Hana Kassem

Position

Principal

Education

Bachelor of Fine Arts,
Rhode Island School of Design
Bachelor of Architecture, Awarded AIA Henry Adams Gold Medal for Design Excellence,
Rhode Island School of Design

Hana Kassem has applied a human-centric approach to design across various project typologies over her 25-year career as an architect. She examines how we affect our environment and how in turn our built environment impacts us. She has employed this approach on work in countries ranging from the United States to China, and from Brazil to Abu Dhabi. Her international background has afforded her the ability to tailor her design work to various cultural contexts while maintaining universal commonalities.

Hana has played a leading role in the design of science and research facilities as exemplified by the AIA award-winning Advance Science Research Center (ASRC), the keystone project of the City University of New York’s “Decade of the Sciences” initiative. Comprising a pair of buildings forming a gateway to the campus, the project employs a fluid geometry that integrates architecture and landscape, a theme evident in much of her work.

Hana’s design approach embraces sustainability, wellness, and resilient design. For the New York City Housing Authority, she and her team engaged residents to develop an infrastructural resiliency and renewal plan for the Red Hook Houses, a development of twenty-nine apartment buildings that were significantly impacted by Hurricane Sandy. She led the design of key buildings at a new campus in Guangzhou for the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, as well as the University of Michigan Center for Innovation, both projects aimed to be carbon neutral and highly sustainable.

Hana serves on the AIANY and the Van Alen Institute Board of Trustees. She is the co-editor of Architect d.b.a. | On Re-defining the Roles of the Architect Today, a book published by AIANY.