American architect
Mitchell Joachim (pronounced /jo-ak-um/; born February 3, 1972) is an architect and urban designer. He is the Co-Founder of Terreform ONE, and an Associate Professor of Practice at NYU.[1] Previously he was the Frank Gehry Chair at University of Toronto[2] and a faculty member at Pratt, Columbia, Syracuse, Washington, The New School, and the European Graduate School.[3]
Most of Joachim's projects employ innovative platforms and methods based on living biological matter for fabrication and design purposes. Rather than merely drawing inspiration from nature (not biomimicry), these materials are altered, coaxed, or engineered to function in ways that stay living and breathing within the environment.
Early life and education
Mitchell Joachim was born in New Jersey to Henry and Ellen Joachim. Henry, a passionate painter, owned a small wood furniture manufacturing business. Ellen, Mitchell’s mother, played a pivotal role in his upbringing, guiding him alongside Henry. In the late '70s, seeking a better quality of life, his parents moved from Manhattan to the suburbs of New Jersey. This relocation blended the cultural richness of their New York City heritage with suburban stability, shaping Mitchell's development and nurturing his passions and interests under the guidance of his parents’ entrepreneurial spirit and artistic inclination.
He earned a Ph.D.[4] at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the Dept. of Architecture, Design and Computation program [1], a Master of Architecture in Urban Design (MAUD) at Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), a M.Arch at Columbia University GSAPP, and a BPS at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York with Honors.
Awards and recognition
Mitchell has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, LafargeHolcim Foundation Award,[5] ARCHITECT R+D Award,[6] Senior Fellowship at TED 2011,[7] Moshe Safdie and Assoc. Fellowship, and Martin Society for Sustainability Fellowship at MIT. He won the Zumtobel Group Award,[8] History Channel and Infiniti Design Excellence Award for the City of the Future, and Time Magazine Best Invention of the Year 2007, MIT Car w/ MIT Smart Cities.[9] His project, Fab Tree Hab, has been exhibited at MoMA and widely published. He was selected by Wired magazine for "The 2008 Smart List: 15 People the Next President Should Listen To".[10] Rolling Stone magazine honored Mitchell as an agent of change in "The 100 People Who Are Changing America". In 2009 he was interviewed on the Colbert Report[11] Popular Science magazine has featured his work as a visionary for “The Future of the Environment” in 2010.[12] Mitchell was the Winner of the Victor Papanek Social Design Award[13] sponsored by the University of Applied Arts Vienna, the Austrian Cultural Forum New York, and the Museum of Arts and Design in 2011. Dwell magazine featured Mitchell as one of "The NOW 99" in 2012.[14] He won the American Institute of Architects New York, Urban Design Merit Award for; Terreform ONE, Urbaneer Resilient Waterfront Infrastructure, 2013.[15]
