Elsa MH Mäki leads research on architecture and infrastructure. She received degrees in architecture from Columbia and Harvard GSD. She has practiced architecture in Minnesota and New York, and helped offices develop their own research and publications. Elsa is an author, teacher, artist, and community organizer in North Brooklyn.

Positions

  • Assistant Director, Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture, Columbia University GSAPPCurrent
  • Editor-at-Large, former Editorial Fellow, The Avery ReviewCurrent
  • Project Coordinator and Architectural Designer, JSA/MixDesign2023-2024
  • Program Developer and Design Instructor, Barnard Architecture+Design Summer Institute, Barnard College2023-2024
  • Teaching Fellow, History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University2022-2023
  • Project Manager, Designer, Coordinator, Interboro Partners2022-2023
  • Research Fellow, Sustainable Native Communities Design Lab, MASS Design Group2020-2022
  • Research Assistant, Teaching Assistant, Harvard GSD2020-2023
  • Architectural Designer, DeVetter Design Group2017-2019

Education

  • Master of Architecture, Harvard GSD2022
  • Bachelor of Arts in Architecture, Barnard+Columbia Architecture, Columbia University2017

Elsa MH Mäki has published and presented work on land, infrastructure, reuse, and movement since 2016. Most publications and events featured on this site were commissioned directly but her projects have also grown out of loose ideas, chance conversations, community organizing, and long friendships, so please get in touch by email or another platform to collaborate on:

• design and demonstration projects

• exhibitions and residencies

• speaking engagements

• book projects

• consulting

Take Back the Land, chapter, 2026. Forthcoming chapter for Take Back the Land volume edited by Dubravka Sekulic and Godofredo Pereira, Bloomsbury, London.

Protest Fields, foreword, 2026. Foreword for Sanie Irsay’s publication on domestic protest architecture in occupied Crimea, Doubleyoutee Publishing, Amsterdam (forthcoming)

Dadaab Commons, artist residency, exhibition, 2025. “Jitterbug” (mapping and projection artwork) in exhibition curated by Anooradha Siddiqi, part of a 2-year collaboration with Peterson Kamwathi, James Muriuki, Deqa Abshir, AbdulFatah Adam and produced through artist residency at the GoDown Arts Centre, Nairobi.

San Diego Museum of Art Accessibility, report, 2024. San Diego Museum of Art accessibility study, community engagement with JSA/MIXdesign and Foster+Partners.

WashU Accessibility, report, 2024. Washington University in St. Louis campus accessibility study with JSA/MIXdesign.

Material Acts, chapter, 2024. Chapter "Stitching: Future Fabrication and Traditions of Reuse" in the exhibition book Material Acts: Experimentation in Architecture and Design, curated and edited by Jia Yi Gu and Kate Yeh Chiu. Edited for e-flux by Nick Axel. ↗

Making Inclusive Museums Now, report, 2024. Community engagement, workshops, research, design contributions to report by JSA/MIXdesign and the Architectural League of New York. ↗

Architecture and Extraction, interview, 2024. Interview "What counts as being healed?" with Elsa MH Mäki in JSSAC special edition on architecture and extraction, edited by Christopher Alton, Émélie Desrochers-Turgeon, Zannah Mae Matson ↗

Architectures of Care, chapter, 2023. Chapter "Propping Up the Cloud" in Architectures of Care: From the Intimate to the Common, Brittany Utting, ed. ↗

Architecture of Migration, illustration, 2023. Illustration in the book Architecture of Migration by Anooradha Iyer Siddiqi. ↗

Jr. Architects, book, 2023–2024. Junior Architects: New Paradigms in Design Education (Park Books, 2026), Suzanne Lettieri and Anya Sirota, eds. (forthcoming) ↗

Shinohara's Mushrooms, essay, 2022. Essay "Shinohara's Mushrooms: Conditional Life in Architectural Form" featured in collection Researching Encounters by Women Writing Architecture, edited by Michaela Nettell ↗

Falls Restoration, report, 2022. Contributions to report on design planning and community engagement prepared with Interboro Partners for Owámniyomni Okhódayapi, US Army Corps, Minneapolis Parks & Recreation, City of Minneapolis. ↗

Disc Journal, illustration, 2022. Illustration series “On the Hunt” with Ani Liu for Disc Journal v 2, "Intimacy"

Building Backward, thesis, 2022. M.Arch thesis "Building Backward: Archaeology of a Queer Built Future" with commendation, advised by Yasmin Vobis and held in the Frances Loeb Architecture Library at Harvard GSD. ↗

African Community Center of Lowell, report, 2022. Community engagement, research contributions to report by Interboro Partners and the Harvard Mindich Fellows for the African Community Center of Lowell, MA. ↗

The World Around: Land in Focus Foreword, foreword, 2021. Foreword for video series Land in Focus by Beatrice Galilee and Satomi Blair, presented at the Guggenheim Museum ↗

Non-Extractive Architecture, chapter, 2021. Chapter "On the Water" in Non-Extractive Architecture, Space Caviar (Joseph Grima, Sofia Pia Belenky), eds. ↗

Willamette Falls, report, 2020. Consulting for the Willamette Falls Intertribal Public Access Project with MASS Design Group

Healthy Housing for Native Communities, report, 2020. Report "Healthy Housing for Native Communities" in series The Role of Architecture in Fighting COVID-19 by MASS Design Group, co-authored and co-illustrated by Zoë Toledo and Elsa MH Mäki. Presented at the Harvard Joint Centers for Housing Studies' Equitable Development Poster Session, 2020. ↗

Settler City Limits, illustration, 2019. Two maps for book chapter "Anti-Indian Common Sense: Border Town Violence and Resistance in Mni Luzahan" by Nick Estes in Settler City Limits: Indigenous Resurgence and Settler Colonial Violence in the Urban Prairie West, edited by Dorries, Henry, Hugill, McCreary, Tomiak.

Empire's Tracks, illustration, 2019. Series of 10 maps for Empire’s Tracks: Indigenous Nations, Chinese Workers, and the Transcontinental Railroad by Dr. Manu Karuka. ↗

Interior Provocations, chapter, 2018. Chapter "Immanent Interiors in More-than-human Worlds" co-authored with Virginia Black. Presented at 2018 Pratt conference and developed for collected volume Interior Provocations, Lasc, Schneiderman, Suh, Tehve, Winton, Zieve, eds. ↗

Ecologies, Agents, Terrains, illustration, 2018. Map for chapter "'All Our Relations' as an Eco-Art Historical Challenge: Lessons from Standing Bear's Muslin" by Dr. Jessica Horton, in book Ecologies Agents Terrains, edited by Chris Heuer, Rebecca Zorach. ↗

Temporary Logics of Extraction, essay, 2017. Essay “The Temporary Logics of Extraction” in Avery Review 31. ↗

Bloodless, booklet, 2017. Series of 4 illustrated booklets “Bloodless: Indigenous Headspace and the Geographies of Home,” featured in The Funambulist 20. ↗

Standing Rock Syllabus, report, 2016. Open syllabus project, illustration, and community organizing as part of the NYC Stands with Standing Rock Collective

Resources for an Urban World, exhibition, book, 2016. Exhibition curated by Gizem Karagoz and Elsa MH Mäki, exhibition book edited by Gizem Karagoz.

San Diego Museum of Art Accessibility, report, 2024. San Diego Museum of Art accessibility study, community engagement with JSA/MIXdesign and Foster+Partners.

Portland Community College, building, 2023. Portland Community College accessible athletic facilities design with JSA/MIXdesign

Greenland Bund Centre, building, 2021. Greenland Bund Centre, Shanghai facade and landscape design with KPF

EP Admin. Center, building, 2019. Eden Prairie Schools administrative service center with DeVetter Design Group

EP Theater and Athletic Center, building, 2019. Eden Prairie Central Middle School theater, athletic center with DeVetter Design Group

Community Ed. Center, building, 2019. Prior Lake-Savage community education center with DeVetter Design Group

Northern Spark, exhibition, 2019. Immersive theater exhibition "The Night Library" at the Northern Spark Arts Festival, Hennepin County Libraries, Minneapolis, with artist team with Marlena Myles, Tamara Aupaumut, Dawí, James D. Autio, Jess Grams, Andrea Fairbanks, Hope Flanagan. ↗

Westwood-Edgewood School, building, 2018. Westwood-Edgewood Elementary School connective addition, classrooms, landscape with DeVetter Design Group

Hidden Oaks School, building, 2018. Hidden Oaks Middle School cafeteria, classrooms, collaborative education spaces with DeVetter Design Group

Twin Oaks Theater, building, 2018. Twin Oaks Middle School theater with DeVetter Design Group

Grainwood School, building, 2017. Grainwood Elementary School cafeteria with DeVetter Design Group

Jeffers Pond School, building, 2017. Jeffers Pond Elementary School classrooms with DeVetter Design Group

Education, Institutions, and the Path Forward, public talk, 2026. Public lecture with Angelica Gallegos (ISAPD) and Chris Cornelius (UNM, studio:indigenous), part of the roundtable series Designing For, By, and With: Indigenous Voices of the Land, April 2026.

Building in the Mamdani Administration, public talk, 2026. Public lecture on civic engagement and the built environment with Edith Hsu-Chen (Exec. Dir., NY City Planning), moderated by Francisco Brown (Metropolis Magazine), January 2026.

Design Educators Roundtable, workshop, 2024. Invited workshop on public architecture education among leaders from NYC colleges, non-profits, and public-school-based programs.

Architecture and Extraction, interview, 2024. Interview "What counts as being healed?" with Elsa MH Mäki in JSSAC special edition on architecture and extraction, edited by Christopher Alton, Émélie Desrochers-Turgeon, Zannah Mae Matson ↗

Art of a Movement, public talk, 2023. In conversation with Andrew Holder on exhibition and event series Art of a Movement: Disability, Dance, and Dynamism in Artistic Practice, Harvard Dance Center, Cambridge.

Sklarek Lecture, public talk, 2023. In conversation with Sara Zewde for inaugural lecture; served on committee, Barnard College, New York

Tribal Housing Charrette, workshop, 2020. Workshop and review with Enterprise Community Partners' Native Homeownership Learning Communities Cohort and contributions to report on urban Indigenous housing models with MASS Design Group.

Red Nation Podcast: Building Solidarities, interview, 2020. In conversation with Chris Cornelius, Nick Estes, Anooradha Siddiqi, as featured on the Red Nation Podcast. ↗

Design Voices Podcast: HIDC, interview, 2020. In conversation with Heidi Brandow, Zoë Toledo, Jaz Bonnin. ↗

Petro-Biennial Complex, public talk, 2019. In conversation with Paulo Tavares, Todd Palmer, Fawn Pochel, Nitasha Dhillon and Amin Hussein (Decolonize This Place), convened by the Settler Colonial City Project (Ana María León, Andrew Herscher) and the Buell Center, GSAPP at the Chicago Architecture Biennial.

Standing Rock Syllabus, report, 2016. Open syllabus project, illustration, and community organizing as part of the NYC Stands with Standing Rock Collective

Dadaab Commons, artist residency, exhibition, 2025. “Jitterbug” (mapping and projection artwork) in exhibition curated by Anooradha Siddiqi, part of a 2-year collaboration with Peterson Kamwathi, James Muriuki, Deqa Abshir, AbdulFatah Adam and produced through artist residency at the GoDown Arts Centre, Nairobi.

Before you were here, exhibition, 2024–2025. Buell Center's 4-part multimedia exhibition on Columbia University’s deep land history across Manhattan and beyond ↗

WASTE Residency, artist residency, exhibition, 2023. Created Post-Mortem: Queer Material Afterlives exhibition on fabrication, waste, and reuse with Aggie Fielding, Areti Kotsoni, Cory Page.

Jr. Architects, book, 2023–2024. Junior Architects: New Paradigms in Design Education (Park Books, 2026), Suzanne Lettieri and Anya Sirota, eds. (forthcoming) ↗

Ruines, exhibition, 2022–2023. “10 Thousand Recollections” (architectural model) commissioned by artists Gerard & Kelly for their first retrospective. Assembled with tobacco in situ and on view at the Carré d'Art, Nîmes, France 2022-2023. ↗

Northern Spark, exhibition, 2019. Immersive theater exhibition "The Night Library" at the Northern Spark Arts Festival, Hennepin County Libraries, Minneapolis, with artist team with Marlena Myles, Tamara Aupaumut, Dawí, James D. Autio, Jess Grams, Andrea Fairbanks, Hope Flanagan. ↗

Now What?!, interview, 2018–2022. Contributed “Roadside Marker Series: An Interview with Dr. Alyssa Mt. Pleasant” to exhibition

Resources for an Urban World, exhibition, book, 2016. Exhibition curated by Gizem Karagoz and Elsa MH Mäki, exhibition book edited by Gizem Karagoz.

41 projects

Dadaab Commons Dadaab CommonsBefore you were here Before you were hereMaterial Acts Material ActsMaking Inclusive Museums Now Making Inclusive Museums NowArchitecture and Extraction Architecture and ExtractionWASTE Residency WASTE ResidencyDiorama DioramaArtifact #1 Artifact #1Architectures of Care Architectures of CareArchitecture of Migration Architecture of MigrationJr. Architects Jr. ArchitectsIMG_5757 Artifact #2Water Research Water ResearchPerfume Logistics Research Perfume Logistics ResearchThe Queer House The Queer HouseShinohara's Mushrooms Shinohara's MushroomsRuines RuinesOddity #2 Oddity #2Falls Restoration Falls RestorationDisc Journal Disc JournalDance Machines Dance MachinesBuilding Backward Building BackwardAfrican Community Center of Lowell African Community Center of LowellIMG_8445 Oddity #1The World Around: Land in Focus Foreword The World Around: Land in Focus ForewordNon-Extractive Architecture Non-Extractive ArchitectureGeneric Arts Generic ArtsData Pair Data PairCruises & Data Research Cruises & Data ResearchBathhouse BathhouseMeeting House Meeting HouseHealthy Housing for Native Communities Healthy Housing for Native CommunitiesSport Shed Sport ShedNorthern Spark Northern SparkEmpire's Tracks Empire's TracksInterior Provocations Interior ProvocationsEcologies, Agents, Terrains Ecologies, Agents, TerrainsTemporary Logics of Extraction Temporary Logics of ExtractionBloodless BloodlessStanding Rock Syllabus Standing Rock SyllabusResources for an Urban World Resources for an Urban World

Falls Restoration

Interboro Partners and The Falls Initiative Leadership Team prepared a Conceptual Programming and Partnership Report. Interboro team led five tabling sessions at various locations around the Twin Cities, two on-site focus groups at Owámniyomni-St. Anthony Falls, three additional off-site focus groups, one boat tour, and four expert interviews. Team targeted engagement with Native community, elders and youth. Through these Owámniyomnis, we talked to hundreds of individuals from the Twin Cities and beyond about what they’d like to see at Owámniyomni-St. Anthony Falls, in the future.

2022 Minneapolis
Falls Restoration
Collaborators
  • Dan D’Oca and Andrew Wald/Interboro Partners
  • NACDI
View project ↗
Documents
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