Zachary Lamb

Urban spatial politics, ecological design, and uneven vulnerability to environmental hazards, particularly hazards associated with climate change.

Zachary Lamb is an assistant professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning. His research focuses on the role of urban planning and design in shaping uneven vulnerability and resilience in the face of climate change.

In 2018, Professor Lamb completed his PhD at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. His dissertation focused on the role of design in shaping urban flood infrastructure and the changing spatial politics of urban flooding through two case study cities, New Orleans, Louisiana and Dhaka, Bangladesh. His current book project, Making and Unmaking the Dry City, focuses on the historical evolution and contemporary problems of flood mitigation in these two cities. After completing his PhD, Professor Lamb was selected to be a Princeton Mellon Fellow in Urbanism and the Environment. Professor Lamb is also the co-founder of Crookedworks, a design-build firm that uses collaborative design and building projects to tackle complex urban challenges, including food security, cross-species living, and climate-change hazards. Professor Lamb completed his Masters of Architecture at MIT in 2010 and received his Bachelors of Art in Art History and Practice and Environmental Studies from Williams College in 2002.

CYPLAN 140: Urban Design: City-Building and Place-Making (Fall 2020)

Mellon Fellow in Urbanism and the Environment, Princeton University

2024. The Equitably Resilient City: Solidarities and Struggles in the Face of Climate Crisis. Zachary Lamb and Lawrence Vale, MIT Press, October 1, 2024.

2019. “The Politics of Designing with Nature: Reflections from New Orleans and Dhaka.” Zachary Lamb. Socio-Ecological Practice Research, June 18, 2019.

2019. Connecting the Dots: The Origins and Evolutions of the Map that Changed Post- Katrina Recovery and Climate Adaptation Planning in New Orleans. In Louisiana’s Response to Extreme Weather – A Test Case for Coastal Resilience. (Shirley Laska, Editor), Springer.

2019. Pursuing Resilient Urban Design: Equitably merging green and gray strategies. Zachary Lamb and Lawrence Vale, In Sequel to Companion to Urban Design. (Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris and Tridib Banerjee, Editors), Routledge.

2018. The Batture Effect. Carey Clouse and Zachary Lamb. Landscape Journal. Vol. 36, No. 1, p. 1-13.

2017. From the Cold War to the Warmed Globe: Planning, Design-Policy Entrepreneurism, and the Crises of Nuclear Weapons and Climate Change. Zachary Lamb and Larry Vale, Planning Perspectives.

2016. Equity Impacts of Urban Land Use Planning for Climate Adaptation: Critical Perspectives from the Global North and South. With Anguelovski, Shi, Chu, Gallagher, Goh, Reeve, Teicher. Journal of Planning Education and Research. Vol. 36, No. 3, September 2016.

2014. Urban Emergency. In Farming Cuba: Urban Agriculture from the Ground Up. Carey Clouse, Editor. Princeton Architectural Press.

2013. Post-Crisis: Embracing Public Service Architecture with Humility. Carey Clouse and Zachary Lamb, Journal of Architectural Education. Vol 67, No. 2.

2013. Design-Build and Community Advocacy: Teaching to Broaden the Design Profession. Carey Clouse and Zachary Lamb, ii. Vol. 1. Spring 2013.

2005. Mapping Indigenous Lands. Mac Chapin, Bill Threlkeld, and Zachary Lamb. Annual Review of Anthropology, October 2005.