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About Kelvin Vu
I identify as a dancer and a designer, and while I like to wear many hats, I love asking questions most of all.
I just graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Master of Landscape Architecture and a Master of Architecture degrees. My work in school ranged in scale from gardens to regional plans, and I am now working on built projects in my first position at a design firm. Before starting graduate school, I trained and worked as a professional dancer and teacher (modern and contemporary) in San Francisco and in Tel Aviv. Before that I studied Environmental Studies at Yale University.
In both dance and design, I appreciate the combination of a personal practice with community and publics. To be in constant dialogue and exchange excites me, and I love meeting people, ideas, and viewpoints. One aspect of graduate school that I appreciated most was the feeling of being in company, in regards to people but also in ideas and scholarship, past and in process. I firmly believe in making knowledge accessible to more people and feel that criticality and generosity are fundamental to that goal.
My personal scholarship has involved research on the collaborative work of Lawrence and Anna Halprin, and more broadly on the intersections of the performing arts, embodied methods, and the built environment. Looking forward, I’m excited to develop a research-based and embodied practice of design that produces designed projects and scholarship (written, recorded, and performed).
The New Books Network has been a great source of joy, curiosity, and learning for me, and I would be honored to contribute as a host.
NBN Episodes hosted by Kelvin:
January 13, 2026
Spatial Theories for the Americas
To study the built environment of the Americas is to wrestle with an inherent contradiction. While the disciplines of architecture, urban design, land…
December 11, 2025
Silt Sand Slurry
Silt Sand Slurry: Dredging, Sediment, and the Worlds We Are Making is a visually rich investigation into where, why, and how sediment is central to th…
October 28, 2025
The Choreography of Environments
The Choreography of Environments: How the Anna and Lawrence Halprin Home Transformed Contemporary Dance and Urban Design (Oxford UP, 2025) explores ho…