Fellows 2015

Xiaoxi Chen Laurent is the recipient of the SOM Foundation 2015 Travel Research Fellowship. For her Research Topic, entitled, “Fortified Sustainability: A Critical Design Manual on New Intergovernmental Architecture, Xiaoxi will visit examples of historic and contemporary intergovernmental organization (IGO) buildings on four (4) continents, using sustainability as an “updated lens for a contemporary look at today’s spatial challenges to unlock the full potential of responsive and responsible design.”

Her research hypothesizes that sustainability and security are the top design criteria of new-build IGO architecture and will visit well-known IGO sites as a means to investigate the larger implications of current building trends. Architecture serves as the site of inquiry and is understood as the physical manifestation of accumulated political and material capital. In this context, sustainability and security are analyzed not only as technical and performative factors of architecture, but also as primary drivers of design and instruments of policy promotion.

Xiaoxi received her Master of Architecture Degree in May 2015 from the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation where she was awarded the Total Design Prize for all-around outstanding performance in the design studio and seminar sequences. She also holds a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the Georgia Institute of Technology and completed her final year at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris-La Villette.

Xiaoxi has worked in diverse and interdisciplinary offices and understands architecture as an inherently collaborative confluence of multiple fields, which allows for a more inventive and relevant process to address contemporary spatial issues. She believes that by pushing the limits of the architectural profession while successfully collaborating with other disciplines, architecture can provocate new social, political and aesthetic relationships in complex built environments.

She is based in New York City, where she is currently working with the office of 2x4. 

Ji Xin is the recipient of the SOM Foundation 2015 China Prize for Travel / Research.   Having received his Master’s Degree in Architecture in January 2015 from Southeast University in his home town of Nanjing,  Xin also holds a BArch degree in Architecture, received in June 2013 from Southeast University.

Xin's initial plan for his Travel / Research was to study the relationship between public urban space and economic urban diversity, which would go deep into the research of only two cities: Boston and New York, focusing on the community public spaces in Boston and with the High Line in New York.  Realizing that this plan would require a lot of knowledge about the Boston neighborhoods and their history, it  became apparent that a more suitable focus for a  short-term research effort would be to visit public urban spaces in more cities  to provide a  broader picture about the urban situation.  Xin’s Final Report is presented in five parts,  in the sequence of travel :from: New York, to Washington D.C., Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Each city is presented in a series of photographs, with Xin’s overall impression of each city visited described by three characteristics:  New York – “Density, Void and Memory” ; Washington D.C. – “Order, Nature and Majesty” ;  Chicago - Time, Space and Vitality” ;  San Francisco – “Hill, Water and Life” ;  and Los Angeles – “Car, Event and Flat City” .

Currently enrolled at Harvard  University Graduate School of Design,( M Arch II 2017 ),  Xin’s focus of study at the GSD is how to stimulate public participation by presenting valuable stories and experiences in public spaces.  It is a multidisciplinary design effort which combines digital media, physical environment design and literature research.  As Xin explains, “ This study will stand between the pure technology representation  and the profound philosophic idea, trying to utilize the public space to express enlightening ideas.  Based on the existing physical environment, the study will  discover unseen reality by creating an event, an exhibition or an installation. The research based project will focus on one topic at a time and reflect the research through utilization of digital media and contemporary art.”    Xin believes that creating memorable moments in public space is the way to enhance people’s awareness of the importance of public space to all of us.

Following completion of his architectural studies, Xin aspires to join an architectural firm in Boston or New York, and eventually set up his own firm.