The Nexus

Sean Canty’s architectural practice is deeply rooted in and draws from other artistic disciplines and visual cultures. By expanding his source of references beyond the field of Architecture, Canty draws from visionaries like Basquiat to integrate questions of identity and representation in subtle ways. His work pushes us to ask how we can create spaces that honor and reflect on tragic moments in the past while bringing joy to and benefitting hurting communities today.

Sean Canty is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and the founder of Studio Sean Canty (SSC), an architecture practice based in Cambridge, MA. Canty is also one of the founding principals of Office III (OIII), an experimental architectural collective that spans New York, San Francisco, and Cambridge. Selected as a finalist for the 2016 MoMA PS1 Young Architects competition, OIII has completed a Welcome Center for Governors Island and exhibited work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Canty was the recipient of the 2020 Richard Rogers Fellowship. Prior to joining the faculty at the GSD, Canty held teaching positions at the Cooper Union, University California Berkeley, and California College of the Arts. He received an M.Arch from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and a B.Arch from California College of the Arts.

You can listen to all available episodes and find program notes here on our website, or subscribe to the series via one of these providers: iTunes, Google, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Stitcher.

Developed by the African American Design Nexus at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, The Nexus is a podcast that explores the intersection of design, identity, and practice through conversations with Black designers, writers, and educators. The Nexus is produced in conjunction with a commitment by the Frances Loeb Library to acquire and create an open-access bibliography of various media suggested by the GSD community on the intersection between race and design.

The Nexus Season 2 is hosted by Tara Oluwafemi and Darien Carr, students in the Master of Architecture program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. The show is recorded and edited by Maggie Janik, and the theme music is produced by DJ Eway.

For all inquiries, please email [email protected].

Lesley Lokko questions the efficacy of a problem-based architectural education and suggests a new pedagogy that liberates the students’ relationship to design. Looking to fiction, metaphor, analogy, Africa, and industries in the larger design sphere, we discuss the possibilities to expand the bounds of the field of Architecture.

Lesley Lokko graduated from the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, with a BSc(Arch) in 1992, and an MArch in 1995, and went on to earn a Ph.D. in Architecture from the University of London in 2007. In 2004, she published her first novel, Sundowners, a Guardian Top 40 Bestseller, following up with eleven more novels. Lokko has taught architecture all over the globe. In partnership with the University of Johannesburg, she established the Graduate School of Architecture (GSA) in 2014/2015 and became the director of School. She is currently founder and director of the African Futures Institute in Accra, Ghana. In 2021, she was appointed as the curator of the 18th Venice Biennale of Architecture, set to open in 2023.

You can listen to all available episodes and find program notes here on our website, or subscribe to the series via one of these providers: iTunes, Google, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Stitcher.

Developed by the African American Design Nexus at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, The Nexus is a podcast that explores the intersection of design, identity, and practice through conversations with Black designers, writers, and educators. The Nexus is produced in conjunction with a commitment by the Frances Loeb Library to acquire and create an open-access bibliography of various media suggested by the GSD community on the intersection between race and design.

The Nexus Season 2 is hosted by Tara Oluwafemi and Darien Carr, students in the Master of Architecture program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. The show is recorded and edited by Maggie Janik, and the theme music is produced by DJ Eway.

For all inquiries, please email [email protected].

Dana McKinney describes her time at the GSD as a balancing act of being a student and an activist. She shares the journey that started the African American Design Nexus, the Black in Design conference, and other initiatives she was essential to founding at the GSD. We learn how she has continued her work as an activist in her architectural practice.

Dana is an architect and urban planner, who is an outspoken advocate for social justice and equity through design. During Dana’s time at the Harvard GSD, she helped to establish the inaugural Black in Design Conference, Map the Gap, and the African American Design Nexus. She subsequently worked at Gehry Partners where she focused on the LA River Master Plan, Southeast Los Angeles Cultural Center, and other river-related projects.

Dana is currently the Development Manager at Adre, an equity-centered development company in Portland, Oregon that seeks to develop buildings that create social and economic benefits for Black, Indigenous, and people of color through the creation of affordable homes, mixed-used developments, and facilities for mission-driven organizations. Dana also established Studio KINN where she consults on social justice and equity design problems.

In 2021, Dana co-founded enFOLD Collective with Megan Echols, a fellow GSD alumna.

You can listen to all available episodes and find program notes here on our website, or subscribe to the series via one of these providers: iTunes, Google, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Stitcher.

Developed by the African American Design Nexus at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, The Nexus is a podcast that explores the intersection of design, identity, and practice through conversations with Black designers, writers and educators. The Nexus is produced in conjunction with a commitment by the Frances Loeb Library to acquire and create an open-access bibliography of various media suggested by the GSD community on the intersection between race and design.

The Nexus Season 2 is hosted by Tara Oluwafemi and Darien Carr, students in the Master of Architecture program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. The show is recorded and edited by Maggie Janik, and the theme music is produced by DJ Eway.

For all inquiries, please email [email protected].