Gavin Zeitz

Gavin Zeitz is a landscape architect, design researcher and practitioner with a background in cultural geography and ecological planning. He holds a BS in environmental studies and community development and applied economics from the University of Vermont and a MArch from RISD, where he was awarded the Thesis Prize, a Maharam Fellowship and a Lowthorpe Travel Scholarship for his research project The Arctic Commons. Zeitz has researched the cultural landscapes of climate change throughout the global North, including Alaska, Greenland and Iceland. Recently he has been collaborating with geologists, geographers and ecologists to speculate on the extraction of sediment from glacial melt as a material resource for the nation of Greenland. At RISD he has been involved with the interdisciplinary research project The Future of Dams, a regional partnership focused on re-envisioning the community decision-making process to address dammed landscapes throughout New England.

When not teaching, Zeitz works at LANDING Studio, a design, planning and research firm in Somerville, MA with a focus on integrating industry and infrastructure with environmental performance and community-driven design. He has worked on exhibitions for The Architecture League, Seoul Biennial and many community improvement projects with industrial clients.