HISTORY

The organization was co-founded twenty years ago, in May 2006, by Mitchell Joachim, Maria Aiolova, and others in response to the need for urgent long-term research on architectural biotechnology and sustainable cities. After entering a series of open design competitions, the organization began taking on several urban projects. They engaged local neighborhoods with design community members to broaden ground-up alternatives to overdevelopment and derelict municipal areas.

After completing his doctorate at MIT and working at a number of renowned architectural offices, including I.M. Pei, Frank Gehry, and Moshe Safdie, Mitchell founded the group with Maria, a fellow graduate from Harvard. Our unique name is a combination of the words: “terre” (earth, soil) and “reform” (rebuild, reconstruct, recreate). The original use of the term “terraform” in planetary engineering referred to transforming the atmosphere to create a more habitable living environment. Instead of a contrived copy of the earth elsewhere, as the definition of “terraform” commonly implies, they strove to reform the land in place. The first intention was to repair the atmosphere of our world by fostering designs that regenerate current pollution-causing global trends.

IRS Determination Letter