Speakers
Through the theme of Grounding, the conference will explore both architecture’s physical relationship to material flows and resources within ecological systems as well as architecture’s intangible relationship to history, memory, and lesser-acknowledged cultural contexts.
Gabriela Carrillo
Founding Partner, Taller Gabriela Carrillo + Colectivo
Gabriela Carrillo started her eponymous Studio in 2019, as a collaborative and interdisciplinary space for architectural work. She is a co-founder of Colectivo C733, dedicated to developing public projects in Mexico. Previously, she was a partner at Taller Rocha Carrillo for over nine years. With over twenty years of experience, she has received numerous accolades, including the Emerging Voices Award in 2014, the Federico Mariscal Chair, the highest recognition for professional practice by the Faculty of Architecture at UNAM, and the Médaille d’OR from the French Academy of Architecture. She was named “Architect of the Year” by Architectural Review in London in 2017 and by Architectural Digest Mexico in 2020 and 2023, and was granted The Royal Academy Dorfman Award 2023. Gabriela has also been a member of the National System of Art Creators and since 2021, an academic member of the Academy of Architecture of Mexico, Mexico City chapter.
Gabriela Carrillo has been an academic at the Faculty of Architecture, UNAM, since 2003, and she currently leads the research and graduation seminar Estudio RX. She has taught at prestigious institutions such as Harvard GSD, Kent State University, and the WAVE program in Venice, Italy, among others. Her work has been exhibited and honored in various national and international biennials, and featured in renowned publications like Domus, Casabella, Arquitectura Viva, and Architectural Review, among others.
Eric Höweler, FAIA, LEED AP and J. Meejin Yoon, AIA FAAR
Co-Founders and Partners, Höweler and Yoon
J. Meejin Yoon, AIA, FAAR is an architect, designer, and educator. She is the Gale and Ira Drukier Dean of Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, and formerly Head of the Department of Architecture at MIT. As an educator, she is committed to advancing pedagogy, research, and practice to expand new knowledge and imaginaries across fields and disciplines. Yoon is a co-founding partner of Höweler + Yoon. Yoon’s design research investigates the intersections between architecture, technology, and public space. Notable completed projects include the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at the University of Virginia, the Collier Memorial and MIT Museum at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Moongate Bridge in Shanghai, China. Yoon’s work has been exhibited widely, including at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, and the Venice Biennale. She is the co-author of Expanded Practice (Princeton Architectural Press 2009) and Verify in Field: Projects and Conversations Höweler + Yoon (Park Books, 2021).
Eric Höweler, FAIA, LEED AP, is an architect, designer, and educator. He is co-founding partner of Höweler + Yoon and Professor in Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, where he is the Program Director for the Masters of Architecture Program. Höweler’s design work and research focuses on building technology integration and material systems. His projects range from cultural buildings and mixed-use residential buildings, to public spaces and interactive environments. Recently completed projects include the MIT Museum at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at the University of Virginia, and the Coolidge Corner Theatre expansion. Höweler’s work has been exhibited widely, including at the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City, and the Venice Biennale. He is the co-author of Expanded Practice (Princeton Architectural Press 2009) and Verify In Field: Projects and Conversations Höweler + Yoon (Park Books, 2021).
Saundra Little, FAIA, LEED AP, NOMA
Quinn Evans. Principal, Director of Diversity & Inclusion
Saundra Little, FAIA, LEEP AP is a principal and Directory of Diversity Equity and Inclusion at Quinn Evans. She has over twenty years of experience in architecture, and project management. Saundra graduated from Lawrence Technological University with a Bachelor of Science in Architecture in 1994 and a Master of Architecture in 1998. Saundra was also a co-founder, Architect-Principal at Centric Design Studio, LLC for 12 years before joining Quinn Evans Architects. Quinn Evans acquired Saundra Little’s Centric Design Studio in 2018.
Saundra’s portfolio reflects the diversity of the neighborhoods she champions, with successful cultural, institutional, educational, and commercial projects of all sizes. Her work in design, revitalization, and adaptive use projects consistently demonstrates respect and sensitivity to the unique architectural heritage of local neighborhoods. Through her devotion to this challenging work, she has helped renew, uplift, and sustain vulnerable communities. Saundra Little has focused on sustainability, community planning, project energy assessments, and urban design. Saundra has overseen the design of several notable projects in the Detroit area, including the award-winning renovation of the TechOne building at TechTown, Allied Media Love Building, the David Klein Gallery, and current on the boards designs of the three Detroit Public Schools High School projects.
Saundra Little is a past President of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) Detroit from 2010- 2012, fostering communications and fellowship among minority architects. AIA Detroit Board Member 2014-2016, Detroit Creative Corridor Center DC3 Advisory Board 2013-2017, and Detroit Sustainable Museums Action Council (dSMAC) Advisory Board 2017-2018. Current NOMA National Midwest Vice President 2020-2024. In 2016, Little won the Knight Art Challenge Award for Noir Design Parti, a project that researches the history and collects the artifacts that tell stories of Detroit’s Black architects. The project includes a book, ongoing bus tours, podcasts, and more.
Kiel Moe, FAIA, FAAR
Professor of Practice, Auburn University and Visiting Professor, MIT
Kiel Moe, FAIA, FAAR is an architect and builder. In recognition of his design and research endeavors related to the energetic and material basis of building, he was awarded a Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Helsinki; the Gorham P. Stevens Rome Prize in Architecture at the American Academy in Rome, the Architecture League of New York Prize, and the American Institute of Architects National Young Architect Award. He has published several books including Unless: The Construction Ecology of Seagram Building; Empire, State & Building; Wood Urbanism: From the Molecular to the Territorial; Insulating Modernism; and Convergence: An Architectural Agenda for Energy.
Shannon Nichol, FASLA, PLA, LEED AP
Principal, GGN Ltd.
Shannon Nichol is co-founder of GGN. Shannon stewards GGN’s distinct approach to design and collaboration, bringing curiosity, humility, humor, and deep creativity to all of our projects and our studio.
Shannon’s designs – including San Francisco’s India Basin Shoreline Park, the Lurie Garden in Chicago, and the Gates Foundation Campus – are widely recognized as distinct landforms and welcoming places embedded in local history, culture, and native ecologies. Shannon’s recent and current projects include the Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture, Oxbow Farm & Conservation Center, and the Seattle Residence: Native Gardens.
Shannon is a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects and an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects (Seattle). She and her partners received the Smithsonian’s 2011 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Landscape Architecture, and GGN received the 2017 ASLA National Landscape Architecture Firm Award. Shannon’s projects have been recognized with ASLA National Awards of Excellence, ASLA and AIA Honor Awards, Tucker Design Awards, Great Places Awards from the Environmental Design Research Association, and Pacific Horticulture’s inaugural Design Futurist Award.
Her most recent guest lectures have included The Weitzman School of Design at U Penn, Cornell University, Harvard Graduate School of Design, and the Washington Native Plant Society. Shannon delivered the Sasaki Day Keynote Lecture at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2017, and she and Jennifer Guthrie were the Glimcher Distinguished Visiting Professors at Ohio State’s Knowlton School in 2015.
Shannon has been engaged in a wide range of activities and Board positions around her longtime advocacy for considerate design, hand drawing, native plants, and walkable cities. While Shannon considers nearly everything to be relevant to design and landscape, her “other” interests include car-design history, hill running, illustrative art, and non-fiction books.
Associate Principal, Nashville, Moody Nolan Architects
Executive Director, Chattanooga Design Studio
Founder, L+ARC Lighting Design