Historic and contemporary architecture and urbanism of East Africa; globalization, postcolonialism, vernacular building traditions, and urban planning

I am a fifth-year PhD candidate in the Department of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, with a concentration in Environmental Design and Urbanism in Developing Countries. I study the historic and contemporary architecture and urbanism of East Africa, and my research interests include historic preservation, globalization, postcolonialism, vernacular building traditions, and urban planning. I carried out my dissertation fieldwork in Rwanda and Belgium in 2016-2017.

I received a Bachelor's degree in architecture from MIT in 2005, after which I worked for several years at a Boston architecture firm on a variety of architecture and historic preservation projects. While pursuing a Master of Architecture degree at Tulane University (2009 - 2011), I participated in a design-build studio to benefit a local non-profit, and became involved in many other community outreach initiatives based at the architecture school. My thesis project was a sustainable rice farm and fishery designed to revitalize both the economy and ecology of an endangered wetland community in Louisiana.

After graduating from Tulane, I was hired by a non-profit architecture design group to work in Rwanda on the renovation of a maternity hospital and the construction of doctors' houses. During my time in Rwanda, I created architectural drawings, oversaw the construction of four houses, designed and supervised works of infrastructure and landscape, and conducted interviews with local workers. I was immersed in the emerging field of architectural practice in Rwanda, in both the capital city of Kigali and a rural village in the mountains, and found a source of great inspiration for future research. 

Conference proceedings:

“The Fluidity of Scale and Time in Jože Plečnik’s Ljubljana.” European Association for Architectural Education/ Architectural Research Centers Consortium Conference, Milan, Italy, June 2012.