students

Bahij Chancey

Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Student

Bahij is a Masters in City Planning candidate (2021) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Bahij has worked in architectural design, startups, city government, and the nonprofit and social enterprise sectors. Formerly Senior Manager of Development and External Relations at Green City Force, he managed a $3.5M philanthropic budget, and coordinated public-private partnerships to make New York City public housing communities more environmentally sustainable, and train residents for green careers. He is a Board Member of Transportation Alternatives, and a founding Member of Mechanical Gardens Bicycle Co-op. Bahij holds a BFA in Architecture from Yale University, and hails from New York City.

Prathito Wisambodhi

Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Student

Thito is currently a graduate student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning with a concentration in City Design and Development. Thito is originally from Jakarta, Indonesia and received his BA in Architecture from Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia. Prior coming to MIT, Thito had 4 years of working experience as an urban designer and planner based in Singapore. His working experiences in the industrial planning, a university campus and a transit hub. Thito’s also passionate about inclusive public space, urban design, transit system, and data science.

Tanvi Sharma

Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Student

Tanvi is an architect studying city planning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is from Mumbai, India, grew up in southeast Asia, and has lived in Houston, Texas for the 10 years before moving to Boston. Her professional experience has included designing sky scrapers at Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, senior home design and city planning work at Huitt-Zollars, and project management on the Greater Houston Flood Mitigation Consortium. Her current work includes Malden River Works for Resilience and Equity with the Leventhal Prize team at MIT. Her non-academic and professional interests include dancing and photography.

Allison Lee

Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Student

Allison comes from a background in architectural heritage conservation, focused on supporting healthy communities through civic engagement, cultural continuity, and the protection of vernacular architecture. Originally from California, she is an advocate for environmental conservation and thoughtful integration of nature and cities. Prior to MIT, Allison worked with UNESCO and The University of Hong Kong on various heritage conservation projects and educational initiatives.

Ziyu Ran

Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Student

Ziyu Ran is a MCP1 student from DUSP, MIT. She was born and raised in Beijing, China. She has a design background with her M. Arch and B. Arch degree from the Tsinghua University in China. She has practice experience in architectural design, urban design and real estate development in Beijing and New York. Her current interests are urban data analysis, urban design, urban renovation and sharing economy.

Amber Kim

Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Student

Amber Kim has been driven by a lifelong desire to work towards a more sustainable and equitable future. She spent four years working with policymakers and stakeholders to advance clean water and environmental policies in Washington D.C. at the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, the Environmental Defense Fund, and the WateReuse Association. After working in federal policy, Amber fulfilled a longtime dream teaching English in France for a year. Now, Amber is now eager to learn and research how to address issues such as climate change and water resources management at the community and regional level at MIT. She holds a BA in Environmental Studies from Carleton College.

Maria Lucia Morelli

Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Student

Maria Lucia is a Peruvian architect, currently enrolled in the Master in City Planning at MIT. For the past two years she was working on her own architecture firm which focused on architectural refurbishment and furniture design, following the projects from its design phase to its construction and implementation. Parallelly, she was involved in a research project for promoting a series of public contests for the development of Lima, in the context of the bicentennial anniversary of the city. Previously, she worked in Insitum, the leading Innovation Consultancy Firm of Latin America.

Fiorella Belli

Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Student

Fiorella holds a B.A. in Anthropology from the Catholic University of Peru, and has led interdisciplinary research initiatives on developing innovations for the Peruvian Amazon and indigenous populations. In recent years, she has played a key role in shaping the design of new ventures in the financial, education and telecommunication industries as part of her work at La Victoria Lab, Intercorp’s innovation lab. Nowadays, she is mostly interested in discovering new paths towards the development of emergent cities in Latin America, prioritizing their cultural diversity and environmental adaptation.

Sofia Gulaid

Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Student

Sofia Gulaid is Kenyan-American and joined DUSP after working in Nairobi in urban and camp refugee services. She holds a degree in Environmental Studies from Yale University where she focused her research on the role of urban green spaces in the daily life of first generation immigrations. At DUSP, she is part of the City Design and Development group and works as a Research Assistant in the Civic Data Design Lab. Sofia is interested in public space, refugee urbanism, and urban design.

Laura Kim

Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Student

Laura is a Master in City Planning first year student in the City Design and Development concentration. Before starting at MIT, she worked as a brand strategist for five years in New York City for clients such as Bank of America and Stanford University. She has indepth experiences in building communications strategies, marketing campaign strategies and innovation strategies. She also has experiences in project and account management. She is interested in how people interact with the built environment and how design affects people’s experiences. She’s particularly interested in post-industrial adaptive reuse and how such projects influence existing urban fabrics. She enjoys going to art exhibitions and traveling different cities.

Lamice Halaby

Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Student

Lamice is a Lebanese/American citizen with a background in political science and urban design. Currently she is a master of city planning candidate at MIT. She worked briefly as an Advisor in the United Nations for the Committee on Human Rights and the ECOSOC chamber. Later branched out into real estate and urban development strategies. She has since then worked in Gensler’s Community Studio 1 in DC to work on large scale urban design and planning projects. She has an interdisciplinary approach to all projects with an aim to bring the aspect of livability and wellness to the forefront. She graduated from the Southern California Institute of Architecture in September 2018 in advance urbanism and design of cities. After graduation she rejoined Gensler in the New York office as a research strategist and specialist for Gensler’s new Cities Index.

Mora Orensanz

Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Student

Prior to joining DUSP-MIT, Mora studied Architecture in the UNLP (National University of La Plata) in Argentina. Once graduated she collaborated with the Institute of Research on Policies of the Built Environment. In 2017, Mora started working in Balmori Associates New York, a firm focused on landscape and urban design. She worked on large-scale landscape and urban transformation projects including the Tucuman Airport in Argentina and the Bellevue Grand Connection Plan in Washington. She is interested in understanding urban growth patterns and how social dynamics unfold in cities.

Angeles Martinez

Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Student

Angeles Martinez is first-year masters student from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology [MIT]. Before joining MIT, she worked at the World Bank Group for the Global Program for Safer Schools. She has participated in the design and implementation of seismic resilient and safer school activities in Colombia, El Salvador, and Peru. Prior to joining the World Bank, she worked at the Ministry of Education in Peru that was leading the development and approval of “The first National Plan for School Infrastructure” of over US$30 billion. Now, she is interested in the intersection of spatial analysis and the use of data to optimize urban services to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. She holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru.

Deniz Gemici

Politecnico di Torino – Student

He is studied three years Computer Engineering in (METU) Middle East Technical University (Ankara/Turkey) + Politecnico di Torino then, made an internal transfer to Architecture department to achieve my life long dream. While studying “City and Territory Studio” course in his second academic year at Politecnico di Torino, he develops a keen interest in the interaction between “Life between buildings” and their design, he finds this very intriguing and exciting, specifically its influence in world architecture today.

Alp Arda

Politecnico di Torino – Student

Ziyi Nie

Politecnico di Torino – Student

Nie Ziyi comes from South China University of Technology and is now studying in politecnico as exchange student. In this semester I’ve have a peek of the story of urban design in post industrial area in a way that was with little restraint conditions and hope to learn more about the “true story”. I’m really looking forward to this workshop.

Heqi Li

Politecnico di Torino – Student

Heqi is currently a bachelor in Architecture second-year student at Politecnico di Torino. Before coming to Italy as an international exchange student, she studied in Urban Planning for one year at the South University of China in Guangzhou. She is interested in travelling to different cities and understanding how their urban fabrics interact with people’s activities.

Afsaneh Tayebi

Politecnico di Torino – Student

Afsaneh Tayebi is a second-year student of architecture in Politecnico di Torino in bachelor degree. When she graduated from high school, she worked for 2 years in an interior design office and then she decided to immigrate to the country which in her mind is the mother of art, Italy. At this moment she lives in Borsellino residence and she would like to continue her education as an urban planner.

Sahar Naz Taleb Nezhad

Politecnico di Torino – Student

Sahar Naz is an architect from Iran. She received her bachelor degree in Architectural Engineering in Guilan University(Iran,2016) while cooperating as an assistant in the research project Identity in Guilan Province (case study: Lahijan and Rasht Cities). Started working as an architect and designer in the capital (Tehran) and participating in different workshops, she became interested in urbanism, social sustainability and infrastructure . She is now studying architecture in sustainable design in Politecnico Di Torino seeking for a new vision in sustainable urban design.

Daphne Fabbri

Politecnico di Torino – Student

Daphne is a 24 y-o italian-american perfectionist from Florence (Italy). She is studying Sustainable Architecture in Turin, and she love art, theater and photography.

Aleksandra Wykrota

Politecnico di Torino – Student

She is an Erasmus student at Master program at Politecnico di Torino with the Cracow University of Technology as her home university, where on Faculty of Architecture and Urban Design she did her bachelor thesis on a subject of public educational complex. Previously, she had a chance to take part in exchange program at Politecnico di Milano. For last five years simultaneously with studies, she was gaining experience in multiple architecture offices (regarding the interior design, technical details and urban spaces). She used to be a member of CUT Architecture Students Association “Green Grow” resulting in public conferences and publications. Last year she took part in Caribbean Winter School where the redeveloping new strategies for urban issues for Havana was the crucial goal of the workshop. She main trigger in architecture is examining the human needs, conditions and potential development and taking it as a key factor in steering the design process.

Mateusz Ryjak

Politecnico di Torino – Student

Mateus is a Master Erasmus student from Cracow. In Poland he attends the course of architecture and urban design and industrial design. He worked as intern at BP Project studio for six mounths collaborating in some international competitions. He hopes to deep the topic of adapting re-use of industrial buildings (so numerous in this area) as opportunity for giving them new life.

Andrea Orellana

Politecnico di Torino – Student

Andrea Orellan was graduated at the University of Cuenca-Ecuador school of Architecture and Urbanism with a specialty in Heritage Restoration. Also, she studied an international specialized diploma in architecture and interior in Latin American school of Innovation,  ELIAD- Peru.  After graduation, her first steps in the professional career were on Architectural Conservation focused on modern architecture and Heritage. Currently she is enrolled in the Master Of Science Architecture for the Sustainable Design. Her experience with Architecture  has been a process that approach and immerse her through the reflections and thoughts of different architecture disciplines and people  that she has had the opportunity to listen, observe and reflect . She is passionate to understand the richness, senses and reflection that architecture mean.