Education

M.C.P. 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

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

B.S. University of Houston, Houston, TX 2021
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, Cambridge, MA, 2024-2026

Visiting Researcher, Community Design Resource Center, University of Houston, Houston, TX, 2026

Research Fellow, Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, 2025

Instructional Assistant, College of Architecture and Design, University of Houston, Houston, TX, 2017-2021

Professional Practice

Gallery Assistant, Cordova Gallery, Barcelona, 2025

City Planner, New Orleans City Planning Commission, New Orleans, LA 2024

Designer, SCAPE Landscape Architecture, New Orleans, LA, 2022-2023

Designer, UltraBarrio, Houston, TX, 2021

Design Strategist, Community Design Resource Center, Houston, TX, 2019-2021

select Publications

(forthcoming) Polkinghorne, Kaede. “Suppression, Speculation, and Prison Plasma Programs.” Contrasts, 2026.

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.

Polkinghorne, Kaede. “Patchwork Utopia.” Feature. Texas Architect Magazine, February 3, 2025.

Polkinghorne, Kaede. “The Past That Never Was.” In Silt Vol. 2: Entwined, edited by Lucy Corlett, 2025.

Polkinghorne, Kaede. “Mapping the Myth.” New York Review of Architecture, November 11, 2023.

Polkinghorne, Kaede. “Heart to Heart.” New York Review of Architecture, September 22, 2023.

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.

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 Lectures and workshops

Archival Remix, a counter-history collage workshop, New Orleans, LA, 2024

Into the Streets, a queer, anti-racist walking tour with Chris Daemmrich, 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 with Natalie Leonard, Cambridge, MA, 2023

Design Agency and the Transportation Megaproject, a conference session, ACSA, virtual, 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)