Columbia GSAPP

The Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design MSAAD Arguments lecture series returns this summer with eight contributions engaging architecture through extraction economies, material assemblies, post-crisis urbanism, infrastructural and housing projects, and cinematic futures. Each guest shares a critical text in advance, using the lecture as a site for collective discussion and debate.

The Arguments lecture series is organized by MSAAD Director Lydia Kallipoliti and Associate Director Xiaoxi Chen

Arguments graphic identity by

Columbia GSAPP is pleased to announce the appointment of Neeraj Bhatia as Director of the M.S. in Architecture and Urban Design program and Associate Professor, effective July 2026.

“GSAPP’s Urban Design program has pioneered an ecological approach to the urban, and serves as a critical arena for testing and anticipating how the world operates,” highlights Dean Andrés Jaque. “Neeraj brings a rare ability to articulate design experimentation with climate, housing, spatial justice, governance, and the politics that organize collective life, while also ensuring that these investigations percolate beyond exhibitions and academic discourse into built realities, policy, and decision-making.”

Bhatia is one of the world’s leading voices in urban design today, particularly at the intersection of climate and housing urgencies. This appointment marks a significant moment for the program and reaffirms the School’s continued commitment to engaging territorial realities and infrastructural ecologies at the intersection of architecture and urbanism.

Bhatia succeeds Kate Orff following her transformative ten-year tenure as Director of the M.S. in Architecture and Urban Design program. A globally leading voice in landscape architecture and climate urbanism, Orff will continue to focus on the GSAPP global super studios and her strategic role in bridging GSAPP’s design strategy and action-oriented impulse with the scientific strengths of the Columbia Climate School.

We are thrilled to welcome Neeraj Bhatia to Columbia GSAPP.

Scenes from GSAPP’s inaugural Architecture Review Summit.

Students and instructors from Advanced Studios VI in conversation with Lucia Allais, David Benjamin, Håvard Breivik-Khan, Johnny Chiu, Christopher Gardner, James Heard, Kian Hosseinnia, Stella Ioannidou, Ziad Jamaleddine, Ateya Khorakiwala, Reinhold Martin, James Nanasca, Amelyn Ng, Phuongminh Nguyen, Alessandro Orsini, Lasse Rau, Lidia Ratoi, Lindy Roy, Mahdi Sabbagh, Regina Teng, Dimitra Tsachrelia Holl, Anthony Vanky, Adam Vosburgh, Michael Wang, Mark Wigley, among others.

The half-day laboratory of exchange served as the culminating moment of the reviews, bringing all projects into a shared setting where students presented their work, compared approaches, and situated the studios’ investigations in dialogue with critics across studios and disciplines from GSAPP and beyond.

The Review summit is organized by the Directors and Associate Directors of M.Arch and AAD programs: Lydia Kallipoliti , Marc Tsurumaki , Xiaoxi Chen , and Darwin Eng .