Empowering Frontline Communities
Professor Mazerreuw is an associate professor of architecture and urbanism in MIT’s Department of Architecture in the School of Architecture and Planning, and director of MIT’s Urban Risk Lab. Mazereeuw researches disaster resilience, climate change, and coastal strategies.
Department:
Department of Architecture
Research Laboratory:
Urban Risk Lab
Groups and Centers:
Morningside Academy of Design
MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI)
MIT Climate & Sustainability Consortium (MCSC)
MIT News:
Prepared to be prepared
Collaborative effort supports an MIT resilient to the impacts of extreme heat
Preparing Communities for Disaster (video)
MIT announces five flagship projects in first-ever Climate Grand Challenges competition
Reducing Disaster Risks by Design
Short Bio:
Miho Mazereeuw is the MIT Climate Mission Director for Empowering Frontline Communities. Trained as an architect and landscape architect, she is an associate professor in the School of Architecture and Planning at MIT and is the associate head of Strategy and Equity in the department. Mazereeuw taught at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University and the University of Toronto. She worked in the offices of Shigeru Ban and Dan Kiley as well as the Office for Metropolitan Architecture in Rotterdam prior to joining the MIT faculty.
Mazereeuw also leads the Urban Risk Lab, which focuses on designing resilient cities that are prepared for climate risks such as flooding, cyclones, and heat stress. The multi-disciplinary team engages in action research through extensive field work and community workshops both locally and abroad to meet the needs of diverse cultures and contexts. The Urban Risk Lab aspires to change the course of current global development trends through a radical shift in education and action with the goal of increasing resilience and proactively embedding preparedness in this rapidly urbanizing world.
Her forthcoming book, Design Before Disaster: Japan's Culture of Preparedness, is being published by the University of Virginia Press in early 2025.