Terreform ONE [Open Network Ecology] is a nonprofit architecture and urban design research and consulting group that promotes smart design in cities. Through its projects and outreach efforts, Terreform ONE aims to illuminate the environmental possibilities of cities across the globe. The group develops innovative concepts and technologies for local sustainability in energy, transportation, infrastructure, buildings, waste treatment, food, and water.

Mitchell Joachim was previously an architect at the offices of Frank Gehry and I M Pei. He holds a BPS in Architecture from the State University of New York (1994), MArch from Columbia University (1997), MAUD from Harvard University (2002) and PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (2006). His professional interests include adapting ecological principles to architecture, city design, transportation, industrial design, synthetic biology, and environmental planning.

His previous academic positions include the Frank Gehry Chair at the University of Toronto, as well as Pratt University, Columbia University, Syracuse University, Cornell University, University of Washington, Rensselaer Polytechnic, and Parsons School of Design.

He was a recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship and fellowships with TED, Moshe Safdie, and Martin Society for Sustainability, at MIT. He has received the ARCHITECT R+D Award, AIA New York Urban Design Merit Award, 1st Place International Architecture Award, Victor Papanek Social Design Award, Zumtobel Group Award for Sustainability, History Channel Infiniti Award for City of the Future, and Time magazine’s Best Invention with MIT Smart Cities Car.

Wired magazine listed him on “The Smart List”; he was selected by Rolling Stone for “The 100 People Who are Changing America”; he is also featured in “The NOW 99” by Dwell magazine and “50 Under 50 Innovators of the 21st Century” by Images publishers. His design work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Venice Biennale (2014).

He is co-author with Maria Aiolova of Design with Life: Biotech Architecture and Resilient Cities on the work of Terreform ONE (Actar, 2019); XXL-XS: New Directions in Ecological Design (Actar, 2017); Super Cells: Building with Biology (TED Conferences, 2014); and Global Design: Elsewhere Envisioned (Prestel, 2014).

Mitchell Joachim won a Holcim Awards Acknowledgement prize 2017 in North America for “Cricket Shelter in New York”. The modular edible insect farm project was praised by the independent regional jury as an “exuberant architectural expression calling attention to the possibilities of insect farming”.

He was a speaker at the 6th International Holcim Forum for Sustainable Construction “Re-materializing Construction” held in Cairo, Egypt in April 2019. Mitchell Joachim was a member of the Holcim Awards jury for North America in 2020.