Vanessa is a registered architect and the Principal of Studioteka, a published, award-winning design firm she founded in 2003. Studioteka approaches design through a multidisciplinary lens that spans the boundaries between architecture, economic and social development, and urban and environmental concerns. She is especially interested in innovative sustainable design and the issues faced by tropical countries as they adapt to climate change, and in envisioning design-oriented technical and engineering solutions to environmental problems. Her built and design work has appeared in notable international design publications such as Frame, Hinge, Surface Asia, Design Bureau and Mark Magazine. Vanessa Keith is the author of 2100: A Dystopian Utopia – the City After Climate Change, a book on the future of cities in a hotter world published by Terreform’s Urban Research Series, and edited by Michael Sorkin, and is also an editor of “Kingston Harbor: Development Transects,” a book of urban design work published by Columbia University in 2010. She has taught graduate and undergraduate design studios in architecture, urban and interior design, and economic development at Columbia University GSAPP and SIPA, Pratt Institute, and the City University of New York.
The firm’s work ranges from urban design to residential and commercial buildings, site planning, design of custom interior elements, lighting and interior design, program research, feasibility studies and creation of investment packages, as well as design research and writing. Relevant projects include Caribbean Highlands, an eco-community on 128 acres in Costa Rica which includes luxury condominiums and single family villas as well as hospitality, health and wellness programs, City of Dreams, a $2.8 billion USD mixed use hospitality project located in Macau on the Cotai Strip, UPR, a 25-year Masterplan for the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, as well as the Flatiron Marketing Offices, a project which was featured in August 2008 in Frame Magazine, and in the February 2010 edition of Hinge Magazine in Hong Kong. YMCArt Center on the Gowanus, a prize winning competition entry, has been featured in the Honors section of the Architect’s Newspaper, and was published in the April 2010 issue of Amsterdam’s Mark Magazine. “First Date,” Studioteka’s entry for Design Against the Elements was featured in Surface Asia Magazine in March 2011, along with an interview with Vanessa. Nurse Bettie was featured in the March/April 2012 edition of Design Bureau Magazine along with an interview, and Studioteka’s entry for the Busan Opera House competition was published in the December/January 2012 edition of Mark. In November, 2015, Vanessa was an invited lecturer and participant in Social Innovation Week at the Openhouse Gallery in SoHo, New York, where she discussed some of the cities featured as case studies in our book 2100: A Dystopian Utopia. Imagery from Caribbean Highlands and2100 were featured, along with an interview with Vanessa, in Modelo Design Manifestos in February 2016.
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
Master of Architecture, University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Fine Arts (2000) Master of International Affairs, Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs (1995). Concentration: Economic Development. Focus Area: Urban Planning B.A., Columbia University (1992). Major: Religion and Non Western Philosophy. Minor: Fine Art (printmaking)