channel
(212) 708-8044
katie.lanegran@sundancechannel.com

Shanghai Pudong District

Sundance Channel Roundtable Discussion

Panelists on December 15th 2006 at Terreform NY.

Lara Greden, Ph.D., is a consultant with The Weidt Group, specializing in energy modeling and risk analysis for sustainable building design, energy conservation, and renewable energy. She is an expert in hybrid ventilation and flexible design methodologies. She works with design teams and major manufacturers consulting on energy, flexibility, and cost decisions.Other research includes studies on market and regulatory mechanisms for encouraging development of sustainable housing in urban China. Design work includes her role as team member of the Fab Tree Hab design team (winner, Habitat for Humanity/SECCA design competition) and sustainable design work in Turkey, including renewable energy systems and passive building design. She was also a consultant at Arthur D. Little, Inc. (now Navigant Consulting, Inc.) on the topics of renewable energy and energy efficiency for the U.S. Department of Energy. Ms. Greden completed her Ph.D. in the Building Technology Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she was a National Science Foundation Fellow, MIT Presidential Fellow, and MIT Martin Fellow for Sustainability.

Oliver Medvedik earned his Ph.D. from Harvard Medical School in the Biomedical and Biological Sciences (B.B.S.) program. As part of his doctoral work he has used single-celled budding yeast as a genetic system to map pathways that underlie the processes of aging in more complex organisms, such as humans. Prior to arriving in Boston in 1999 for his doctoral studies, he has lived most of his life in New York City. He obtained his bachelor's degree in biology from HunterCollege, City University of New York, in 1998. Since graduating in 2006 from Harvard, he has worked as a consultant for Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company specializing in the research and development of small-molecule therapeutics to treat age-onset diseases, such as diabetes. In his spare time he is working on a popular-science oriented book that seeks to explain the current science and technology of longevity research and the future treatments that will arise as a result of this work.

Yanni Alexander Loukissas is an architect and a researcher who studies the culture of computation in the building professions. His latest essay will appear in The Inner History of Devices, an edited volume by Sherry Turkle, Ph.D. Currently, Mr.Loukissas is a Presidential Fellow and a Ph.D. candidate in Design and Computation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While at MIT, he has been a National Science Foundation Pre-doctoral Fellow, a member of the Initiative on Technology and Self, and a research assistant at the Media Lab's Center for Bits and Atoms. He is also a Visiting Professor of Sculpture at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and a design and technology consultant to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He holds a Master of Science in Design and Computation from MIT and a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University. He has taught at both MIT and Cornell and has practiced architecture in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Greece. He currently resides in Cambridge, MA.

James Patten, Ph.D., creates interactive works in diverse media with themes including performance and social commentary. Patten has exhibited or performed in venues such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Transmediale festival in Berlin, the Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, the Museo d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, the Ars Electronica Center in Linz, Austria, the Instituto Tomie Othake in Sao Paulo, and the Art Interactive gallery in Cambridge, Ma. Patten's work has been recognized in several interational design competitions including the International Design Magazine's 2004 Annual Design Review, and the 2004 Industrial Design Excellence Awards. Patten holds a Ph.D. and an S.M. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a B.A. from the University of Virginia.

Anya Bokov, Adjunct Professor, Graduate Program Coordinator, Northeastern University, Senior Architect, City of Somerville, Mayor's Office SPCD. She received her Master in Architecture from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and her Bachelor of Architecture from Syracuse University where she was a recipient of the Full Merit Scholarship. Anya travelled to United States from Moscow Russia to study at Syracuse University on a full merit based scholarhip. After graduating from Syracuse in 1998, Anya joined New York-based Polshek Partnership Architects and later Gluckman Mayner Architects. While at Harvard Design School she organized an urban design studio in Russia with Rodolfo Machado and curated two Harvard Design School exhibits in Moscow. In parallel she collaborated with Herzog & de Meuron and the Institute of Contemporary City in Basel, Switzerland on developing a thesis studio. After graduation she worked with Rem Koolhaas at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture on the Hermitage Museum addition in St Petersburg, Russia. Currently Anya Bokov is a senior architect and an urban designer at the Mayor's Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development at the City of Somerville and an adjunct professor at Northeastern University School of Architecture. At Somerville she has been working on projects such as the Brick Bottom urban design competition, Assembly Square and Green Line T Extension among others. At Northeastern she is coordinating the rapidly growing graduate architecture program and has been developing the new curriculum for courses such as Thesis Studio and Professional Practice. She is a member of the Board of Directors at the Boston Society of Architects, representing Northeastern University.

Frank Ruchala Jr. graduated with dual masters in urban planning andarchitecture from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. At the GSD, Frank won the school's prestigious Druker Traveling Fellowhip, for which he studied airport cities throughout the world. He was also awarded a Penny White Traveling Fellowship in 2002 to study Los Angeles' urban oil fields, research that eventually led to his architecture thesis on the subject which will be published by Actar next year. Frank is currently living in New York where he works in the urban design department of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. He is responsible for work on Columbia University's proposed campus in West Harlem, a joint project between SOM and Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Before this, he worked at numerous design, planning and real estate development firms in Boston, San Francisco and New Jersey. He has taught studios at the Boston Architectural Center and the GSDs Career Discovery Program and his work has been published in Japan, Venezuela and the United States. Frank was part of a team that won the "Prop X: Inventing the next Los Angeles" competition, looking at ways to effectively deal with that city's ongoing housing crisis.

Richard Reames, Sculptor and Author
Opened Arborsmith Studios- A tree nursery/art studio 1993Authored How to Grow a Chair- 1995Directed community planting Williams Oregon- 1997Planted "Laughing happy tree park" in Joykoji Japan with John Gathright, the idea received "The Good Design Award" For ecological design 2000 Garden Creator S. F. Flower and Garden show- 2000Subject in hardbound large format book- Living Sculpture by Paul Cooper 2001Subject in hardbound large format book Eden on Their Minds by Starr Ockenga 2001
Speaker Master Gardeners State Convention in Alaska- 2001Workshop Deans's Nursery Ohio- 2002T. V. PBS “Tree Stories” “fantasy trees” 2002Speaker High Wycombe Collage of Furniture Design in England 2002World Expo Japan 2005 Arborsculpture coordinator for Growing Village pavilion. Authored Arborsculpture- Solutions for a Small Planet 2005Authored article for Compass Magazine- March/April 2006John C. Campbell School of Folk Arts, North Carolina, Instructor of Arborsculpture 2005 and 2006 Speaker Seattle Flower and Garden Show 2006Speaker University of Melbourne Australia 2006T. V. Home and Garden Channel "Off Beat America" segment 2006.

New York 2106 Project Images

Visions of Manhattan: For the City, 100-Year Makeovers

In Grand Central Terminal, History Channel design competitors presented New Yorks for 2106. Terreform’s included a ban on private cars.
Terreform won the honorary mention for best presentation.
November 4, 2006
New York Times
By ROBIN POGREBIN
Photo from left: Makoto Okazaki, Kent Hikida, Mitchell Joachim

Model Images

images

Team Credits for the History Channel

TEAM Terreform volunteers; Mitchell Joachim, Makoto Okazaki, Andrei Vovk, Kent Hikida, Serdar Omer, Noura Al Sayeh, Byron Stigge, Nathan Leverence, Oliver Medvedik, Lukas Lenherr, Matt Kipilman, Adam Watson, Craig Schwitter, Manuel Garza, Yulho Lee, Ning Lu, Dalia Al Sayeh
Critic: Michael Sorkin, who was paid $3,000 for five days.
Special Thanks: Didem, Cedric

Welcome to Terreform BLOG

www.terreform.org