Share

Jazairy, Design Earth Receive 2022 United States Artists Fellowship

Design Earth, the architecture practice co-founded by Taubman College faculty member El Hadi Jazairy, is one of the 2022 recipients of the United States Artists (USA) Fellowship.

Described as “the creative disruptors, social sculptors, and material vanguards who ignite our imagination beyond limits,” winners of USA Fellowships receive $50,000 unrestricted awards in recognition of their contributions to their fields, including architecture and design, craft, film, writing, and dance, among others. The 2022 winners are 63 thinkers and makers who represent communities across 23 states and Puerto Rico, span every career stage, and illuminate a breadth of artistic practices.

Jazairy, who is the director of Taubman College’s Master of Urban Design program and an associate professor of architecture, is founding partner of the practice DESIGN EARTH with Rania Ghosn. His research investigates aesthetic forms of environmental engagement to visualize how urban systems transform the Earth. DESIGN EARTH has exhibited widely in venues such as the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Sharjah Biennial, the Times Museum in Guangzhou, and the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology in Lisbon. The work of DESIGN EARTH has been collected by the Museum of Modern Art and  has received prizes internationally, including the Architectural League of New York’s Prize for Young Architects + Designers, Jacques Rougerie Foundation’s First Prize, and Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Faculty Design Awards. 

e-flux banner
“The Planet After Geoengineering,” by DESIGN EARTH, was exhibited at the 2021 International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. 

In the midst of a climate crisis, DESIGN EARTH thinks with and against technologies that counteract the effects of anthropogenic climate change by deliberately intervening in Earth systems. Their contribution to the 2021 Venice Biennale, “The Planet After Geoengineering,” portrayed Earth following the deployment of five such technologies in a series of speculative fictions — Petrified Carbon, Arctic Albedo, Sky River, Sulfur Storm, and Dust Cloud — all while situating such promissory visions within a genealogy of climate-control projects ranging from 19th-century rainmaking machines and volcanic eruptions to Cold War military plans. 

“After another year of challenges brought on by the pandemic, artists continue uplifting those around them and investing in their communities,” the USA Fellowship committee said. “The 2022 USA Fellows were selected for their remarkable artistic vision and their commitment to community — both within their specific regions and discipline at large. These generative practitioners create objects, movements, narratives, spaces, and contexts that move our culture forward.”

Learn more about the USA Fellowship program and see the complete list of 2022 winners here.