M. Landscape Architecture
M. Architecture
B. Environmental Design
B. Science in Biology
Celina Abba
Spatial Researcher at Forensis, Forensic ArchitectureCelina is a designer and researcher who explores the intersections between architecture, human rights, and living systems. She works as a spatial Researcher at Forensis, the Berlin office of Forensic Architecture. Her research delves into lost narratives of land and people. Uncovering these narratives allows for speculating new Black futures that are rooted in care and kinship. Her ongoing research project, Plantation Futures, challenges traditional paradigms of landscape architectural conservation. Through experimentation with digital technologies and eco-poetry, the project pioneers new ways of envisioning the future, rooted in the narratives and legacies of both the enslaved (human) and the nonhuman.
Currently, Celina is working on a project that traces the length of the Mississippi River, revealing the continuous reproduction of racial and ecological violence and illustrating the intricate ties between historical and contemporary forms of exploitation and oppression. By examining the legacy of plantations, the practice of sharecropping, and the evolution of prison farming, Celina is uncovering the persistent impacts of these systems on both people and the environment.
Celina graduated with distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design with a Master of Landscape Architecture, where she was awarded the Landscape Architecture Thesis Prize, the LAF Olmsted Scholar, and the prestigious Charles Eliot Traveling Fellowship. She also holds a Master of Architecture (Distinction) for which she received the AIA Henry Adams Medal, as well as Bachelor's degrees in Biology and Environmental Design Studies.
Positionality:
I am an African American woman from St. Thomas, USVI, currently living in Berlin, Germany. As a researcher, I have access to the necessary resources required to conduct my work. I acknowledge that my positionality is shaped by my Western education and I strive to be aware of my biases, recognizing how they shape my research.