Exhibition

  • Landformation Catalogue
    Michael Leighton Beaman and Zaneta Hong
    Curators
    Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge
    Mar 27, 2015 to May 15, 2015
  • GRANTEE
    Michael Leighton Beaman & Zaneta Hong
    GRANT YEAR
    2014

Detail of Landform Models, Landformation Catalogue exhibition, Harvard Graduate School of Design, 2015, Cambridge, MA.

The Landformation Catalogue focuses on revealing generative and operative methods of landform design and construction. Communicating the formative relationships embedded in constructed landforms across scales and geographies, the Landformation Catalogue establishes a morphology of physical definitions and a taxonometric organization of environmental effects. By combining simulations, digitally fabricated artifacts, and graphic illustrations, the exhibition provides conceptual correlations between material processes and landscape design.

Michael Leighton Beaman is founder and principal of Beta-field, cofounder and principal of GA Collaborative, associate editor for ii journal, a design and technology writer for Architectural Record, and currently visiting lecturer at the Rhode Island School of Design. Beaman's research and writing focus on the theory and application of technology in architecture and landscape architecture, and its implications for design culture, sustainability, and socially conscious design practices. In 2012, the American Institute of Architects named Beaman an “emerging practitioner.” Beaman was the 2010–12 University of Virginia Teaching Fellow in architecture and an assistant professor of architecture at the University of Texas at Austin from 2007 to 2012; he has also taught at Harvard University, North Carolina State University, Northeastern University, and the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology. He received his BArch from North Carolina State University and his MArch from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (GSD).

Zaneta Hong is a lecturer in landscape architecture and editor of Platform 8 at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design; and was recently named the 2013-14 Daniel Urban Kiley Teaching Fellow. Prior to her current appointment, Hong was a lecturer in architecture and landscape architecture at the University of Virginia and the materials lab curator at the University of Texas in Austin School of Architecture. Her academic research into landscape material systems and technologies has emerged in national and international material collections and has been cited in numerous publications and websites. Currently, Hong is design principal at Beta-field, a research and experimental design office, and copartner of GA Collaborative, a design-oriented nonprofit organization. Hong attended Cornell University before completing her Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Industrial Design at the Rhode Island School of Design and Master's in Landscape Architecture from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.