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Harvard Graduate School of Design

Housing, urban, and community design are important factors in the social determinants of health. At the Graduate School of Design (GSD) at Harvard University, architecture, design, and urban planning students are regularly engaged in a broad range of projects relevant to global health and sustainable development, such as designing sanitation or energy generating facilities for resource-poor settings, evaluating social media in urban networks, and developing “green” communities. The Health topic portal at the GSD website also showcases additional ways that design and health are related. 

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Featured Media

This conversation between GSD Lecturer Matthew Kiefer and Adele Houghton, an instructor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH), focuses on how public health tools, such as health situation analysis, can be leveraged in thinking about urban development projects and their impact on communities. The discussion focuses on the links between real estate development and public health, how to use neighborhood health data in the design process, and how development can respond to the needs of communities—using a site in Roxbury, MA, as a case study.

Featured Course

This spring 2024 seminar, taught by Gareth Doherty, examines how landscapes are shaped across the African continent, focusing on how architecture can mitigate the impacts of climate change and social injustices. In collaboration with landscape architecture programs and practitioners from across the African continent, the course will delve into current landscape practices in various African cities and discuss the role of architecture in the face of rapid environmental change.