Mitchell Joachim To Speak At East Coast Green

June 6, 2012

Leader in Ecological Design Featured at AIA-NJ Event

Mitchell Joachim, Assoc. AIA, a notable leader in ecological design, architecture and urbanism, will be the keynote speaker at its third annual East Coast Green Conference 2012, to be held at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft, N.J., on June 14.

Joachim is most known for his work on the Smart Cities Car, an environmentally friendly car designed for urban living, which he helped design while at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Mass. That project was recognized as Time Magazine’s Best Invention of 2007. He’s also well known for his Fab Tree Hab project, which presents a sophisticated methodology to grow homes from living native trees. This project has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

East Coast Green, which will be held for the second consecutive year at Brookdale Community College, is titled: “Re: Thinking Green.” The conference will take a look at the future of sustainability and the environment in the architecture and construction industries.

“We’re thrilled to have Mitchell Joachim as our keynote speaker for this year’s East Coast Green,” said Laurence E. Parisi, president of AIA-NJ. “Mitchell is one of the brightest minds in the area of ecological design, architecture and urban design spaces. Those attending his remarks at East Coast Green are in for a real treat.”

Joachim is the founding co-president of Terreform ONE, a non-profit design group that promotes green design in cities; and a partner at Planetary ONE, a unique cross-disciplinary partnership of designers and scientists collaborating to pioneer visionary socio-ecological and infrastructural strategies for urban environments. Terreform and Planetary ONE are based in Brooklyn, N.Y. He is also an associate professor at New York University in New York City and the European Graduate School in Switzerland.

This year’s educational tracks for East Coast Green include “Re: Codify,” which will look at the different sustainability codes and policies facing the architecture and construction industries; “Re: Certify,” which will help LEED professionals to maintain their credentials; and “Re: View,” which will provide case studies of successful sustainable applications.

In his remarks, Joachim will discuss architectural design groups that integrate ecological principles into the urban environment.

“We presume ecological design is not only a philosophy that inspires visions of sustainability and social justice but also a focused scientific endeavor,” said Joachim. “Our mission is to ascertain the consequences of fitting a project within our natural world setting.”

Solutions include green master planning; urban self-sufficiency infrastructures; community development activities; bio-design; performative material technologies, which challenge the way the built environment is designed; and smart mobility vehicles for cities.

Previously Joachim held the Frank Gehry International Visiting Chair in Architecture Design at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Canada, and was a faculty member at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y.; Columbia University in New York City; Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y.; Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.; and Parsons The New School For Design in New York City. He was formerly an architect at Gehry Partners, a full service architectural firm in Los Angeles, Calif., and the New York City-based architecture firm Pei Cobb Freed.

Joachim was awarded a senior fellowship in 2011 for TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design), a nonprofit devoted to “ideas worth spreading,” as well as fellowships for Moshe Safdie and Associates and Martin Society for Sustainability at the MIT. He also won the Zumtobel Group Award for sustainability and humanity in the built environment and the History Channel and Infiniti Design Excellence Award for City of the Future.

He was chosen by Wired magazine for “The 2008 Smart List: 15 People the Next President Should Listen To.” Rolling Stone magazine honored Joachim in “The 100 People Who Are Changing America.” In 2009 he was interviewed on the Colbert Report and in 2012 his work was featured in Popular Science magazine as a visionary for “The Future of the Environment.”
East Coast Green will be held in conjunction with AIA-NJ’s second “COTE Top 10 Awards,” which will recognize outstanding built work in the area of sustainable design.

The conference will be preceded on June 13 by a full day of workshops sponsored by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). A Green Building Expo featuring green building products and materials will also be held in conjunction with the conference.

Over the two-day event, more than 20 courses will be offered, all of which are eligible for AIA and U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) continuing education credits.

To register, visit www.aia-nj.org/ECG/, click “register today” and follow instructions. 

By admin | Posted in AIA-NJ News, Continuing Ed, Environment, NJ Architect Newsletter | Tagged: East Coast Green, Mitchell Joachim, Sustainable Design, TED | Comments (0)