Leena Cho

Leena Cho is an assistant professor of landscape architecture at the University of Virginia, co-director of Arctic Design Group (ADG), and co-principal of award-winning design practice Kutonotuk and TempAgency. Leena’s research examines various conceptions, representations and instrumentations of weather and climate in Arctic cities, and uses both physical and conceptual phenomena of climate and climate change as a forensic tool for design and its process. Her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, Environmental Resilience Institute, Center for Global Inquiry and Innovation, and Jefferson Trust, among others, and has been facilitated by numerous national and international organizations including the U.S. Department of State and the World Bank. In addition to her courses on landscape technology and extreme environments, Leena teaches both foundation and advanced research studios that foreground material, ecological and cultural linkages, expressed in landscape medium and assembly, design methodology and experiments. Concurrently, her design work has received numerous recognitions, including via MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program, Helsinki Guggenheim and Central Library competitions, Europan and Jardins de Metis, and is published and exhibited in Europe, Asia and North America, including in FRAME, Metropolis, Landscape Architecture Magazine, Storefront for Art and Architecture, Museum of Modern Art, and the Venice Architectural Biennale. Leena received her BA from Wellesley College and MLA with distinction from Harvard Graduate School of Design where she was awarded the Jacob Weidenman Prize for excellence in design and the Penny White Grant for her research on Arctic landscapes of Utqiagvik, Alaska. Prior to joining UVA, she practiced in Cambridge, MA and Rotterdam, Netherlands on a wide-ranging projects at the intersection of landscape architecture and urban design.

Education

• MLA Harvard University Graduate School of Design
• BA Wellesley College

Companies

• Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture University of Virginia (2016)
• Co-director Arctic Design Group (2013)
• Founding Partner TempAgency (2012)
• Founding Partner KUTONOTUK (2009)
• Lecturer in Landscape Architecture University of Virginia (2012 — 2016)
• Lecturer in Urban & Environmental Planning University of Virginia (2013 — 2014)
• Lecturer in Landscape Architecture Harvard Graduate School of Design (2013 — 2013)
• Founding Partner Impressively Simple (2011 — 2013)
• Landscape Architect Maxwan a + u / Rients Dijkstra (2009 — 2012)

Select Publications

• Mediating Environments, AR+D, forthcoming in 2019
• “Virginia Reaches North: Designing Future Arctic Cities,” Our Arctic Nation: Connecting the United States to the Arctic
• “Design Methods I, II, III,” Landscape Architecture Korea, no. 327-329
• “Meadow Creek Stream Restoration,” Landscape Architecture Foundation Landscape Performance Series
• “Thomas Jefferson Visitor Center and Smith Education Center at Monticello,” Landscape Architecture Foundation Landscape Performance Series
• “Politics and Urban Landscapes of the Cold Rush,” EDRA45 Conference Proceedings
• “Urbanized Arctic Landscapes,” Arctic Urban Sustainability Conference Proceedings
• “The Emergent Northwest Passage,” International Federation of Landscape Architects Congress Proceedings
• “Greenland Mother Cloud,” Conditions, vol 11/12
• “Arctic Paradox,” uncube, no. 5
• “Leidsche Rijn: Designing with Landscape and Politics of Process,” Topos, no. 77
• “Landscape and Water Management of Netherlands: Dutch Water Policy Review,” Environment and Landscape Architecture, no. 265