Faculty receive promotions in the School of Architecture and Planning

Eleven faculty in the MIT School of Architecture and Planning have been recognized with promotions for their significant contributions to the school, effective July 1. Five faculty promotions are in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning; four are in the Department of Architecture; and two are in the program in Media Arts and Sciences.

“Whether architects, urbanists, historians, artists, economists, or aero-astro engineers, they represent our school at its best, in its breadth of inquiry and in its persistence to improve, by design, the relationship between human beings and their environment,” says Hashim Sarkis, dean of the School of Architecture and Planning. “Collectively, they add considerable strength to our faculty.”

Department of Architecture

Azra Akšamija has been promoted to full professor. An artist and architectural historian, she is the director of the Art, Culture, and Technology program. She also directs the Future Heritage Lab. Akšamija is the author of two books, and her artistic work has been exhibited at leading international venues, including the Generali Foundation and Secession in Vienna; Biennials in Venice, Liverpool, Valencia, and Manila; Manifesta 7; museums of contemporary art in Zagreb, Belgrade, and Ljubljana; Sculpture Center and Queens Museum of Art in New York; the Royal Academy of Arts London; and Design Festivals in Milan, Istanbul, Eindhoven, and Amman.

Brandon Clifford has been promoted to associate professor with tenure. Clifford is the director and co-founder of Matter Design, which leverages ancient construction techniques to shape transformative architectural visions. Known for animating megalithic sculptures, he pioneers “projective archaeology,” merging historical events with imaginary futures. Clifford’s speculative works redefine architectural practice, paving the way for new constructive opportunities.

Timothy Hyde has been promoted to full professor. Hyde is an historian of architecture whose research has expanded the understanding of the ways in which entanglements of architecture and law have shaped buildings and cities from the 18th century to the present. In numerous articles, and in books such as “Constitutional Modernism and Ugliness and Judgment,” he has explored buildings — and more recently building sites — in the Americas and in Europe to reveal the participation of architectural discourse in the legal formulation of social techniques of the modern city.  

Lawrence “Larry” Sass has been promoted to full professor. Sass is a designer and researcher in the Department of Architecture at MIT. He is a pioneer within the field of design and digital fabrication for low-cost housing. He discovered a low-cost method of single-family home construction using computation and digital fabrication. The impact of his research has been knowledge construction related to the idea that digital fabrication can automate construction. His methods reduce the number of steps in the production of a home. He was the first to publish the idea of digitally fabricated wooden housing in 2006 and exhibited his idea at the Museum of Modern Art in 2008.

Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP)

devin michelle bunten has been promoted to associate professor. Bunten is a teacher, writer, and urban economic theorist. Her research uses economic theory and empirical tools to study a range of urban topics, including gentrification and neighborhood change, restrictive zoning, and the white supremacy at the root of American housing.

Catherine D’Ignazio has been promoted to associate professor with tenure. D’Ignazio is a scholar, artist/designer, and “hacker momma” who focuses on feminist technology, data literacy, and civic engagement. She is the director of the Data + Feminism Lab, which uses data and computational methods to work toward gender and racial justice, particularly as they relate to space and place.

Jeffrey Levine has been promoted to associate professor of the practice. Involved in land-use planning on the local and regional level for 25 years, Levine is interested in how to apply best practices in theory and research in local and municipal settings. His research interests are in the areas where public finance, private equity, and land-use planning intersect, as well as how transportation, housing, and sustainability interact in small- to mid-sized cities and regions.

Elisabeth Reynolds has been promoted to professor of the practice. Reynolds’s research is focused on systems of innovation, manufacturing and industrial competitiveness, and regional economic development. Her recent academic and applied work has focused on growing innovative companies to scale, digital technology adoption, and inclusive growth.

Andres Sevtsuk has been promoted to associate professor with tenure. Sevtsuk is the head of the City Design and Development Group in DUSP and director of the City Form Lab. His research focuses on public qualities of cities, and on making urban environments more walkable, sustainable, and equitable, bridging the fields of urban design, spatial analytics, and mobility research. He is the author of the Urban Network Analysis framework and software tools, used by researchers and practitioners around the world to model pedestrian activity in cities and to study coordinated land use and transportation development in ways that reduce transportation carbon emissions.

Program in Media Arts and Sciences

Kent Larson has been promoted to professor of the practice. Larson is an architect, director of City Science at the MIT Media Lab, and co-director of the Norman Foster Institute on Sustainable Cities based in Madrid. His research is focused on urban and architectural design, urban modeling and simulation, transformable micro-housing, living laboratories, ultralight autonomous mobility, and algorithmic dynamic zoning.

Danielle Wood has been promoted to associate professor. Wood is the founding director of the Space Enabled Research group, which seeks to advance justice in Earth’s complex systems using designs enabled by space. Prior to serving on the faculty at MIT, Wood held positions at NASA Headquarters, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Aerospace Corp., Johns Hopkins University, and the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs.