Cosa
Founded in 2020 by Andrés Harvey and Matthew Kennedy, Cosa is a research-oriented architecture, design, and art practice operating between Mexico City and Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Through experimental exhibitions, installations, films, and publications, Cosa seeks to explore how local and regional material and construction cultures both respond to and resist transnational and global economic and political forces.
Andrés Harvey is an architect, filmmaker, and researcher. His work departs from an understanding of architecture as an outcome of both political and economic forces, as well as a framework that conditions people according their environment. This has led him to develop broader notions of the body in relation to space, from a physical, political and aesthetic dimension. Prior to co-founding Cosa, Andrés worked as a project leader in the studio of Frida Escobedo from 2016 to 2019, where he managed projects including the development of a social housing prototype for the Mexican government (INFONAVIT), the restoration and conversion of a 19th century rowhouse in Puebla into a boutique hotel, the concept and execution of an exhibition at the Guggenheim Bilbao (“El Otro II”), and a permanent public art installation in Orleans, France. He worked previously at design studios including Javier Sanchez Arquitectos, Serano-Monjaraz, and ESTUDIO. In 2019, he was the recipient of the FONCA Jóvenes creadores research grant for his work on improvised urban spaces. Andrés received his Diploma from the Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico City) with additional training at the Architectural Associaion (London). He received a Master’s of Design (Publics) with distinction at the Graduate School of Design (GSD), Harvard University.
Matthew Kennedy is an architect, scholar, and educator. His work focuses on the production of residential and cultural projects, experimental preservation, exhibition design, and research. Prior to co-founding Cosa, Matthew worked as a project leader in the studio of Frida Escobedo from 2016 to 2019, managing projects including the 2018 Serpentine Pavilion, the 2nd Chicago Architecture Biennial (“Make New History”), the 12th Shanghai Art Biennale (“Proregress: Art in an Age of Historical Ambivalence”), and Exhibit Columbus, as well as contributing to a diverse array of buildings, installations, and exhibitions. He worked previously for design studios including Charlap Hyman & Herrero and The Fautory, as well as the studio of the Norwegian artist Bjarne Melgaard. He has been the assistant editor of the award-winning journal of architectural research Faktur: Documents & Architecture since 2017, and with Nile Greenberg is co-author of The Advanced School of Collective Feeling (Park Books, 2023). He has taught both design studios and history and theory seminars at the Pennsylvania State University, where he also helped to establish the student-edited journal Hyphen. He has presented his work at venues including the Center for Architecture (AIA New York) and The Berlage (Deflt, NL), participated in panel discussions at SCI-Arc (Los Angeles, CA) and LIGA (Mexico City), and has been an invited external critic on reviews for institutions including Yale University, Columbia University, and UC Berkeley. Matthew holds a Masters of Architecture from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation (GSAPP) where he was awarded the William Kinne Fellows Traveling Prize upon graduating in 2016. He is presently pursuing his PhD in the History and Theory of Architecture at the Graduate School of Design (GSD), Harvard University.