Siqi Zhu

A lecture by NYC-based urbanist-technologist Siqi Zhu, whose work bridges urban development, strategic design, and urban technologies.

Siqi’s professional work underpins his critical interests: how urban technologies and real estate development shape and are in turn shaped by the political economic regime of the contemporary city; the legibility and governance of emerging cyber-physical technology being deployed in urban space; technology controversies and technology counterfactuals; and evolving demands on the design professions to respond to these issues effectively. He was formerly Director of Planning & Delivery for Sidewalk Labs, where his work imagined how technology transforms the design and implementation of urban streets and public realm. Before Sidewalk, Siqi headed up product design at Envelope, a NYC-based startup that visualizes development opportunities under NYC zoning.

Siqi also teaches at Harvard’s Master of Design Engineering program, where he works with students to design and prototype speculative technologies for societal good. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto and a Masters in Urban Planning from Harvard University GSD, and has led research projects at MIT Senseable City Lab.

Organized by the M.S. in Computational Design Practices Program.