Apocatopia is a collaborative, climate focused design research practice.

April 2026

Kira and Charles Waldheim present "Climate Futures on the Gulf of Maine: Place-Based Scenarios for Vulnerable Infrastructure Systems in a Changing Climate" at the 2026 Center for Green Buildings and Cities Symposium, Designing Sustainable Solutions for a Better Environment.

March 2026

Kira presents "Toward a Global Framework for Public Coastal Access" at the International Coastal Access Symposium, hosted by the Coastal Access Working Group.

Kira delivers an invited guest lecture titled "Place-Based Scenario Planning" to the University of Houston Carbon Futures studio taught by Melanie Louterbach.

February 2026

Kira presents “Place-Based Scenario Planning for Coastal Adaptation” at the Coastal Summit at the University of Greenwich, London UK.

January 2026

Kira delivers a guest lecture titled, "Risks, Hazards and Exposure in the FEMA Floodplain" to Tom Sterling's course LAND 2120 Graphics II at the University of Connecticut.

December 2025

Mark becomes a qualified architect in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

November 2025

Kira presents the chapter "Place-Based Scenario Planning: A Design Research Methodology for Climate Adaptation" at the launch of Resilient Urbanism, edited by Gihan Kararunatne, at the Royal College of Art in London, UK.

October 2025

Kira joins the Envision Resilience Speaker Series panel on Creative Approaches + Innovative Solutions, sharing scenario planning work on the Gulf of Maine with students from Northeastern University, University of Maine Augusta, UMass Amherst, UVA School of Architecture, and the Maine College of Art and Design.

September 2025

Kira delivers a guest lecture in Sophie Weston Chien's course Ecological Systems of Design at the University of Colorado at Boulder

Kira delivers a guest lecture to Dalia Munenzo's Adaptive Ecofutures studio at the University of Houston.

Kira delivers a guest lecture on place-based scenario planning in Climate by Design, taught by Amy Whitesides at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

July 2025

Kira serves as the Landscape Lead Faculty for the Harvard Graduate School of Design Design Discovery summer program, led by Megan Panzano.

April 2025

Kira delivers the 2025 Daniel Urban Kiley Fellow lecture titled "Place-Based Scenario Planning for the Climate Emergency" in the Frances Loeb Library at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, MA

Kira is a panelist and the work of her students in Place-Based Scenario Planning is shared at the Territorial Design Roundtable and Student Exhibition workshop at the MIT's Morningside Design Academy in Cambridge, MA alongside Min Yeo, Ettore Santi, Lizzie Yarina, and moderated by Chen Chu. https://mad.mit.edu/events/territorial-design

Kira delivers an invited guest lecture titled, "The Coastline Adaptation Paradox" in Islands We Eat, taught by Montserrat Bonvehi-Rosich at Washington University in St. Louis as part of the Sam Fox Virtual Lecture Series

March 2025

Kira's seminar, VIS 2466 Place-Based Scenario Planning is awarded an Honorable Achievement for Interdisciplinary Climate Change Curriculum in Landscape Architecture from the inaugural Tulane Prize for Climate Change Curriculum in the Built Environment.

Kira delivers a guest lecture on place-based scenario planning in DES 3396 Thinking Landscape, Making Cities, taught by Alexander Wall at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, MA.

Kira delivers an invited guest lecture titled, "Place-Based Scenario Planning: The Case of Long Beach," in CLIMATE CASE: Subtropical Urbanism taught by Chris Reed at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, MA

Kira delivers an invited guest lecture titled, "The Coastline Adaptation Paradox" in LARC2140 taught by Sonia Ralston at Northeastern University in Boston, MA

February 2025

Kira leads a public workshop on place-based scenario planning titled "Long Beach Is...? Long Beach Could Be...?" in collaboration with TownGreen at the Public Library in Rockport, Massachusetts

January 2025

Kira presents a conference session, "Place-Based Scenario Planning: Adapting to Coastal Climate Change" at the Lincoln Institute for Land Use Policy's Consortium for Scenario Planning Conference in Deerfield Beach, Florida

Kira teaches her project-based seminar VIS 2466 Place-based Scenario Planning for the Climate Emergency at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design

November 2024

Kira shares a guest lecture titled, “The Coastline Decision Paradox,” in LDAR 226G-01 - LANDSCAPE RESEARCH, THEORY AND DESIGN, taught by Elaine Stokes at the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

Kira delivers an invited guest lecture titled, "Place-Based Scenario Planning: Decision Making for Climate Adaptation through Design," at the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning, organized by Assistant Professor Sang Cho

July 2024

Kira is part of the Entangled Futures group show with the Forest for the Trees Collective at the Climate Imaginarium on Governor’s Island in New York, NY

June 2024

Kira shares an artist talk titled, “Climate Landscape Literacy” at the Climate Imaginarium on Governor’s Island, New York

Kira serves as the lead Landscape Architecture faculty for the Design Discovery Virtual program at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, MA.

March 2024

Kira gives an invited talk and workshop titled "Climate Tour," with Cyrielle Noel and Nidhi Shashidhara at the Aspen Institute Climate Fellows Summit in Miami, Florida

January 2024

Kira's work with Edyth Jostol on Cryptomeria cultivation in Japan is included in the Forest /Futures group exhibition curated by Anita Berrizbeitia in the Druker Design Gallery at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, MA

November 2023

Kira, Nidhi Shashidhara and Cyrielle Noel are invited to present, "Preservation through the Lens of Climate Change,” at the National Trust for Historic Preservation Past Forward Conference in Washington, D.C.

October 2023

Kira is the chair of the Student-Led Session "What is Left Behind?" as part of the Setting the Course: Future Core Studio Pedagogies in Landscape Architecture symposium organized by Rosalea Monacella at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, Massachusetts

February 2023

Kira is awarded the 2023-2025 Daniel Urban Kiley Teaching Fellowship at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design

January 2022

Mark and Kira co-teach Architecture III: Core III Studio – APOCATOPIA: An Oceanographic Research Institute for the End of the World As We Know It at the Boston Architectural College in Boston, Massachusetts

August 2021

Kira is awarded a Planet Reimagined New Futures Fellowship and publishes a research report titled, “Toward a Global Framework for Public Coastal Access” with Rai Saad Khan, Mercy Adihambo, Vanessa Cordova and Keoni Rodriguez