Kate Orff

Kate Orff is a registered landscape architect and an assistant professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. She is the principal and founder of the design studio SCAPE. In addition to teaching and practice Orff has lectured throughout the United States and around the world on the topic of new paradigms of thinking, collaborating and designing for the anthropocene era. Orff received a B.A. in political and social thought with distinction from the University of Virginia. Her undergraduate thesis topic was global ecofeminism, and she analyzed the work of Vandana Shiva, Wangari Maathai, and others working towards shared environmental, health and gender goals. Orff earned a master’s degree in landscape architecture from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. Her master’s thesis on the changing landscape of the Pearl River Delta in South China after the ‘Open Door’ economic policy was published by Taschen Press in a volume titled Great Leap Forward (2002). Orff’s work at Columbia focuses on the integration of architecture and the earth sciences with an emphasis on the role of the designed landscape and green infrastructure in sustainable development, including the dynamics of city and countryside, constructed ecosystems, biodiversity, participation and the public realm.