Mission of SCE
Encompassing a unique confluence of design disciplines, the School of Constructed Environments nurtures and guides tomorrow’s leaders in socially and environmentally sustainable, technologically innovative buildings, interiors, lighting, and products. In a time of unprecedented change, we foster the skills, values, and vision vital to creative thinking and the realization of a more integrated, equitable and delightful world.
Student and Alumni News
Faculty Eva Perez de Vega and her M.Arch Design Studio 1 students participate in the Gingerbread City exhibition at Southstreet Seaport Museum, Invited by the Museum of Architecture
Come see the structures and landscapes built out of gingerbread and other edible (compostable!) treats, for the “Urban Flooding” theme of the exhibition. at The Seaport from 18 November 2023 until 7 January 2024 About the Exhibit: The Gingerbread City® is a city of the future, designed and constructed entirely from …
MFA Lighting Design Graduate, Lydia Simpson ’23, Wins IESNYC Thesis Award
Congratulations to 2023 Thesis Award Recipient, Lydia Simpson ’23! Lydia Simpson is a recent graduate of the Parsons School of Design MFA Lighting Design program. She received a BFA in Design and Technology for Theater from the University of North Georgia and worked as a Lighting Designer in Atlanta …
Faculty News
Victoria Benatar Appointed to NY AIA Board of Directors
SCE faculty, Victoria Benatar, was recently appointed to the NY AIA Board of Directors! Read more here.
EXD Architecture Featured on WORLD’S GREATEST at Bloomberg TV
EXD ARCHITECTURE, directed by SCE faculty member Victoria Benatar, was recently featured on Bloomberg TV’s World’s Greatest. WHO IS EXD? Based in the ever-changing city of New York, Victoria Benatar and Michelle Cianfaglione founded EXD ARCHITECTURE to use design to analyze dualities in the city, which they translate into ‘layered’ …
School News
Nishan Kazazian Presents Forthcoming Book at Material Eco-systems: Digital, Physical, and Cultural Assemblies Symposium in Venice, November ’23
SCE would like to recognize and celebrate the achievements of one of our own faculty members, Nishan Kazazian, who was invited to present his forthcoming book, OSMOTIC BONDING: Art & Architecture, in Venice at an esteemed symposium on material eco-systems. Read about the experience written in his own words below: …
Brian McGrath: Conversation between Design and Environmental Sciences: Waterscape Urbanism and the City as an Ecosystem
Brian McGrath and Danai Thaitakoo’s collaborative and respective works have opened up a new approach to seeing and designing a city as part of wider ecological processes mediated by water flow. The architects’ engagement with environmental sciences — landscape ecology and hydrology in particular — has contributed to the emerging …
Special Projects
Street Seats
In spring 2016, undergraduate students from The New School’s Parsons School of Design, Eugene Lang College, and Schools of Public Engagement collaborated with the NYC DOT on the City’s Street Seats initiative as part of the “Design Build” course.
Design Workshop
The Design Workshop is an innovative studio that provides pro bono architectural and construction services to nonprofit organizations while giving graduate architecture, interior design and lighting design students the rare opportunity to both design and build a community facility.
Publications
Announcing the Class of 2023 Metropolis Future100 Honorees
Each year, Metropolis sets out to designate the top graduating architecture and interior design students in the United States and Canada. The program, sponsored by Armstrong, Daltile, Formica, Interface, Kawneer, Keilhauer, Sherwin-Williams, and Yabu Pushelberg, invited the most talented students from the class of 2023 to apply. “Supporting the next …
David Gissen: The Architecture of Disability
David Gissen is a professor of Architecture and Urban History at Parsons School of Design. He is a New York based author, designer, and educator working in the fields of architecture, landscape, and urban design. This year, David taught the Masters of Architecture option studio, “The One-Story City,” and …
Events
SCE Shared Facilities
Light + Energy Lab
makingcenter.parsons.edu/labs/light-lab
The Light + Energy Lab is a space designed for light manipulation to simulate sunlight effects on architectural models. This can be done using our two primary tools – the Diffuse Sky Simulator and the Heliodon. The DSS is a large chamber that can be used to analyze diffuse light …
The Donghia healthier Materials Library
healthymaterialslab.org/donghia
The Donghia healthier Materials Library at Parsons School of Design is a resource center dedicated to helping designers make responsible materials decisions. With curated product collections and frameworks for evaluating materials, we offer guiding strategies and hands- on examples of products making positive impacts on human health, environmental justice, and …
Parsons Making Center
makingcenter.parsons.edu
The Making Center, a spacious studio bringing together creative tools from around the university, offers students unprecedented opportunities to acquire industry-ready skills, transform how products are made, and upend conventional notions of supply chains, local production, mass customization, and craft. Sharing this 26,000 square-foot space, students from all Parsons programs …