EDUCATION

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 2026
Master in City Planning (outstanding thesis award)
Thesis: Bloodlines; Or, backmapping a paid blood plasma donation from Houston, Texas

University of Houston, Houston, TX, 2021
B.A. Philosophy (summa cum laude, university honors)

University of Houston, Houston, TX 2021
B.S. Environmental Design (summa cum laude, university honors, honors in major)
Thesis: Freeway Architectures of Biopolitical Disobedience

RESEARCH AND TEACHING

Research Assistant, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2024-2026
Visiting Researcher, Community Design Resource Center, University of Houston, 2026
Research Fellow, Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies, University of New Orleans, 2025
Instructional Assistant, College of Architecture and Design, University of Houston, 2017-2021

PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

City Planner, New Orleans City Planning Commission, 2024

Created and presented detailed zoning and land use reports at biweekly Commission hearings.
Developed graphic standards and templates to make planning information accessible to the public.
Built relationships with residents through weekly “planner on duty” days and redesigned engagement materials.

Designer, SCAPE Landscape Architecture, 2022-2023

Produced maps, site plans, and design proposals for upwards of 10 distinct public space design projects, ranging from watershed management plans to park master plans.
Led 4 major public engagement sequences in Mobile, Pensacola, and New Orleans, translating design problems and proposals across diverse stakeholder audiences.

Designer, UltraBarrio, 2021

Researched design strategies and building codes to create a guidebook for alternative post-disaster housing used by the Texas General Land Office.
Contributed to an award-winning placemaking toolkit that uses textiles as a bridge between community heritage and identity.

Design Strategist, Community Design Resource Center, 2019-2021

Collaborated with residents to execute 10+ neighborhood plans and 5+ public art installations.
Translated complex schematics into accessible engagement materials, facilitated public meetings, and collated input from hundreds of residents to inform Mayor Turner’s 2021 letter to TxDOT.
Co-designed and facilitated 50+ design and planning workshops across Houston.

PUBLICATIONS

Polkinghorne, Kaede. “Suppression, Speculation, and Prison Plasma Programs.” Contrasts. FORTHCOMING.
Rogers, Susan, and Kaede Polkinghorne. “Repeating the Past.” In About Streets: Perspectives on Urbanism, Architecture, and Placemaking, edited by Gregory Marinic and Pablo Meninato. Springer Nature Switzerland, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-84231-3_49.
Polkinghorne, Kaede. “Patchwork Utopia.” Feature. Texas Architect Magazine, February 3, 2025. https://magazine.texasarchitects.org/2025/02/03/patchwork-utopia/.
Polkinghorne, Kaede. “The Past That Never Was.” In Silt Vol. 2: Entwined, edited by Lucy Corlett, 2025. https://siltmagazine.cargo.site/issue-2
Polkinghorne, Kaede, Adare Brown, Renzo Dagnino, Valerio Franzone. “Lobbying for just labour practices and an equitable (built) environment.” KoozArch, February 5, 2024. https://www.koozarch.com/interviews/lobbying-for-just-labour-practices-and-an-equitable-built-environment.
Polkinghorne, Kaede. “Mapping the Myth.” New York Review of Architecture, November 11, 2023. https://nyra.nyc/skyline/dispatches/mapping-the-myth.
Polkinghorne, Kaede. “Heart to Heart.” New York Review of Architecture, September 22, 2023. https://nyra.nyc/skyline/dispatches/heart-to-heart.
Polkinghorne, Kaede. “What Happens at the Margins?” Cite, 2022.
Polkinghorne, Kaede. “Driving Jensen.” Cite, 2021.
Polkinghorne, Kaede, and Susan Rogers. “Mapping inequity in Houston’s COVID-19 vaccination rollout.” Urban Edge, February 14, 2021. https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/mapping-inequity-houstons-covid-19-vaccination-rollout.

SELECT LECTURES AND WORKSHOPS

Archival Remix, a counter-history collage workshop, New Orleans, LA, 2024
Into the Streets, a queer, anti-racist walking tour, New Orleans, LA, 2024-2026
Public Engagement for Public Space, a conference session, Manhattan, KS, 2023
Houston, Paradigmatic Postmodern City, a guest lecture, University of Houston, virtual, 2023
Speculative Fiction, a zine-making workshop, Cambridge, MA, 2023
Design Agency and the Transportation Megaproject, a conference session, ACSA, virtual, 2021

EXHIBITIONS

Matiné, Cordova Gallery, Barcelona, 2025 (collaborative design and installation)
Organizing in the Lobby, Venice Biennale Architettura, Venice, 2025 (collaborative design)
Entwined, MIT Wiesner Gallery, Cambridge, MA, 2025 (collaborative design and installation)
People, Place, Power, Architecture Center Houston, Houston, TX, 2024 (exhibition text)
RE: LAX, Los Angeles Athletic Club, Los Angeles, CA, 2021 (collaborative design and installation)

SELECT AWARDS

Outstanding MCP Thesis Award, “Bloodlines; Or, backmapping a paid blood plasma donation from Houston, Texas,” MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2026
Emerson Travel Grant, “Bloodlines; Or, backmapping a paid blood plasma donation from Houston, Texas,” MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2026
Graduate Student Career Exploration Grant, MIT Office of Graduate Education
Summer Research Fellowship, Priscilla King Gray Center for Public Service, 2024
Racially Just Research Initiative Grant, “Linear Feet: Queer, Anti-Racist Tour Guiding in New Orleans’ French Quarter,” MIT Data + Feminism Lab, 2025
Judith McManus Price Scholarship, APA Foundation, 2025
Vice Chancellor’s Inclusive Excellence Fellowship, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2024-2026
Nia Becnel Student Leadership Award, University of Houston, 2021
Senior Thesis Honorable Mention: Manifesto, “Freeway Architectures of Biopolitical Disobedience,” University of Houston, 2021

SELECT SERVICE AND ORGANIZING

Core Organizer, MIT DUSP and Sloan Civil Rights Immersion Trek, Cambridge, MA, 2026
Core Organizer, A Lens Onto Ourselves: Gaza and a reckoning for urban planning, Cambridge, MA, 2025
Departmental Steward, UE Local 256, Cambridge, MA, 2024-2025
Committee Member, Administrative Committee, The Architecture Lobby, 2024-2025
Volunteer, Solitary Gardens, New Orleans, LA, 2024
New Orleans Metro Board Member, American Planning Association, New Orleans, LA, 2024
Project Pipeline Mentor, National Organization of Minority Architects, New Orleans, LA, 2023-2024
National Organizer, The Architecture Lobby, 2022-2024
Committee Member, Congress Planning Committee, The Architecture Lobby, 2023
Fellow, Association for Community Design, 2023
Working Group Member, Racial Justice Working Group, The Architecture Lobby, 2021-2023
National Secretary, The Architecture Lobby, 2021-2022
Committee Member, EDI Committee, Texas Society of Architects, TX, 2020-2021
Student Representative, College Culture Taskforce, University of Houston, Houston, TX, 2020-2021
Chapter Co-Founder, The Architecture Lobby at the University of Houston, Houston, TX, 2019-2021
Student Ambassador, University of Houston College of Architecture and Design, Houston, TX, 2019-2021
Organizer, Stop TxDOT I-45, Houston, TX, 2019-2021

SELECT PROFICIENCIES

Qualitative Research (archival research, ethnographic fieldwork, interviewing, coding)
Quantitative Research (spatial and data analysis in QGIS and R)
Design (graphic design, publication design, web design, urban design, landscape design, exhibition design)
Writing and Editing (technical writing, writing for the public, co-writing)
Research-Based Art (quilting, crochet, garment design, mapmaking)
Videography (conceptualizing, shooting, and editing short films)