Farzana Gandhi is a registered architect in New York and a LEED accredited professional. Her architecture practice, Farzana Gandhi Design Studio, focuses on sustainable and socially conscious solutions, both locally and abroad. At New York Tech, she has been teaching introductory, advanced, and thesis-level architecture design studios, research-driven design-build elective courses, and visualization seminars.
Gandhi is most interested in how widespread social impact can be achieved by rethinking the relationship between architecture and its environmental, cultural, and socioeconomic framework. By acting at the intersection of multiple disciplines, a single intervention has potential to act as a catalyst for systemic change. Her community outreach work in places like Dakar, Senegal, and Puerto Rico is driven by inquiry, investigation, and integration. She continues to bring this unique approach to design to the classroom, where her students are invited to tackle multi-layered, real-world problems and collaborate to test new dimensions of practice.
Gandhi and her colleagues were recently featured in an episode of Horizons, a BBC worldwide television show, for their patented, climate-appropriate, disaster-relief roof system. Her work in teaching, research, and practice has been recognized with several awards and has been widely exhibited and published.
Gandhi earned a master's degree in architecture with distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. At the University of Pennsylvania, she graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor of arts in architecture, as well as a bachelor of arts in Spanish with distinction.
Recent Projects/Research
- AppDock for Africa, Dakar, Senegal: Interactive outdoor classroom + support infrastructure to promote mobile app literacy and rural outreach
- Community Beach Pavilion, Puerto Rico: Picnic space, shade structure, and changing room facility to instigate interest for larger-scale community improvement and development
- The Home2O Roof System: Patented roof construction system that up-cycles post-consumer plastic water bottles and shipping pallets as disaster relief shelter in sub-tropical climates
- Mobile Wellness Unit, Brooklyn, NY: A public space intervention that educates the local community in healthy living practices
- Flexible City, Brooklyn, NY: High-density development offering maximum flexibility through a separation of inhabitable spaces and infrastructure
Publications
- Gandhi, Farzana + Altwicker, Matthias. "Flexible City: Architecture as Infrastructure." ACSA Fall Conference: Between the Autonomous and Contingent Object Conference Proceedings, publication pending: October 2015. Print.
- Full Utility United States PATENT US2014/0007538 A1 - Interface Bracket for Attachment of Recyclable Vessels and Roofing Material Made Using Same. Published January 2015.
- Gandhi, Farzana + Altwicker, Matthias. Five Proposals for the Future of Atlantic Yards, September 2014: pages 4 – 13. Print exhibition catalog featuring Flexible City project.
- Gandhi, Farzana and Van Nest, Jason. "New Design-Build Directions: Training the Architect as a Product Designer." ACSA Fall Conference: Working Out Thinking While Building Conference Proceedings, October 2014. Print.
Honors and Awards
- BBC WORLD: Horizons Television series. The Home2O Roof System project featured in "Safe Shelter" episode, 2015, estimated 300 million household viewership
- National Association of Professional Women, selected for outstanding leadership and professional commitment
- One of three international architects invited to lead the 2013 Collective Architecture Workshop for public space interventions in San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Leadership Award for Sustainable Development + Design, in recognition of outstanding achievement and contribution in architecture + sustainable development, by Association for International Conferences
- Sylvia Harris Citizen Design Grant Finalist, for mobile wellness unit project
Courses Taught at New York Tech
- ARCH 501: Design VII Thesis Studio
- ARCH 502: Design VIII Thesis Studio
- ARCH 301: Design III Studio
- ARCH 302: Design IV Studio
- ARCH 201: Design I Studio
- ARCH 101: Design Fundamentals I Studio
- ARCH 102: Design Fundamentals II Studio
- ARCH 100: Exploring Architecture in Manhattan
- ARCH 140: Visualization I
- ARCH 240: Visualization II
- ARCH 340: Visualization III
- ARCH 291: Social Impact Design: Puerto Rico Community Design-Build
- ARCH 291: Social Impact Design: AppDock for Africa Design-Build
- ARCH 291: Digital Fabrication + Prototyping
- ARCH 291: Parametric Performance: Analysis and Design
- INDIA: Summer Abroad Design Studio