On Fire Talk: Looking, After the Fires

In recent years, unprecedented wildfires ravaged multiple continents. The fires grow ever larger, more destructive, and more ubiquitous as our changing climate plunges us further into the Pyrocene. Despite the scale of the devastation, small moments of optimism can be found in elemental ecological reflexes. Fires have motivated similar bursts of creative response from human cultural networks as well, inspiring – perhaps necessitating – new ways to conceive of ourselves in relation to our landscapes. Drawing across disciplines, collected depictions of post-fire landscapes in Italy, Japan, and California search for new ways to consider human relationships to the landscape and built environment. Audience Q&A and a reception will follow.

Megumi Aihara is a Landscape Architect. She has played a significant role in the design and construction of landscapes of all scales across the United States and beyond. Her work at SAW and her past teaching as an Adjunct Professor of Architecture at California College of the Arts focuses on blurring distinctions between landscape and architecture. She holds an MLA from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and is a licensed Landscape Architect in California and Hawaii.

Dan Spiegel is an Architect. He is a Continuing Lecturer in Architecture at the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design, where he coordinates advanced graduate studios. Dan’s work spans scales and timelines, intertwining the conceptual with the practical, using a background in Public Policy to deploy design as a tool for community engagement and development. He holds an M.Arch from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and is a licensed Architect in California and Hawaii.

Together, Megumi and Dan founded the hybrid practice SAW (pronounced “Saw”) in San Francisco, CA in 2014. Their work spans scales, timelines, disciplines, and continents. SAW was the recipient of the League Prize from the Architectural League of New York in 2018, Design Vanguard from Architectural Record in 2019, New Talent from Metropolis Magazine, Next Progressives from Architect Magazine, Emerging Talent from the Monterey Design Conference, as well as several regional and national awards from the American Institute of Architects. Their work has been published and exhibited widely, including the solo show “Other Objectives” at the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design and the current installation “Looking, After the Fires” at the 2025 World Expo in Osaka. They are Fellows of the Japan-US Friendship Commission, awarded jointly by the National Endowment of the Arts, and current recipients of the Garden Club of America | Prince Charitable Trusts Rome Prize in Landscape Architecture from the American Academy in Rome.

Cosponsored by the IHC’s On Fire series