Joshua Lessard is an adjunct instructor and emerging architectural professional with converging interests in design, research, environmental sustainability, and social urban reform. His current research takes a cross-disciplinary approach to focus on the impact of climate change on endemic vernacular architecture (specifically Nepal, Tibet, Mongolia, Patagonia, and Small Island Developing States).
His recent projects are as far-ranging and complex as the “Street Scene” for The Franklin Institute’s new “Your Brain” exhibit, the Drexel ExCITe Center (which houses the Shima Seiki Haute Technology Lab), a 400,000-SF research facility in the bustling Latin American metropolis of Belo Horizonte, and the restoration of Sinan’s 16th Century Sabils in the West Bank and Al-Quds/Jerusalem as a catalyst for urban renewal.
Joshua has been honored with numerous awards, including the prestigious Architectural Research Centers Consortium’s King Medal for Excellence in Architectural + Environmental Design Research, the 2012 Michael Pearson Architecture Prize, and his team ranked first in the nation at the ASCE Pankow Foundation’s Architectural Engineering Competition. Professor Emeritus Judith Bing at the 2013 Camden Conference in Maine presented Joshua’s work as a member of the Drexel team sent to Istanbul in 2010.