About the Authors

Liat Margolis is the former Director of Material Research at Material ConneXion, an innovative multi-industry materials research and consulting company. Liat earned her BFA in Industrial Design from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and her Masters of Landscape Architecture from Harvard’s Graduate School of
Design (GSD). She currently manages GSD’s Materials Collection, a material research lab, and practices landscape architecture at Hargreaves Associates in Cambridge, MA.

Alexander Robinson studied fine arts and computer science at Swarthmore College and earned his Masters in Landscape Architecture from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. Alexander led numerous urban landscape technology and planning research projects with Harvard’s Center for Technology and Environment. As former landscape architect with Mia Lehrer + Associates, he helped author the Los Angeles River and Compton Creek Master Plans. Alexander currently works for SWA Group in Los Angeles, CA.

About our Collaboration
Liat and Alexander began their collaboration while attending the Harvard Graduate School of Design Landscape Architecture program. They both were a part of a student group that received the ASLA honor award for a landscape-planning project titled Alternative Futures for Tepotzotlán, Mexico. They also led the GSD student collaborative, featured in the 2nd International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam: The Flood.

Liat and Alexander are the recipients of a grant from the Graham Foundation to assist in the research and development of this publication. They have plans to continue their collaboration and further expand and promote the topic of innovation in material technologies and ecology in landscape architecture. They can be contacted via the website www.livingsystemsLA.com.