On Thursday, April 28, 2022 at noon, the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities will host an in-person talk as part of its lecture series. The event will take place at 20 Sumner Road, Cambridge, MA in the lower-level conference room. The Center is pleased to host the GSD’s own Hanif Kara, Professor in Practice of Architectural Technology, Design Director and Co-founder of AKT II (in London and other EU locations). He will present “Sustainable Practice Concerns.” Please RSVP asap, as space is limited, to Jeff Fitton [email protected]. This event is open to the Harvard community.

Hanif Kara

Professor Hanif Kara is a practicing Structural Engineer and Professor in the Practice of Architectural Technology at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard. He is recognized for linking design, research, education and practice. He co-tutored a Diploma Unit at the Architecture Association, London from 2000 to 2004 and was a Visiting Professor of Architectural Technology at KTH Stockholm from 2007 to 2012.

As Design Director and co-founder of AKT II (est. 1996), his particular ‘design-led’ approach and interest in innovative form, pushing material uses, sustainable construction and complex analysis methods have allowed him to work on numerous pioneering projects at the forefront of many challenges facing the built environment.

The practice has won over 350 design awards including the RIBA Stirling Award for the Peckham Library, London in 2000, for the Sainsbury Laboratory, Cambridge in 2012, and for the Bloomberg European HQ, London in 2018 as well as the RIBA Lubetkin Prize for the UK Pavilion at Shanghai Expo in 2010. The practice also was awarded by Building Magazine as ‘Engineering Consultant of the Year 2019’.

For more information about Hanif Kara, please click here to visit the GSD website.

 

Sustainable Practice Concerns

The talk will share firsthand experience in the field from the position of design engineering. A handful of projects will illustrate experiences as we transition toward zero carbon. We will raise the role “Design Research” plays in practice: challenges and some successes.