ELSA MH MÄKI

Leading long-term research projects and supervising team; initiating, designing, and installing exhibitions; managing public programs; organizing biennial and conference contributions; commissioning new artwork and scholarly writing; editing books and articles; supporting graduate and postdoctoral research; managing archives, administering research center operations, facilities, and endowment.

Editing bi-monthly journal of architecture since 2020; commissioning new work; supporting guest editorship, special projects, and annual essay prize.

Led design, client communication, and engagement for inclusive university and museum projects, with a focus on disability and culture. Project Coordinator for exhibits San Diego Museum of Art, WashU, Portland Community College. Contributor, “Making Inclusive Museums Now” report with the Architectural League of New York.

Program development and instruction, with Lindsay Harkema, for new summer design intensive supporting New York City high school students; pilot program supported by the IDC Foundation, led by Department Chair Karen Fairbanks.

Curriculum development and instruction for undergraduate architecture studio in the History of Art and Architecture Department, a joint program of Harvard College-Harvard GSD.

Project Manager for engagement, early design on Owámniyomni, a historic infrastructure/land transfer to Dakota tribes, with stakeholders City of Minneapolis, Owámniyomni Okhódayapi, Army Corps of Engineers, Minneapolis Parks and Recreation, Dakota Tribes of MN. Coordinated on Harvard summer design research team on immigration and belonging, partnered with the African Community Center of Lowell.

Supported creation of new design lab dedicated to architecture in Indigenous communities. Completed publication on Indigenous housing health and justice during COVID-19 pandemic, including drawing, writing, interviews, community engagement; participated in Enterprise Rose travel housing charrette.

Architectural studio syllabus development, criticism, technical tutorials across 6 semesters for: D'Oca, Siebold/Miley, Pezo von Ellrichshausen; Frances Loeb Architectural Library. Archival research on construction and materials for Andrew Holder.

Drafting for all design phases of public school projects. Initiated accessible design research for disability and inclusion in schools. Business development, RFP writing, client and community engagement across Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Master of Architecture

Harvard GSD

M.Arch I with Commendation, Doebele Fellowship, Dean's Merit Scholar; thesis 'Building Backwards' advised by Yasmin Vobis.

Bachelor of Arts in Architecture

Barnard+Columbia Architecture, Columbia University

Marcia Mead Design Award, Evans Traveling Fellowship, Avery Review Essay Prize, Pulitzer Prize, King's Crown Leadership Award, Magna cum laude.

Before you were here

Buell Center, Columbia GSAPP, New York

Design, research, project management, installation for 2-part multimedia exhibition on Columbia University's deep land history across Manhattan and beyond, led by Dr. Lucia Allais.

Dadaab Commons Residency

GoDown Arts Centre, Nairobi

“Jitternariya” (multimedia mapping-projection artwork) in exhibition curated by Anooradha Siddiqi; 2-year collaboration with Peterson Kamwathi, James Muriuki, Deqa Abshir, Abdulfatah Adam.

WASTE Residency

Kirkland Gallery, Harvard GSD, Cambridge

Created Post-Mortem: Queer Material Afterlives exhibition on model fabrication, waste, reuse with Aggie Fielding, Ardi Kulesa, Cory Page.

Ruines

Carriè d'Art, Nîmes

“10 Thousand Recollections” (architectural model) commissioned by Chris Gerard & Kelly for their first retrospective. Assembled with tobacco in situ.

Northern Spark Arts Festival

Hennepin County Library, Minneapolis

Immersive theater scenic design and construction for The Night Library with Rosylnna Hyles, Tamara Ausustmus, Dawn James D. Cutler and Grama, Andrea Fairbanks, Hope Flanagan.

Now What?! Advocacy, Activism, and Alliances in American Architecture Since 1968

Traveling exhibition, 11 cities in 3 countries

Contributed “Roadside Marker Series: An Interview with Dr. Alyssa Mt. Pleasant” on her long-term photography project.

"Future Fabrication and Traditions of Reuse"

Material Acts:

Chapter for exhibition book, Material Acts: Experimentation in Architecture and Design. Jia Yi Gu, Kate Yeh Chiu, Nick Axel, eds., for Oref” contemporary/ Getty PST exhibition and online by e-flux.

"Propping Up the Cloud"

Architectures of Care:

Chapter for volume Architectures of Care: From the Intimate to the Common, Brittany Utting, ed.

"On the Water"

The World Around: Land in Focus, Non-Extractive Architecture:

Introduction for TWA documentary series, Beatrice Galilee, ed. Chapter for volume Non-Extractive Architecture: On Designing Without Depletion, Space Caviar, eds., V-A-C Foundation.

"Immanent Bodies"

Interior Provocations:

Chapter coauthored with Virginia Black for volume Interior Provocations, Isaac Schleuterheimen, Suh, Tewes, Winton, Zieve, eds.

"The Temporary Logics of Extraction"

Avery Review:

Essay in Avery Review 31.

Architecture of Migration

Map for Architecture of Migration: The Dadaab Refugee Camps and Humanitarian Settlement by Dr. Anooradha Siddiqi, Duke UP. Illustration “On the Hunt” with Ani Liu for volume “Intimacy,” research, scent design for issue launch events in NY, LA.

Disc Journal

Series of 10 maps for Empire's Tracks: Indigenous Nations, Chinese Workers, and the Transcontinental Railroad by Dr. Manu Karuka, UC Press.

Empire's Tracks

Map for chapter by Dr. Jessica Horton, volume ed. Chris Heuer, Rebecca Zorach, Clark Studies in the Visual Arts, Yale UP.

Ecologies, Agents, Terrains

Series of 4 illustrated booklets “Bloodlines: Indigenous Headspace and the Geographies of Home,” featured in The Funambulist 20.