2014 Traveling Fellowship for Architecture, Design, and Urban Design
Finding Common Ground in the Open Plan

Max Wong
Harvard University
Graduate School of Design

earned his M Arch degree at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in May 2014. Awards received during his study at the GSD include the Araldo A. Cossutta Prize for Design Excellence in 2012, awarded annually to “a student of merit who has successfully completed the core program for the professional degree of Master in Architecture and whose design work consistently shows outstanding promise,” and in 2014, Max received the “Faculty Design Award” given to the graduating student who demonstrated “significant achievement throughout the Master of Architecture I program’s design sequence.” Influential professors during Max’s time at the GSD include his thesis advisor, Professor Preston Scott Cohen, and Rem Koolhaas, professor and academic advisor with whom Max participated in a year-long research project, “Elements of Architecture,” which culminated in an exhibit at the Venice 14th International Biennale and a book titled “Elements.” Participation with Professor Koolhaas in the research project included study abroad at the AMO/OMA in Rotterdam, Netherlands, during the initial phase of the research project and subsequent continued work as a remote researcher afterward. Employed at the Boston firm of Howeler + Yoon Architecture / MY Studio, Max notes that his career aspirations are “... to gain a deeper understanding of the architectural discipline by both practicing and teaching design.”