Aleksandra Jaeschke, an architect and assistant professor of architecture and sustainable design at the University of Texas at Austin, will present “In Emergency Break Glass, and Other Exit Strategies for Designers” about her explorative journey of greenhouses, on which she embarked following her winning the Wheelwright Prize in 2019.
Originally from Poland, Jaeschke earned her diploma from the Architectural Association in London and a Doctor of Design degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She taught at the Woodbury School of Architecture in Los Angeles prior to teaching at the University of Texas.
Sponsored by Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, the Wheelwright Prize is a competition for early-career architects across the globe. The winners receive a $100,000 grant to devote to innovative projects with the goal of advancing architectural research and discourse. Jaeschke was selected as one of three finalists out of more than 145 applicants.
After winning the grant for her proposal, “UNDER WRAPS: Architecture and Culture of Greenhouses,” Jaeschke visited eight countries across three continents over the course of 150 days, exploring the culture and architecture of greenhouses. In her Monday talk, she will reflect on how greenhouse design can inspire her and other architects’ future research.
In addition to the Wheelwright Prize, Jaeschke won DigitalFUTURES’s Mark Cousins Theory Award in 2021, which recognizes a leading theorist in architecture and design each year. The award acknowledged Jaeschke’s doctoral dissertation “Green Apparatus: Ecology of the American House According to Building Codes,” in which she delved into how building regulations and sustainable technologies improve environmentally-conscious design and awareness.
Jaeschke will speak as part of the Distinguished Speaker in Sustainable Cities series, which the College of Architecture, Art and Planning is co-sponsoring with the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. Her talk will take place on Monday in the Abby and Howard Milstein Auditorium at 11 a.m.