MIT School of Architecture + Planning

MIT School of Architecture + Planning The School of Architecture + Planning is one of five schools at the Massachusetts Institute of Techn

The School of Architecture + Planning is one of five schools at MIT. The school comprises five main divisions:

The Department of Architecture
The Department of Urban Studies + Planning
The Media Lab
The Center for Real Estate
The Program in Art, Culture and Technology

The school is also host to the Levanthal Center for Advanced Urbanism and the Center for Bits and Atoms.

08/27/2026

🔨 Installation has officially kicked off for "Occupancy" — the MET Commons' inaugural all-school exhibition!

"Occupancy" brings together work from 20+ faculty, students, fellows, and affiliates from across SA+P, all exploring one question: what does it mean to inhabit a new space? Organized around five themes (Ongoing Relations; Footprints; Labor and Trades; Migratory Desires; Polymaths) the exhibition celebrates the opening of the Metropolitan Storage Warehouse (the MET).

Pictured are works-in-progress on "Unit 402" a hand-drawn mural by Assistant Professor Carrie Norman and MArch students Zaynab Altaib and Mara Jovanovic. Their work imagines the X-rayed outlines of objects that were stored at the MET Warehouse when the building served as a storage facility for over a century. The resulting storage unit is at a 1:1 scale and tells stories of class, culture, society, and human behavior. The contrast between the technical precision and the imagined value of each object invites the viewer to think about where and why we bond with objects, and how they anchor us, home and away.

Occupancy was produced collaboratively through an open call to the SA+P community, led by the MET Commons Committee, with curatorial guidance and groundwork by Caroline A. Jones, SA+P Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives, and MehveĹź Lelic, Head of Exhibitions and Programs for the MET Commons. Polymaths was produced by the Morningside Academy for Design (MAD) and curated by Roi Salgueiro Barrio.

📍 Come see it in person at the MET Open House & Future Fest — Saturday, October 3. "Occupancy" will be on view through the Fall Semester.

MIT School of Architecture + Planning | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | MIT Department of Architecture

Nearly 1 billion people worldwide live in informal settlements — places that are often massive, but largely invisible to...
08/24/2026

Nearly 1 billion people worldwide live in informal settlements — places that are often massive, but largely invisible to traditional mapping technologies.

Favelas 4D, a project by Fabio Duarte at the MIT Senseable City Lab, uses 3D laser scanning to analyze the morphology of Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro’s largest favela.

By making informal urban form visible in four dimensions, the project asks how new tools can help cities better understand places that conventional maps often miss — and, in turn, support more inclusive approaches to planning and urban rights.

The work reflects the Senseable City Lab’s broader mission to develop and deploy tools for learning about cities through design and science.

đź”— Explore Favelas 4D via the MIT Senseable City Lab: https://senseable.mit.edu/favelas/

đź“· Screenshots of the project website

MIT DUSP | MIT Senseable City Lab

A new exhibition presented by MIT Libraries at the Institute's Maihaugen Gallery explores the history of Howe, Manning &...
08/22/2026

A new exhibition presented by MIT Libraries at the Institute's Maihaugen Gallery explores the history of Howe, Manning & Almy, the first-known all-women architecture firm in Massachusetts, and its deep connections to MIT.

Lois Lilley Howe was one of the first women to study architecture at MIT, graduating in 1890. She established her own practice in 1900 and was later joined by fellow MIT alumnae Eleanor Manning and Mary Almy. Together, the architects completed more than 900 commissions.

“Howe, Manning & Almy: Boston’s First All-Woman Firm and the Changing Face of Architecture” looks at the role MIT’s architecture program played in supporting women in the field beginning in the 1890s, the firm’s influence on the built environment of Cambridge, and its approaches to renovation and reuse.

Boston’s First All-Woman Firm and the Changing Face of Architecture
đź“Ť Maihaugen Gallery, Building 14N-130, MIT
đź“… On view through May 27, 2027

https://libraries.mit.edu/exhibits/exhibit/howe-manning-almy/

Images: Images: Archival photographs, architectural drawings, and artwork related to Howe, Manning & Almy. MIT Museum and MIT Institute Archives & Special Collections, MIT Libraries

MIT Libraries | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | MIT Department of Architecture | MIT School of Architecture + Planning

08/12/2026

The Metropolitan Storage Warehouse opens as the new home of MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning.

A Cambridge landmark for more than a century, the massive brick storage facility has been transformed into a light-filled center for teaching, research, and public engagement. Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in close collaboration with MIT and SA+P, the MET brings together the Department of Architecture, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism, and MIT Morningside Academy for Design.

“I think it sends a very good message that this vanguard school of architecture, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is moving into a historic building and adapting it for the future,” says SA+P Dean Hashim Sarkis. “This is a big statement on the part of MIT.”

The SA+P community is beginning its transition into the MET ahead of the new academic year. In October, the doors will open more widely for the MET’s official public opening as part of MIT Future Fest on October 3.

Read more about the transformation of the MET Warehouse in MIT News.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | MIT School of Architecture + Planning | MIT Department of Architecture | MIT DUSP

Meet the 2026 MIT Morningside Academy for Design Fellows.Each year, MAD supports MIT graduate students pursuing design r...
07/31/2026

Meet the 2026 MIT Morningside Academy for Design Fellows.

Each year, MAD supports MIT graduate students pursuing design research that crosses disciplinary boundaries. This year's ten fellows bring together work spanning AI and live musical performance, urban climate resilience in informal settlements, adaptive construction materials, soft robotics and accessibility, climate-responsive architecture, glass fabrication for lunar and terrestrial applications, affective engineering, civic technology, metamaterials, and robotics.

The 2026 cohort:

- Stephen Brade, EECS, designing AI systems that improvise alongside jazz musicians in live performance.
- Temuulen Enkhbat, Urban Studies and Planning, transforming underserved urban spaces in Ulaanbaatar through community co-design and youth engagement.
- Yuki Gray, Architecture, exploring material and form through traditional construction and the invention of everyday materials.
- Thomas Hyo-min King, Architecture and City Planning, examining the political ecology of building technologies and their role in meaningful climate action.
- Anita Lin, Architectural Studies, prototyping complex soft robotic and pneumatic systems through accessible fabrication methods.
- Daniel Massimino, Mechanical Engineering, developing glass 3D printing to produce construction materials on the Moon and from recycled glass on Earth.
- Maggie Nelson, Materials Science and Engineering, advancing affective engineering in which technical performance and human experience are inseparable design criteria.
- Joseph Mulenga Ntaimo, Mechanical Engineering, designing robotics and controls systems with a focus on inspiring students to make.
- Cassandra Overney, MIT Media Lab, building AI-powered platforms that strengthen accountability between civic institutions and the communities they serve.
- Ling Xu, Mechanical Engineering, investigating how the mechanics of entangled matter can inform the design of tunable, functional metamaterials.

đź”— More about the cohort: https://design.mit.edu/news/introducing-the-2026-mad-design-fellows

Congratulations to Sanjana Paul, doctoral student in MIT DUSP, on being selected as a 2026–2027 GE Vernova Graduate Fell...
07/29/2026

Congratulations to Sanjana Paul, doctoral student in MIT DUSP, on being selected as a 2026–2027 GE Vernova Graduate Fellow.

Established through the MIT–GE Vernova Energy and Climate Alliance, the fellowship supports MIT graduate students pursuing research that advances solutions for the global energy transition. Paul's research focuses on data centers, examining the rapidly expanding infrastructure behind digital technologies through questions of energy, governance, and responsible deployment.

Paul works with the MIT Science Impact Collaborative, directed by Professor Lawrence Susskind, which brings together research, education, and public service to advance public-interest technology and support a just energy transition. At the center of that work is a fundamental question: how can emerging technologies and infrastructure systems be developed in ways that incorporate community perspectives and public priorities.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | MIT School of Architecture + Planning

đź“™ How can design help create neighborhoods where more people feel they belong?A new open-access book co-edited by Lawren...
07/27/2026

đź“™ How can design help create neighborhoods where more people feel they belong?

A new open-access book co-edited by Lawrence J. Vale, Ford Professor of Urban Design and Planning in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning and associate dean of the School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P), and Tali Hatuka of Tel Aviv University explores how the built environment can communicate welcome and inclusion.

“Designing Signals of Inclusion: A Framework for Fostering Shared Neighborhoods” examines the sensory gestures, spatial elements, and planning approaches that shape shared urban life — with case studies from cities around the world.

Developed following a Bemis-funded workshop at MIT, the volume includes contributions from several MIT DUSP and SA+P alumni and offers a toolkit for advancing inclusive design practices at the neighborhood scale.

The book is available now as a free open-access download through Routledge.

đź”— Read more: https://www.routledge.com/Designing-Signals-of-Inclusion-A-Framework-for-Fostering-Shared-Neighborhoods/Hatuka-Vale/p/book/9781041163084

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | MIT School of Architecture + Planning

Congratulations to Rania Ghosn, Associate Professor of Architecture and Urbanism and Director of SMArchS Urbanism, on re...
07/25/2026

Congratulations to Rania Ghosn, Associate Professor of Architecture and Urbanism and Director of SMArchS Urbanism, on receiving the Frank E. Perkins Award for Excellence in Graduate Advising.

Awarded by MIT's Graduate Student Council, the prize is named in honor of Frank E. Perkins, Dean of the Graduate School from 1983 to 1995, and is presented to one faculty member from each of MIT's schools in recognition of unbounded compassion and dedication toward graduate students.

Ghosn's teaching this year spanned Contemporary Urbanism Proseminar, Landscapes of Energy, Geo—Design, and MArch Thesis Preparation, reflecting the breadth of her engagement with students across research, design, and urbanism.

📸 Image credit: Rania Ghosn by M. Scott Brauer.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | MIT School of Architecture + Planning | MIT Department of Architecture

Before Robert Closson Spencer Jr. became one of the most recognized proponents of the Prairie Style of architecture, he ...
07/23/2026

Before Robert Closson Spencer Jr. became one of the most recognized proponents of the Prairie Style of architecture, he was a young MIT student traveling through Europe with a sketchbook.

Spencer studied at MIT as a Special Student in Architecture from 1887 to 1888, and in 1891 received the Rotch Travelling Scholarship, funding two years of travel in Europe. Recipients were required to send envoi drawings back to Boston to be exhibited and studied, and the collection that resulted is now held in the MIT Museum.

The works on view trace a journey through Italy with a designer's eye. A study of the 13th-century Palazzo del Popolo in Orvieto captures its polychrome stonework and reflective glass, drawn in plan to show how the window receives light. Mosaic floors recorded in Pompeii proved directly useful back home: only a few years after returning from Europe, while working for Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge in Chicago, Spencer designed the mosaic ceiling for the Chicago Public Library, one of the finest decorative programs of its time. A drawing of a vaulted ceiling in the Corte Reale in Mantua rounds out the selection, rendered in the oval format characteristic of architectural study drawings of the period.

Spencer was not a historicist. But the observations he made in Europe, from half-timber construction in Germany and England to the picturesque irregularity of vernacular Italian architecture, found their way into his later Prairie Style work in ways both specific and atmospheric.

đź”— See the collection: https://mitmuseum.mit.edu/collections/collection/robert-spencer-collection

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | MIT School of Architecture + Planning | MIT Department of Architecture

Chris Zegras, professor of mobility and urban planning and outgoing head of MIT DUSP, has been appointed CEO and Directo...
07/21/2026

Chris Zegras, professor of mobility and urban planning and outgoing head of MIT DUSP, has been appointed CEO and Director of the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), effective September 1.

Established in 2007 in collaboration with Singapore's National Research Foundation, SMART is MIT's only research center outside the United States, bringing together leading experts from the U.S., Singapore, and the broader region across six interdisciplinary research groups spanning antimicrobial resistance, AI and emerging technologies, agricultural innovation, and more.

Zegras brings deep familiarity with SMART's mission. From 2010 to 2020, he served as a principal investigator and later lead principal investigator on SMART's Future Urban Mobility interdisciplinary research group, which spearheaded Singapore's first public autonomous vehicle trials and developed large-scale urban simulation and visualization systems that evolved into spinoff companies.

"Having experienced firsthand what this distinctive model can achieve," Zegras says, "I look forward to building on this strong foundation to deepen collaboration, strengthen our innovation ecosystem, and accelerate the translation of research into meaningful real-world impact."

đź”— Read more: https://news.mit.edu/2026/chris-zegras-appointed-director-ceo-smart-0609

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | MIT School of Architecture + Planning

Address

77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA
02139

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+16172534401

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when MIT School of Architecture + Planning posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category