DESIGN EARTH

Rania Ghosn (@_rghosn ) is an associate professor at @mitarchitecture , where she directs the post-professional urbanism program. She is also a partner at @_designearth , an internationally recognized studio practice that deploys the speculative architectural project to make public the climate crisis. She is the co-author of Geographies of Trash (2015), Geostories: Another Architecture for the Environment (3rd ed. 2022; 2018), The Planet After Geoengineering (2021), and Climate Inheritance (2023). Rania is also a recipient of the United States Artist Fellowship, Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers, and Faculty Design Awards. Today on #MadameArchitect, Rania talks to Julia Gamolina (@julia.gamolina ) about research, world-making, a new language for architecture and humor. Link in our bio and stories. Pictured here: 1. Rania Ghosn by M. Scott Brauer. 2. DESIGN EARTH, “Cosmorama,” United States Pavilion, Venice Architecture Biennale, 2018. Photograph: Tom Harris @tomharrisphotography 3. DESIGN EARTH, “Climate Inheritance,” Bauhaus Museum Dessau, 2021. #architecture #climate #designearth #mitarchitecture

ماذا يحدث عندما نحاول هندسة المناخ؟ ‎يصور فيلم «الكوكب بعد الهندسة الجيولوجية» لـ«ديزاين إيرث» كوكبنا بعد تطبيق خمس تقنيات مناخية تكهنية. عبر رسوم متحركة سردية، يضع الفيلم طموحاتنا في التحكم بالكوكب في سياق تاريخي مع مشاريع التحكم في المناخ. — What happens when we try to engineer the climate? The Planet After Geoengineering by Design Earth portrays Earth following the deployment of five speculative technologies. Through stunning animation, the film contextualizes our planetary control ambitions against the backdrop of historical climate-control projects. See it up at #OfTheEarth @dafmoc

“Planet After Geoengineering” is in “Of the Earth,” now open at Diriyah Art Futures. The exhibition runs through 16 May 2026. Curated by Irini Papadimitriou, Of the Earth explores the complex and entangled relationships between technology and the natural world, hybrid ecologies, and extractivism, while inviting us to sense the world with renewed attention, recognizing that futures we craft will depend on acknowledging our place within, not above, the vast networks of life that shape our planet. @dafmoc @irini_mirena

⏱️ Last chance to visit Cosmograph before the exhibition closes on January 25, 2026 at the MIT Museum. Over the show’s 16-month run, we have been lucky to host colleagues, students, friends, DE team members, and family. Thank you to everyone who visited. We captured some visits (when we remembered!) and these candid snapshots, however blurry, extend that sweet memory. 🙏🏽 We give thanks to all those who made this exhibition possible — Leila W. Kinney, Evan Ziporyn, Ann Neuman, Michael John Gorman, Debbie Douglas, and all the staff of CAST and MIT Museum. ✨Cosmograph: Speculative Fictions for the New Space Age brings together 4 projects that examine how planetary-scale technologies — such as space mining, geo-engineering, and orbital infrastructure — reshape life on Earth and beyond. From space elevators to asteroid mining, the exhibition blurs the line between fact and fiction to ask urgent questions about who designs the next space age — and at what cost. @mitmuseum | @Artsatmit | @mitsap | @mitarchitecture

Introducing @_designearth , leading ‘Brava!’ as part of the 🟡 International Emerging Workshop. [2/2] DESIGN EARTH is a design research practice directed by Rania Ghosn (@_rghosn ) and El Hadi Jazairy. They are recipients of the United States Artist Fellowship and the Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers. Their work has been featured internationally, including at the Venice Biennale, SFMOMA and is in the New York Museum of Modern Art permanent collection. The studio deploys the speculative project — drawing and narrative — to make public the climate crisis. 💡 The workshop ‘Brava!’ extends this practice, examining the environmental heritage of the Mediterranean coast. → The International Emerging Workshop will take place in Barcelona from 🗓️ 19 to 27 June 2026. Participants will engage in collaborative explorations through studio work, site visits and open exchanges. The results of the work will be exhibited during the UIA World Congress of Architects 2026. Interested in applying? Find all details at 🔗 uia2026bcn.org → The UIA World Congress of Architects 2026 Barcelona is organised by the International Union of Architects (@uia_architects ) through the Higher Council of Professional Associations of Architects of Spain (@cscae ) and the Architects’ Association of Catalonia (@coacatalunya ). UIA2026BCN receives institutional support and is funded by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda (@viviendagob ), the Government of Catalonia (@territoricat ), and the Barcelona City Council (@barcelona_cat ). #UIA2026BCN #Becoming #Barcelona2026 @bcn_arquitectura Project images: 1. Cosmorama, DESIGN EARTH. 2. Climate Inheritance, DESIGN EARTH. 3. The Planet After Geoengineering, DESIGN EARTH. 4. Pacific Aquarium, DESIGN EARTH. 5. After Oil, DESIGN EARTH.

Introducing ‘Brava!’, a studio led by @_designearth as part of the 🟡 International Emerging Workshop. [1/2] The Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona is a prominent institution preserving over 130 years of natural history heritage. One of its most emblematic pieces is “Brava”, a 20-meter-long skeleton of a whale beached on the Costa Brava, in 1862. Since the 1950s, Costa Brava tourism has taken over from fishing as the principal economy, fundamentally changing the region's relationship with the sea and marine life. 💭 How to address the climate crisis by animating charismatic figures from natural history museums? In what ways can we identify and leverage figures from the collections all while unsettling the museum apparatus? The workshop will curate a media archive on the specimen, museum, city and region. Participants will focus on the cultural prehistory, present and speculative futures of the Mediterranean coast and of marine life, animating the fragmentary remains of such creatures. → The International Emerging Workshop will take place in Barcelona from 🗓️ 19 to 27 June 2026. Participants will engage in collaborative explorations through studio work, site visits and open exchanges. The results of the work will be exhibited during the UIA World Congress of Architects 2026. Interested in applying? Find all details at 🔗 uia2026bcn.org → The UIA World Congress of Architects 2026 Barcelona is organised by the International Union of Architects (@uia_architects ) through the Higher Council of Professional Associations of Architects of Spain (@cscae ) and the Architects’ Association of Catalonia (@coacatalunya ). UIA2026BCN receives institutional support and is funded by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda (@viviendagob ), the Government of Catalonia (@territoricat ), and the Barcelona City Council (@barcelona_cat ). #UIA2026BCN #Becoming #Barcelona2026 @bcn_arquitectura Images: 1. DESIGN EARTH’s portrait 2. Whale Song, DESIGN EARTH. 3. Elephant in the Room, DESIGN EARTH.

🌍✨ Climate Inheritance reimagines UNESCO World Heritage sites as storytellers of the climate crisis — from Venice’s rising tides to Galápagos extinctions. Through speculative drawings + mythologies, DESIGN EARTH reveals how heritage carries not just the past… but futures shaped by rising seas, displacement, and extractive histories. What will we inherit from the Anthropocene? 🌀 #ClimateInheritance #DesignEarth #WorldHeritage #ClimateCrisis #speculativedesign

INDA Public Lecture We’re thrilled to welcome DESIGN EARTH for a compelling lecture. Geostories: Speculative Fiction for the Climate 🌍 How can the architectural imagination help us grasp the complexities of Earth systems amidst a climate crisis? Through drawing and narrative, DESIGN EARTH invites us into planetary fictions that challenge how we think, design, and inhabit this shared world. 📅 Date and Time Tuesday, 24 June 2025 17:30–19:00 📍Venue Library Auditorium, Faculty of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University Lecture is open to the public. Founded by Rania Ghosn & El Hadi Jazairy, DESIGN EARTH’s work has been exhibited globally—from the Venice Biennale to MoMA—and continues to push the boundaries of environmental design discourse.

“Elephant in the Room” Storyboard. Project Team: Rania Ghosn & El Hadi Jazairy, Anhong Li, Monica Hutton. #BiennaleArchitettura2025#americanmuseumofnaturalhistory #elephantintheroom @monicabritthutton @rubyann_li @_rghosn @museumsforclimateaction

“Elephant in the Room TalkBox” is in “The Next Earth”— an exhibition presented by Antikythera in collaboration with MIT Architecture —as part of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. The “Elephant in the Room Talkbox” is a climate fable, spoken in the voice of Donna Haraway and dressed in architecture-parlante clothing. The box flattens the initial animation structure of a shot/counter-shot along the mirror-selfie at the back of the box. The project addresses the elephant in the room—the climate crisis—by telling the story of one African elephant matriarch, from her capture, iconic staging through her ultimate break away from the American Museum of Natural History. “Elephant in the Room” is the pilot animation in the eponymous DESIGN EARTH ecofeminist climate fables. DESIGN EARTH Exhibition Team: Rania Ghosn & El Hadi Jazairy, Celia Chaussabel (installation), Jabari Canada (sound). Elephant in the Room: Rania Ghosn & El Hadi Jazairy, Anhong Li, Monica Hutton (storyboard, script, animation). Narrated by Donna Haraway MIT Architecture Climate Work is curated by Nicholas de Monchaux, Ana Miljacki, Calvin Zhong. 📍 Palazzo Diedo 🗓️ 10.05 – 23.11.2025 #BiennaleArchitettura2025 #TheNextEarth #MITArchitecture #DonnaHaraway #LaBiennaleDiVenezia #americanmuseumofnaturalhistory #elephantintheroom #grahamfunded @mitarchitecture @chaussa_belly @jabari.mov @monicabritthutton @rubyann_li @_rghosn

“A World Previous to Ours,” A selection from the media archive; one image per chapter/niche: 1. A drawing of a fossil molar tooth of the “Ohio animal” from North America, sent to Cuvier in 1801 by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach of Gottingen. From: Martin Rudwick, “Georges Cuvier’s paper museum of fossil bones.” 2. Charles Willson Peale, The Exhumation of the Mastodon, 1806–1808. 3. Superstudio, Niagara o l’architettura riflessa, 1970. 4. Hallowed Hills. Indian burial mounds, such as this one excavated in 1850 near the Mississippi River, varied in height and dimension. (Saint Louis Art Museum). 5. “Preuves de la théorie de la Terre,” in the Buffon Museum, Montbard, Côte-d’Or, France. 6. Jean-François Daumont, View and Perspective of Menagerie of Versailles, 1676-1722. 7. Athanasius Kircher, “Entry of animals,” Arca Noe, 1675. 8. Barge of Beasts. Sinclair’s Dinoland dinosaurs at 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair. Credit: John Orris / The New York Times (1963) 9. Mars Yellow and Yellow Ochre. Natural Pigments DE Project Team: Rania Ghosn & El Hadi Jazairy; Ekin Bilal (Design, 3D Model), Monica Hutton (Text), Jabari Canada (Sound), Qilmeg Doudatcz (web interface), Joyce Tullis (prototype). With Support from: Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning MIT Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Grant Princeton School of Architecture @_rghosn @ekinbilal @monicabritthutton @jabari.mov @chillmeggg @umich.taubmancollege @mitarchitecture @mitsap @artsatmit @princetonarchitecture #biennalearchitettura2025

“A World Previous to Ours” Beginning with the Mastodon tooth drawing through which Georges Cuvier articulated his theory of extinction, DESIGN EARTH constructs a sectional model of a stratified earth, into which is inserted a series of cavities that bring attention to missing narratives from the historical record. You can listen to the fable , narrated by Sylvia Lavin at the link in bio. 1. Big Bone Lick 2. Niagara Femur 3. Monticello Jaw 4. White House Fangs 5. Menagerie Trunks 6. Evolution Ribs 7. Mission Extinction DE Project Team: Rania Ghosn & El Hadi Jazairy; Ekin Bilal (Design, 3D Model), Monica Hutton (Text), Jabari Canada (Sound), Qilmeg Doudatcz (web interface), Joyce Tullis (prototype). With Support from: Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning MIT Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Grant Princeton School of Architecture @_rghosn @ekinbilal @monicabritthutton @jabari.mov @chillmeggg @umich.taubmancollege @mitarchitecture @mitsap @artsatmit @princetonarchitecture #biennalearchitettura2025