Howard University Architecture Faculty Curate Exhibitions at The Octagon
Howard University architecture professors Nea Maloo, FAIA, NOMA, LEED AP, ICC, and Dahlia Nduom, AIA, NOMA, have curated exhibitions this past academic year at The Octagon, a local museum that serves as the historic headquarters for the American Institute of Architects. The brilliant and captivating exhibitions display their students’ projects as well as some of their own work from years of labor and research.
Creative Resilience: Carbon + Complexity
Nea Maloo
March 18, 2025 to June 30, 2025
Creative Resilience: Carbon + Complexity explores the intersection of design, sustainability, and human connection through the transformative power of architectural shading devices. This exhibit of student work highlights how advances in digital design and fabrication are reimagining ornament—not just as decoration, but as a vital tool for integrating biophilic principles that reconnect people with nature, foster well-being, and enhance sustainability. Featuring hands-on learning, the exhibit invites visitors to explore how future architects are creating climate-responsive designs that merge aesthetics with carbon-conscious innovation. Discover how architecture can transform lives, foster equity, and inspire resilient, environmentally conscious solutions for a better world.
Tourism, Tropicalization and the Architectural Image
Dahlia Nduom
September 6, 2024 to March 12, 2025
Tourism, Tropicalization and the Architectural Image welcomed visitors on a journey through the crafted images of Jamaica, an island often depicted as a quintessential tropical paradise. This exhibition explored the powerful visual narratives that have shaped global perceptions of Jamaica from the 19th century to today. Designed to captivate the tourist gaze, these images portray lush landscapes and pristine beaches but often simplify and stereotype Jamaica’s rich cultural tapestry and complex history.
The exhibition invited visitors to uncover how these depictions have influenced Jamaica’s identity and its architectural evolution. The exhibit highlighted how architecture has been instrumental in crafting this narrative, showcasing architectural signifiers and tropes developed for and proliferated within tourist spaces. Visitors had the opportunity to re-examine these visual narratives and their impact on the island while delving into Jamaica’s rich cultural context, history, identity, and architectural discourse.
About The Octagon
Rich in American history, The Octagon is the oldest private residence in DC, built in 1801 and opened to the public as a museum in the 1970s. The museum is now owned and operated by the Architects Foundation, the philanthropic partner of the American Institute of Architects, and serves as the foundation’s historic headquarters. From The Octagon, the foundation invests in and inspires future design leaders and their communities to host events, exhibitions and educational programs that provide the space to discuss and address cultural, historical preservation, equitable housing, and climate issues, and share contemporary art and design trends.