Miho Mazereeuw, MIT Climate Mission Director for Empowering Frontline Communities, gives a talk as part of the New Public Forum, a student-led series of lectures and demonstrations aimed at instituting public dialogue between various fields as they evolve and adapt to a changing world. Trained as an architect and landscape architect, Mazereeuw is also an associate professor in the School of Architecture and Planning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and associate head of Strategy and Equity in the department. Previously she taught at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University and the University of Toronto. Mazereeuw has worked in the offices of Shigeru Ban and Dan Kiley as well as the Office for Metropolitan Architecture in Rotterdam prior to joining the MIT faculty. She also leads the Urban Risk Lab, which focuses on designing resilient cities that are prepared for climate risks such as flooding, cyclones, and heat stress. The multi-disciplinary team engages in action research through extensive field work and community workshops both locally and abroad to meet the needs of diverse cultures and contexts. The Urban Risk Lab aspires to change the course of current global development trends through a radical shift in education and action with the goal of increasing resilience and proactively embedding preparedness in this rapidly urbanizing world. Her forthcoming book, Design Before Disaster: Japan's Culture of Preparedness, is being published by the University of Virginia Press in early 2025.

Learn more about the New Public Forum, which is supported by The Cooper Union Grant Program and The Cooper Union School of Art, here. Lectures will be broadcast by the Cooper Radio Collective.