Melanie Fessel
Melanie Fessel is Principal of Terreform X, Director of Design at Terreform ONE, and Professor at the RheinMain University of Applied Sciences. Melanie is a member of the urbanthinktank_next network. She was Lecturer and Doctoral Researcher at ETH Zurich, Chair of Architecture and Urban Design, and Head of Continuing Education at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. Previously, she headed Design Development Alice Aycock Ltd., Member at ONE LAB, Editor of Ecogram, and Associate Fellow at Cooper Union Institute for Sustainable Design. Her awards include; LafargeHolcim Acknowledgement Prize, AIA New York Urban Design Merit Award, Zumtobel Award, and Victor Papanek Social Design Award. She curated Designing Urban Imaginaries, 9th Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (UABB) Shenzhen, China. She co-curated Vienna Biennale for Change 2021, MAK Museum for Applied Arts. She co-authored “Ecotarium: Unlimited Lifecycle Design” (Moncaster Press). Her work has been published in; “Transitioning to Sustainable Cities and Communities” (MDPI), “Design with Life: Biotech Architecture and Resilient Cities” (Actar), “XXL-XS New Directions in Ecological Design” (Actar), and “Architecture of Nature: Nature of Architecture” (Applied Research & Design). Melanie received a Dr.sc. ETH Zurich, M.Arch at Cooper, Dipl.- Ing. at Technical University of Berlin and Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.
Mitchell Joachim
Mitchell Joachim, PhD, Assoc. AIA, Co-Founder of Terreform ONE and an Associate Professor of Practice at NYU. Formerly, he was an architect at the offices of Frank Gehry and I.M. Pei. He has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and fellowships with TED, Moshe Safdie, and Martin Society for Sustainability, MIT. He was chosen by Wired magazine for "The Smart List” and selected by Rolling Stone for “The 100 People Who Are Changing America”. Mitchell won many honors including; Lafarge Holcim Acknowledgement Award, Ove Arup Foundation Grant, ARCHITECT R+D Award, AIA New York Urban Design Merit Award, 1st Place International Architecture Award, Victor Papanek Social Design Award, Zumtobel Group Award for Sustainability, Architizer A+ Award, History Channel Infiniti Award for City of the Future, and Time magazine’s Best Invention with MIT Smart Cities. He's featured as “The NOW 99” in Dwell magazine and “50 Under 50 Innovators of the 21st Century” by Images Publishers. He co-authored four books, “Design with Life: Biotech Architecture and Resilient Cities,” “XXL-XS: New Directions in Ecological Design,” “Super Cells: Building with Biology,” and “Global Design: Elsewhere Envisioned”. His design work has been exhibited at MoMA and the Venice Biennale. He earned: PhD at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MAUD Harvard University, M.Arch Columbia University.