The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) has announced the launch of Harvard Design Press, a new book imprint that “challenges, broadens, and advances the design disciplines and advocates for the value and power of design in making a more resilient, just, and beautiful world” according to a statement released by Harvard GSD.
Harvard GSD’s book-publishing arm will function separately from the 108-year-old Harvard University Press, which has long published titles related to architecture, design, and the built environment including books produced by Harvard GSD. Although Harvard Design Press is a distinct entity, titles published by the imprint will be distributed in collaboration with its prestigious older sibling.
“Long committed to the value of the written word for advancing the design disciplines as well as for broadening design’s impact, I am personally very excited about this new direction for the school’s book-publishing program,” said Harvard GSD dean Sarah M. Whiting. “I look forward to the great work that will come of it.”
Whiting will serve on the 16-member Harvard Design Press Editorial Board alongside GSD faculty Martin Bechthold, Anita Berrizbeitia, Eve Blau, Ed Eigen, K. Michael Hays, Niall Kirkwood, Mark Lee, John May, Rahul Mehrotra, Erika Naginski, Jacob Reidel, and Sara Zewde. Harvard University faculty members Lizabeth Cohen, Sarah Lewis, and Patricio del Real will round out the board.
The first book out of the gates will be Split Subject, a monograph dedicated to the work of Mexican architect and GSD alumna Frida Escobedo. Split Subject is also the name of an early work (2012) by Escobedo that “deconstructs a fraught allegory of architectural modernism in Mexico and that has exercised enduring and formative influence throughout Escobedo’s career and practice.” The book is set to be published this coming fall.
Organized and edited by Ken Stewart, assistant dean and director of Communications and Public Programs at Harvard GSD, and Marielle Suba, an associate editor in the school’s communications office, Harvard Design Press is currently seeking proposals on the “new, original ideas” pertaining to the research and practice of architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, and urban design.
More information about proposal submissions can be found at the Harvard Design Press homepage.
