Taubman College El Hadi Jazairy, associate professor of architecture and director of the master of urban design degree program, has been recognized with a 2023 Graham Foundation Grant along with Rania Ghosn, associate professor of architecture and urbanism at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Jazairy’s partner at DESIGN EARTH. The Graham Foundation recognized DESIGN EARTH for the project “Elephant in the Room,” a series of fables that addresses the elephant in the room—the climate crisis—by animating charismatic figures from natural history museums. In short films and a picture book, the speculative afterlives of these figures stir up potent trouble on the breath-taking capture of life in the Anthropocene to ask how cultural institutions may be responsible to calls for decolonization and decarbonization.
The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, founded in 1956, fosters the development and exchange of diverse and challenging ideas about architecture and its role in the arts, culture, and society. In 2023, the foundation awarded 64 new grants, selected from approximately 500 submissions to individuals working to realize innovative and interdisciplinary ideas that contribute critical perspectives on architecture and design. More information is available on the Graham Foundation’s website.
