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Ten architecture thesis projects by students at Tulane University

Dezeen School Shows: a thesis proposing 3D-printed coastal interventions for the Antarctic Peninsula, which supports food networks for local animals is included in Dezeen's latest school show by students at Tulane University .

Also included is a thesis that explores the possibilities of putting pavements , front gardens and driveways to better architectural use and a project that examines the possibilities of reusing former tuna fisheries in Sicily .

• Tulane University

Institution: Tulane University School: Tulane School of Architecture Course: ARCH 5990/6990 – Thesis Studio Tutors: Iñaki Alday, Liz Camuti, Ammar Eloueini, Margarita Jover, Byron Mouton, Carol Reese and Cordula Roser Gray

School statement:

"The Tulane School of Architecture in New Orleans generates and applies knowledge that addresses urgent challenges of humankind.

"We do this by educating committed professionals to creatively manage complexity and transform the world through the practices of architecture, urbanism and preservation.

"The five-year Bachelor of Architecture (BArch) and the graduate Master of Architecture (MArch) prepare students with advanced skills in the areas of history, theory, representation and technology.

"Our extensive network of alumni lead successful careers in various fields related to the built environment and design.

"The thesis projects presented below address a clear subject matter, identify actionable methods for working, and generate knowledge relative to their findings that ultimately contribute to architectural discourse.

"In the fall 2022 semester, students conducted research and processed work that led to designing a project according to crucial principles and parameters embedded within the discipline of architecture.

"The outcome of these activities is an architectural thesis – a competent, complex design proposal that contributes meaningfully to current and historic discussions in architecture and society – and it is presented in the spring 2023 semester.

"Throughout the process, each student was guided by at least one faculty thesis director."

Out of Scale: Disrupting the Typology of the American Mall Standard of Walkability by Merrie Afseth and Connor Little

"In order to better integrate localised systems of metabolism within the built environment, our thesis proposes the readaptation of suburban American malls into solar energy hubs.

"A new model for redevelopment centres the production, distribution and storage of energy as the key driver for transformation.

"The introduction of autonomous solar energy infrastructure informs a field condition that serves to create a new landscape strategy.

"Through reframing the mall owner's role to that of an energy provider, we can envision a future where malls become attractive not only for their retail potential, but also their role in fostering community resilience."

Students: Merrie Afseth and Connor Little Course: ARCH 5990 – Thesis Tutors: Cordula Roser Gray, Ammar Eloueini, Margarita Jover and Liz Camuti Emails: merrieafseth2018[at]gmail.com and connorlittle0714[at]gmail.com

Living In Dead Spaces: Mitigating the Housing Crisis through the Means of Adaptive Reuse by Alyssa Barber and Olivia Georgakopoulos

"In the San Francisco Bay Area there is a lack of housing and developable space but an abundance of underutilised structures.

"We propose that abandoned religious buildings are transformed into new pieces of social infrastructure.

"At three scales of intervention, these models demonstrate how abandoned churches can be adapted depending on contextual and financial considerations as a means to mitigate the housing crisis.

"After conducting an analysis of abandoned buildings in the Bay Area, we found that churches were the most common typology with the most similarities, making them suitable to implement a housing model.

"All three interventions weave the new and the old in various ways to revitalise the original building with a new programme."

Students: Alyssa Barber and Olivia Georgakopoulos Course: ARCH 5990 – Thesis Tutors: Cordula Roser Gray and Ammar Eloueini Emails: alyssakbarber[at]gmail.com and ogeorgakopoulos[at]tulane.edu

Amending Dead Spaces: Community Vitalisation through the Public-Private Intermediary by Andreea Dan and Tess Temple

"This thesis explores new urbanism tactics through the revitalisation of a pre-existing low-rise community in South Los Angeles, investigating the topic of American suburban-urban domesticity as a whole and expand results to other areas that face these same problems of contemporary 'dead space'.

"The primary proposal is to occupy the current street – by eliminating the access of the car, a barrier between the front of homes is eliminated, leaving space for architectural intervention that engages residents and introduces new revenue into a historically neglected community.

"The thesis reconceptualises these 'dead spaces' that have often formed in single-family urban settings where the front yard, driveway, sidewalk and street lie.

"In the particular instance of the four-block site chosen for this thesis, a repeated urban seam is highly visible. It includes single-family residences aligned to face a low-traffic street, with underutilised and fenced-in front yards and sidewalks, as well as long driveways often extending to garages in the backyards."

Students: Andreea Dan and Tess Temple Course: ARCH 5990 – Thesis Tutors: Cordula Roser Gray and Ammar Eloueini Emails: adan[at]tulane.edu and ttemple[at]tulane.edu

Mapping Memory: Preserving and Restoring the Landscape of Sicily's Tuna Fisheries by Giuliana Vaccarino Gearty

"This thesis project examines the reuse of tuna fisheries in Sicily – many of these 17th to 19th century buildings, called 'tonnare', have been converted from abandoned factories into commercial centres, museums and resorts.

"Focusing on one case study, I offer an expansive, landscape- and community-oriented solution to reactivating Sicily's tonnare.

"Rather than transform the site into another luxury property, I advocate for reuse with an emphasis on history, the landscape and ecological regeneration.

"I propose preserving and reactivating the tonnare through minimal programming and expanding the site to accommodate additional uses.

"New paths connect beachgoers to the water and a small 'village' of rental apartments allows visitors to linger, and a phased planting strategy will repopulate the site with native vegetation."

Student: Giuliana Vaccarino Gearty Course: ARCH 6990 – Thesis Tutors: Carol Reese and Iñaki Alday Email: giuliana.vaccarino[at]gmail.com

Immaterial: New Sensations from Old Materials by Alex Langley and Sam Spencer

"The standardisation of building materials has caused them to become more ubiquitous and less precious than they once were – there is no formal difference between a new brick and an old one.

"Therefore, it is easy to imagine demolishing what remains of buildings in poor condition and putting new brick buildings in its place.

"But this formal assessment does not take into account immaterial qualities embedded in the materials. As waste from construction and demolition increases (and the abandonment of Baltimore's historic row houses increases) the need to rethink traditional views of waste becomes more urgent.

"Through radical material reuse, architecture has the ability to reposition perceptions of value, by bringing out latent immaterial qualities within used materials.

"The fate of construction materials has been erroneously tied to that of the building – we must sacrifice certain buildings in order to reuse their materials thereby preserving the immaterial qualities within the materials."

Students: Alex Langley and Sam Spencer Course: ARCH 5990 – Thesis Tutors: Cordula Roser Gray and Ammar Eloueini Emails: alangley[at]tulane.edu and samuelbspencer99[at]gmail.com

Symbiosis On 'Ice': A Replicable Model for Antarctic Preservation by Seth Laskin

"The Antarctic Peninsula, which extends from the continent towards South America, is one of the most rapidly warming regions on Earth and is the most significant location for climate research in the world.

"The region has experienced significant sea ice loss in recent decades, which negatively affects the local species – as sea ice disappears, the delicate balance of the food chain is disrupted, leading to declines in animal populations and biodiversity.

"This thesis proposes 3D-printed coastal interventions that invigorate local food networks and become extensions of the natural landscape, while integrating into the context of environmental research in the region.

"This can be accomplished through the implementation of research pods that are equipped with 3D printing equipment. The result is a self-expanding network that highlights a symbiotic relationship between human and environment."

Student: Seth Laskin Course: ARCH 5990 – Thesis Tutors: Cordula Roser Gray [at] Ammar Eloueini Email: slaskin[at]tulane.edu

Beyond Retreat: Realigning the Welsch Coast for Resilient Inhabitation by Megan Spoor

"The Welsh village of Fairbourne is the first community in the UK to face decommissioning due to sea level rise.

"Outlined for Managed Realignment by the UK's Shoreline Management Plan, there remains no strategy for how, or where, the village relocates, coupled with a strong desire by those affected to remain in place.

"This creates an opportunity to establish new approaches to coastal occupation that have the capacity to operate in future conditions of uncertainty and support the continued habitation of Wales' coastline.

"'Beyond Retreat' presents an alternative settlement strategy for Fairbourne, that would enable the community to prepare for (and adapt to) the impacts of sea level rise, whilst minimising community displacement, restoring coastal ecosystems and regenerating local tourism."

Student: Megan Spoor Course: ARCH 6990 – Thesis Tutors: Iñaki Alday and Liz Camuti Emails: megan.spoor[at]gmail.com

Lived Cyberspace: A Rehabilitation Center for Digital Addiction by Tiger Thepkanjana

"Surveillance, voyeurism and exhibitionism has had a long history. Today, there is the addition of the media as the main means to which we consume information.

"From this condition, physical spaces have been collapsed into what is inside the screen, all other spaces left unimportant.

"We all are voluntarily submitting ourselves into a modern digital panopticon, limiting our perception of physical space to the four corners of the screen.

"This thesis investigates speculative means to reflect upon this current state of society, establishing changing relationships between architecture and technological advancements.

"By translating virtual spaces into architecture and the landscape, this thesis attempts to show – through an architectural narrative – how the media have affected our perception of physical spaces, along with dystopian methods to rehabilitate and remediate."

Student: Tiger Thepkanjana Course: ARCH 5990 – Thesis Tutors: Cordula Roser Gray and Ammar Eloueini Email: tigerttz2000[at]gmail.com

Small, Multifamily, Affordable: Affordable Fourplex Design and Development in New Orleans by Daniel Tighe

"New Orleans faces a critical shortage of affordable housing. To address it, the city updated the comprehensive zoning ordinance to allow fourplexes in historic residential districts where a maximum of two units were previously allowed.

"The only condition is that at least one of the four units must be rented at a rate affordable to a household making 70 per cent of the area's median income.

"While this change is significant, other barriers exist – one year after the zoning change, not a single fourplex was built. While market-rate production of fourplexes may not be feasible, non-profit entities may offer a solution.

"Due to Louisiana's unique land tax regulations a disproportionate amount of vacant land is owned by non-profit entities.

"This thesis explores opportunities for building affordable fourplexes on vacant land already owned by local nonprofits and faith-based institutions to address the shortage of affordable housing in New Orleans.

"The design proposal seeks to create a system for designing fourplexes that can easily be adapted to most standard lots in the city."

Student: Daniel Tighe Course: ARCH 6990 – Thesis Tutor: Byron Mouton Email: dtighe[at]tulane.edu

Industrial Interface: The Future of Infrastructure in the Fourth Industrial Revolution by Leah Bohatch and Camille Kreisel

"Wastewater treatment is currently an isolated system despite its importance in serving civilians, creating a linear relationship that wastes a limited resource while harming the health of its source: the body.

"A micro WWTP in Miami is proposed to run in a cycle of water treatment and reclamation that supports the heat-stricken city through the reprogramming of a cooling aquatic centre to act as an example for future plants.

"This new interface is represented in a ribboning red path of circulation that fluctuates between snaking around mechanical systems or inhabiting the mechanical space as a volume that enables the user to experience the treatment cycle.

"A plaza utilises a gradient strategy to enhance water runoff, merging the mechanical and landscape."

Students: Leah Bohatch and Camille Kreisel Course: ARCH 5990 – Thesis Tutors: Cordula Roser Gray and Ammar Eloueini Emails: lbohatch[at]tulane.edu and ckreisel[at]tulane.edu

Partnership content

This school show is a partnership between Dezeen and Tulane University. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here .

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Home > Architecture > Architecture Masters Theses

Architecture Masters Theses

RISD’s Master of Architecture program is one of the few in the US embedded in a college of art and design. Here, architecture is taught in a way that understands the practice of design and making as a thoughtful, reflective process that both engenders and draws from social, political, material, technological and cultural agendas. The program aims to empower students to exercise their creativity by understanding their role as cultural creators and equipping them to succeed in the client-based practice of architecture.

The degree project represents the culmination of each student’s interests relative to the curriculum. A seminar in the fall of the final year helps focus these interests into a plan of action. Working in small groups of five or six under the guidance of a single professor, students pursue individual projects throughout Wintersession and spring semester. Degree projects are expected to embody the architectural values that best characterize their authors as architects and are critiqued based on the success of translating these values into tangible objects.

Graduate Program Director: Hansy Better Barraza

These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License .

Theses from 2024 2024

Reform Craft | Re-Form Clay , Katherine Badenhausen

Narrative Structures , Theodore Badenhausen

Room to Grieve: The Space of Solace in Public Life , Lauren Blonde

Frontier: Land, Architecture, and Abstraction , Jacob Boatman

Rhythm of Space , Brian Carrillo

Searching for the Hyperobject: Crystals as Transscalar Vehicles , Jay Costello

Unconditioning Air , Weijia Deng

(Matter)ial Revolution , Aleza Epstein

Building the Body , Jasmine Flowers

House Calls , Gregory Goldstone

Culinary community: Collaborative Relationship Building through Improvisational Fine Dining , Victoria Goodisman

Textile Tectonics: Shaping Space Through Soft Studies , Lela Gunderson

Hong Kong’s Architectural Resistance: Practice Through Research , Jingjing Huang

“Modern Nomads”: Unfolding Domesticity , Yifan Hu

Mind Follows Matter , Fiona Libby

Curb Appeal , Eric Liu

Dreampool , Xia Li

Atelier Interloper , Isabel Jane Marvel

Entre Manos Y Barro: Innovando Con Tradición , Jose Mata

Patchwork: 76km between Juárez and El Paso , Naheyla Medina

The Dollhouse , Kristina Miesel

A Dispatch from the Site Office , Adrian Pelliccia

Infinite Plane: Metaphysical Architecture + Digital Space , Isabella Ruggiero

Icons of Solitude: Peace, Quiet, and the Urban Condition , Jack Schildge

Beyond the Idle Machine: Spatio-Subjective Architecture , Andrew Schnurr

snowstorm , Caleb Shafer

Corner Revolution: Beyond “skynet”, Brightening Grey space and Building Security , Caimin Shen

Living Surfaces , Ryan R. Sotelo

THE RUNIS: HOW CAN SOCIAL REMIDATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL REMEIDATION BE LINKED THROGUH ARCHITECTURE? , Tayu Ting

Entropic Accumulation , Abby Tuckett

What does water want? , Julia Woznicki

Design With Decay , Charlotte Wyman

LifeLink , Yuan Yuan

Architecture As A Carbon-Based Practice , Qixin Yu

Theses from 2023 2023

Ghost Hotel , George Acosta

Cohabitation x Adaptation, 2100: A Climate Change Epoch , Kyle Andrews

Reintroducing Hemp (rongony) in the Material Palette of Madagascar: A study on the potential of Hemp Clay components and its impact on social and ecological communities. , Henintsoa Thierry Andrianambinina

Norteada- En Busca De un Nuevo Norte. Cocoon Portals and the Negotiation of Space. , Kimberly Ayala Najera

Decolonial Perspective on Fashion and Sustainability , Haisum Basharat

Psychochoreography , Nora Bayer

Whale Fall·Building Fall , Jiayi Cai

Means and Methods: Pedagogy and Proto-Architecture , Daniel Choconta

The Miacomet Movement , Charles Duce

Unpacked: Consumer Culture in Suburban Spaces , Jaime Dunlap

you're making me sentimental , Chris Geng

Myths, Legends, and Landscapes , Oromia Jula

Old and New: Intervention in Space and Material , Yoonji Kang

Urban Succession: an ecocentric urbanism , Anthony Kershaw

An Architect's Toolkit for Color Theory , ella knight

WAST3D POTENTIAL , Andrew Larsen

Sustainable Seismic Architecture: Exploring the Synergy of Mortise-and-Tenon Joinery and Modern Timber Construction for Reducing Embodied Carbon , Cong Li

Recipes for Building Relationships , Adriana Lintz

Water Relations, Understanding Our Relationship to Water: Through Research, Diagrams, and Glass , Tian Li

Exploring Permanent Temporariness: A Look into the Palestinian Experience through Refugee Camps , Tamara Malhas

A Study of Dwelling , Julia McArthur

Appropriate that Bridge: Appropriation as a way of Intervention , Haochen Meng

Toronto Rewilded , Forrest Meyer

Confronting and Caring for Spaces of Service , Tia Miller

Reorientation , Soleil Nguyen

The De-centering of Architecture , Uthman Olowa

[De]Composition: Grounding Architecture , Skylar Perez

Soft City: Reclaiming Urban Public Spaces for Play , Jennifer Pham

We Have a (Home) - Co-operative Homes for Sunset Park , Lisa Qiu

The Incremental Ecosystem: Hybridizing Self-Built + Conventional Processes as a Solution to Urban Expansion , Shayne Serrano

Liberdade para quem? - Layered Histories , Vanessa Shimada

Tracing as Process , Lesley Su

The Design of Consequences , Yuqi Tang

On the Edge of the "Er-Ocean" State , Mariesa Travers

Beyond the White Box: Building Alternative Art Spaces for the Black Community , Elijah Trice

Translational Placemaking: The Diasporic Archive , Alia Varawalla

Unearthing Complexity: Tangible Histories of Water and Earth , Alexis Violet

Ritual as Design Gesture: Reimagining the Spring Festival in Downtown Providence , wenjie wang

Spatial Reveries , Alexander Wenstrup

Public-ish , Aliah Werth

Phantom Spaces , Craytonia Williams II

Navigating Contextualism: An architectural and urban design study at the intersection of climate, culture, urban development, and globalization Case Study of Dire Dawa , Ruth Wondimu

Green Paths - On the Space In-Between Buildings , Hongru Zhang

Blowing Away , Ziyi Zhao

Uncovering Emotional Contamination: Five Sites of Trauma , Abigail Zola

Theses from 2022 2022

Revisionist Zinealog : a coacted countercultural device , Madaleine Ackerman

Reengineer value , Maxwell Altman

Space in sound , Gidiony Rocha Alves

Anybody home? Figural studies in architectural representation , David Auerbach

An atlas of speculating flooded futures ; water keeps rising , Victoria Barlay

Notes on institutional architecture ; towards and understanding of erasure and conversation , Liam Burke

For a moment, I was lost ; a visual reflection on the process of grief and mortality within the home , Adam Chiang-Harris

Remnants , Sarah Chriss

A thesis on the entanglement of art and design , Racquel Clarke

Community conservation & engagement through the architecture of public transportation , Liam Costello

Sacred pleasures : a patronage festival of the erotic and play , David Dávila

Caregivers as worldbuilders , Caitlin Dippo

Youkoso Tokyo : Guidebook to a new cybercity , Evelyn Ehgotz

Home: a landscape of narratives ; spaces through story telling , Tania S. Estrada

A digital surreal , Michael Garel-Martorana

Moving through time , Anca Gherghiceanu

Rising to the occasion : a resiliency strategy for Brickell, Miami , Stephanie Gottlieb

Food for an island : on the relationships between agriculture, architecture and land , Melinda Groenewegen

Towards a new immersion , Kaijie Huang

Astoria houses: a resilient community , James Juscik

Healing the Black Butterfly: reparation through resources , Danasha Kelly

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All Master of Architecture students are required to develop a thesis proposal during their penultimate semester in a one-credit-hour course that is taken alongside the final course in the history and theory sequence, Contemporary Practices. Contemporary Practices considers current and emerging issues and approaches to architecture and urbanism, providing a backdrop against which students independently conceptualize, articulate, and critically evaluate their thesis proposals. Each student is expected to clearly outline a thesis focus and its relevance, its implications, and projected material results: to pose a question that will motivate them as they navigate their early careers and long after they graduate. 

View Thesis Projects

The students admitted to thesis the following semester test their proposed thesis in a project that is a synthesis of intellectual and design objectives. These projects are not meant to be comprehensive building designs; thesis is a laboratory for focused research in our field. Thesis concludes in a final public review with distinguished invited guests that engages the entire school. The project is evaluated both on its own terms and within the broader field of contemporary architectural discourse. Successful theses and the discussion they foster stimulate future activity at Rice Architecture and beyond. 

Selected Thesis Projects

A Framed Construct

By Shinji Miyajima 

This thesis explores a new technique for design through perspective which produces a phenomenon that reorders our perception of the familiar effects of lightness, heaviness, flatness, and depth within the same framework

Suture and Estrangement in Architecture

By Tiffany Xu 

This thesis investigates techniques of Bertoldt Brecht’s alienation effect, and explores its translation to architecture.

Surface and Seam

By Rose Wilkowski 

This thesis starts with one of architecture’s common limits—stick construction—and leverages the framing to surface relationship by considering the inherent seams produced between material.

Theses and Dissertations

View all past theses and dissertations on DSpace@MIT .

Theses and Dissertations in HTC

Thesis and Dissertations in HTC

https://architecture.mit.edu/history-theory-criticism

Undergraduate Thesis

• Preparing for Thesis

Elements of Thesis

• List of References
• Images and Figures
• Library Home

APA For Thesis

Browse our Thesis Finding Aid to see topics previous students researched and get inspired!

Course texts.

' CLICK TO VIEW IN LIBRARY CATALOG

See Undergraduate Thesis Coordinator Amin Espandiarimahalati

Graduate Thesis Coordinator Vuslat Demircay

Thesis - The Basics

"The starting point for any thesis has to be a critique of present circumstances, which opens up possibilities of radical and practical changes in the world."

- Zegarski / Enos (2016)

What is Thesis?

The Undergraduate Thesis Research Studio offers a unique opportunity to continue your design education at NewSchool. You will plan, develop, and execute a self-generated self-directed architectural research project. You will identify a problem based on your personal interests and propose an architectural solution by navigating and expanding on a given methodology comprised of research and design tasks. You will self-evaluate and clearly convey a critical position grounded in the learning outcomes of the architectural program at NewSchool.

"An architectural thesis should be seen as a desire to map, create, draw, or plan a certain kind of spatiality through a critical/ radical critique of a specific aspect within the process of archietctural production that is representative of everyday life within our current urbanized process of spatial production." Zegarski/ Enos (2016)

The library will only accept Thesis Books that follow the standards outlined here. Make sure you review them and include all required elements. 

Front Matter

• Copyright Page
• Thesis Abstract
• Approvals Page
• Acknowledgments (optional)
• Dedication (optional)
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Thesis Essay
• Research and Findings
• Design Solution
• List of Figures
• Glossary of Terms
• Vita (optional)
• Appendices (optional as needed/ appropriate)

General Thesis Timeline

Summer quarter.

• Thesis proposal and conceptual video

Fall Quarter (AR501)

• Thesis Essay, Case Studies, Programming, Site Investigation, Research Presentation

Winter Quarter (AR502)

• Project Schedule, Concept Development, Code Analysis, Site Development, Thesis Proposal Document, Design Presentation

Spring Quarter (AR503)

• Plans, Circulation, Structure, Sections, Systems, Interior Studies and Detailing, Storyboard, Final Design Presentation, Final Thesis Document

Submission Deadlines and Instructions

• Next: Preparing for Thesis >>
• Last Updated: Apr 23, 2024 7:16 PM
• URL: https://library.newschoolarch.edu/ugthesis

Selected WAAC Master's Thesis Projects

See the list below for links to selected WAAC thesis projects from the past five years. All thesis books are hosted online at VT ETDs .

(page image from (un)making places by eli perez .).

• Convertible Parks: New Architectural Strategies for Public Parks in a Changing Climate // Jake Easton [M.Arch]
• Amending the Capitol  // Garrett Krueger [M.Arch]
• Architecture Through the Senses: Navigating a World Without Noise  // Kim Le [M.Arch]
• Holding Court in Old Town: A New Courthouse for Alexandria // Talia Moore [M.Arch]
• Revitalizing Post-Industrial Cities: A Sustainable Approach through Eco-Cultural Tourism in West Virginia // Twishi Shah [Urban Design]
• Dancing About Architecture: Choreographing the Anacostia Waterfront // Christine Wyss [M.Arch]
• Concrete and Comfort, Urban Firehouse // James Cooke [M.Arch]
• Good Fences Make Good Neighbors: The Rio Grande Arrival/Departure Shelter // Angelica Gaite [M.Arch]
• Between the Lines: A Farm to Table Community // Imani Hart [M.Arch]
• Living the Downtown: The Era of New Neighborhood Cities // Prathamesh Rewandkar [Urban Design]
• Shipyard to Stoneyard: The Capitol Stones at the Intersection of Material and Memory // Andrew Ashcraft [M.Arch]
• Ourhouse: Gender-Inclusive Student Housing // Astha Bhavsar [M.Arch]
• Bridging the Gap: Addiction Recovery // Rachel Hamilton [M.Arch]
• Fostering Homefulness // Shelby Pollack [M.Arch]
• Making Space: Refuge to Home // Brittney Sooksengdao [M.Arch]
• Casual Death in Contemporary Cities // Kennard Taylor [M.Arch]
• More Than Housing: Re-defining Affordable Housing // Erika Toscano Jaramillo [M.Arch]
• Shelter to Habitat // Emily Ashworth [M.Arch]
• Re-Imagining Urban Dwelling: Active Family Living in the City // Emily Broadwell [M.Arch]
• One for All : A Capitol Proposal // Margaret "Maggie" Dunlap [M.Arch]
• Children's House, Old Town North Alexandria Montessori School // Behnaz Nozari [M.Arch]
• (Un)Making Places: Supportive Housing As Human Infrastructure // Eliezer "Eli" Perez [M.Arch]
• Rethinking Dead Mall: Reconsidering an American Vacant Mall Site as a Seed for Re-Growth // Md Abu Baker Siddique [M.Arch]
• A Deep Breath of Art // Sara Alkhatib [M.Arch]
• Healing and Reintegrating in the City: Urban Infill as a Sanctuary for Jane Doe // Sharon An [M.Arch]
• Developer by Design // Brett Cline [M.Arch]
• Low Carbon Architecture: New Approach Toward Sustainability in Relation to Existing Buildings // Mahsa Hedayati [M.Arch]
• Cohabiting Third Place: Integrating Natural Hydrology with Healing Architecture // Sumayia Binte Samad [M.Arch]
• Home is Here: Community and Health Center // Juan Pablo Urey Fernandez [M.Arch]

by Yeonho Lee (MArch II ’24)…

Grace La and James Dallman, Faculty Advisors

Spring 2024

Learning from Quartzsite, AZ: Emerging Nomadic Spatial Practices in America

by Mojtaba Nabavi (MAUD ’24) Quartzsite, in Arizona, is a popular winter home base…

Rahul Mehrotra and Eve Blau , Faculty Advisors

How to (Un)build a House? A Reinvention of Wood Framing

by Clara Mu He (MArch I…

Toshiko Mori , Faculty Advisor

Seeding Grounds: Working Beyond Arcadia in The Pyrocene

by Stewart Crane Sarris (MLA I ’24) From drought, to fire, Australia’s landscapes face multiple existential…

Craig Douglas , Faculty Advisor

Reforesting Fort Ord

by Slide Kelly (MLA I AP, MDes ’24) This thesis examines the potential for…

Amy Whitesides , Faculty Advisor

Project Kin

by Priyanka Pillai (MDE ’24) and Julius Stein (MDE ’24) When conflict arises from humanitarian crises, families…

Kathleen Brandenburg and Karen Reuther , Faculty Advisors

INSURGENT GEOLOGY: Mineral Matters in the Arctic

by Melanie Louterbach (MLA I ’24) “Insurgent Geology” is about oil, fossils, power, and people.

2023 Peter Rice Prize: Sujie Park’s “Material Alchemy”

by Sujie Park (MArch I ’23) — Recipient of the Peter Rice Prize. The history…

Andrew Witt and Martin Bechthold , Faculty Advisors

Spring 2023

2023 Urban Planning Thesis Prize: Michael Zajakowski Uhll’s “Our History is our Resource:” Historic Narrative as Urban Planning Strategy in Chicago’s Pullman Neighborhood

by Michael Zajakowski Uhll (MUP ’23) — Recipient of the Urban Planning Thesis Prize. How…

Rachel Meltzer , Faculty Advisor

2023 James Templeton Kelley Prize: Jacqueline Wong’s “An Intrinsic Model for a Non-Neutral Plural National School”

by Jacqueline Wong (MArch I ’23) — Recipient of the James Templeton Kelley Prize, Master…

Sergio Lopez-Pineiro, Faculty Advisor

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MA & PhD in Architecture

Ucla architecture and urban design offers two academic graduate degrees: the master of arts in architecture (ma) and doctor of philosophy in architecture (phd)..

The programs produce students whose scholarship aims to provoke and operate within architecture’s public, professional, and scholarly constituencies. Both programs are supported by the Standing Committee, made up of five faculty members: Michael Osman (MA/PhD program director), Cristóbal Amunátegui , Dana Cuff , Samaa Elimam , and Ayala Levin . A number of visiting faculty teach courses to expand the range of offerings.

Applications for the MA/PhD program (Fall 2024 matriculation) are completed via the UCLA Application for Graduate Admission , and are due January 6, 2024. Candidates will be notified of decisions in March 2024; admitted candidates who wish to accept the offer of matriculation must submit their Statement of Intent to Register (SIR) by April 15, 2024.

All MA and PhD students are required to enroll in a two-year colloquium focused on methods for writing, teaching, and researching in the field of architecture. The six courses that constitute the colloquium train students in the apparatus of academic scholarship. Over the two-year sequence, students produce original research projects and develop skills in long-format writing.

Research Opportunities

The intellectual life of the students in the MA and PhD programs are reinforced by the increasing number of opportunities afforded to students through specialized faculty-led research projects. These include cityLAB-UCLA and the Urban Humanities Institute .

MA in Architecture

This program prepares students to work in a variety of intellectual and programmatic milieus including historical research, cultural studies, and interdisciplinary studies with particular emphasis on connections with geography, design, art history, history of science and literary studies, as well as studio and design based research.

Beyond the core colloquium, MA students take a series of approved courses both at UCLA AUD and across campus. The MA program is a two-year degree, culminating in a thesis. The thesis is developed from a paper written by the student in their coursework and developed in consultation with the primary advisor and the standing committee. In addition to courses and individual research, students often participate in collective, project-based activities, including publications, symposia and exhibitions.

The program is distinguished by its engagement with contemporary design and historical techniques as well by the unusual balance it offers: fostering great independence and freedom in the students’ courses of study while providing fundamental training in architectural scholarship.

Recent MA Theses

• Jacqueline Meyer, “Crafting Utopia: Paolo Soleri and the Building of Arcosanti.”
• Joseph Maguid, “The Architecture of the Videogame: Architecture as the Link Between Representational and Participatory Immersion.”
• Meltem Al, “The Agency of Words and Images in the Transformation of Istanbul: The Case of Ayazma.”
• Courtney Coffman, “Addressing Architecture and Fashion: On Simulacrum, Time and Poché.”
• Joseph Ebert, “Prolegomena to a Poiesis of Architectural Phenomenology.”
• Jamie Aron, “Women Images: From the Bauhaus Weaving Workshop to the Knoll Textile Division.”
• Gustave Heully, “Moldy Assumptions.”
• Brigid McManama, “Interventions on Pacoima Wash: Repurposing Linear Infrastructure into Park Spaces.”

MA Typical Study Program

PhD in Architecture

This program prepares students to enter the academic professions, either in architectural history, architectural design, or other allied fields. PhD students are trained to teach courses in the history and theory of architecture while also engaging in studio pedagogy and curatorial work. In addition to the colloquium, PhD students take a series of approved courses both at UCLA Architecture and Urban Design and across campus. They select these courses in relation to their own research interests and in consultation with their primary advisor. The priorities for selection are breadth of knowledge and interdisciplinary experience that retains a focused area of expertise. To this end, the students identify Major and Minor Fields of study. The Minor Field is generally fulfilled by satisfactorily completing three courses given by another department and the Major Field by five courses offered by UCLA Architecture and Urban Design.

Once coursework is completed, PhD students move to the Comprehensive Exam, Qualifying Exam, and the writing of a dissertation, and final defense, if deemed appropriate by the doctoral committee. In the transition from coursework to exams, PhD students work on one paper beyond its original submission as coursework. The paper begins in the context of a departmental seminar, but often continues either in the context of an independent study, summer mentorship, or a second seminar with faculty consent. Upon the research paper’s acceptance, students begin preparing for their comprehensive exam. Before their third year, students must also satisfactorily complete three quarters of language study or its equivalent according to University standards. The particular language will be determined in consultation with the Standing Committee. The Comprehensive Exam is administered by at least two members of the Standing Committee and at most one faculty member from another Department at UCLA, also a member of the Academic Senate.

The Comprehensive Exam tests two fields: the first covers a breadth of historical knowledge—300 years at minimum—and the second focuses on in-depth knowledge of a specialization that is historically and thematically circumscribed. Students submit an abstract on each of these fields, provide a substantial bibliography, and prepare additional documentation requested by their primary advisor. These materials are submitted to the committee no less than two weeks before the exam, which occurs as early as the end of the second year. Students are encouraged to complete the Comprehensive Exam no later than the end of their third year of study.

The Comprehensive Exam itself consists of two parts: an oral component that takes place first, and then a written component. The oral component is comprised of questions posed by the committee based on the student’s submitted materials. The goal of the exam is for students to demonstrate their comprehensive knowledge of their chosen field. The written component of the exam (which may or may not be waived by the committee) consists of a written response to a choice of questions posed by the committee. The goal of this portion of the exam is for students to demonstrate their research skills, their ability to develop and substantiate an argument, and to show promise of original contribution to the field. Students have two weeks to write the exam. After the committee has read the exam, the advisor notifies the student of the committee’s decision. Upon the student’s successful completion of the Comprehensive Exam, they continue to the Qualifying Exam.

Students are expected to take the Qualifying Exam before the beginning of the fourth year. The exam focuses on a dissertation prospectus that a student develops with their primary advisor and in consultation with their PhD committee. Each student’s PhD committee consists of at least two members of the Standing Committee and one outside member from another department at the University (and a member of the Faculty Senate). Committees can also include faculty from another institution. All committees are comprised of at least three members of UCLA Academic Senate. The prospectus includes an argument with broad implications, demonstrates that the dissertation will make a contribution of knowledge and ideas to the field, demonstrates mastery of existing literature and discourses, and includes a plan and schedule for completion.

The PhD dissertation is written after the student passes the qualifying exam, at which point the student has entered PhD candidacy. The dissertation is defended around the sixth year of study. Students graduating from the program have taken posts in a wide range of universities, both in the United States and internationally.

Recent PhD Dissertations

• Marko Icev, "Building Solidarity: Architecture After Disaster and The Skopje 1963 Post-Earthquake Reconstruction." ( Read )
• Anas Alomaim, "Nation Building in Kuwait, 1961-1991."
• Tulay Atak, “Byzantine Modern: Displacements of Modernism in Istanbul.”
• Ewan Branda, “Virtual Machines: Culture, telematique, and the architecture of information at Centre Beaubourg, 1968–1977.”
• Aaron Cayer, "Design and Profit: Architectural Practice in the Age of Accumulation"
• Per-Johan Dahl, “Code Manipulation, Architecture In-Between Universal and Specific Urban Spaces.”
• Penelope Dean, “Delivery without Discipline: Architecture in the Age of Design.”
• Miriam Engler, “Gordon Cullen and the ‘Cut-and-Paste’ Urban Landscape.”
• Dora Epstein-Jones, “Architecture on the Move: Modernism and Mobility in the Postwar.”
• Sergio Figueiredo, “The Nai Effect: Museological Institutions and the Construction of Architectural Discourse.”
• Jose Gamez, “Contested Terrains: Space, Place, and Identity in Postcolonial Los Angeles.”
• Todd Gannon, “Dissipations, Accumulations, and Intermediations: Architecture, Media and the Archigrams, 1961–1974.”
• Whitney Moon, "The Architectural Happening: Diller and Scofidio, 1979-89"
• Eran Neuman, “Oblique Discourses: Claude Parent and Paul Virilio’s Oblique Function Theory and Postwar Architectural Modernity.”
• Alexander Ortenberg, “Drawing Practices: The Art and Craft of Architectural Representation.”
• Brian Sahotsky, "The Roman Construction Process: Building the Basilica of Maxentius"
• Marie Saldana, “A Procedural Reconstruction of the Urban Topography of Magnesia on The Maeander.”
• David Salomon, “One Thing or Another: The World Trade Center and the Implosion of Modernism.”
• Ari Seligmann, “Architectural Publicity in the Age of Globalization.”
• Zheng Tan, “Conditions of The Hong Kong Section: Spatial History and Regulatory Environment of Vertically Integrated Developments.”
• Jon Yoder, “Sight Design: The Immersive Visuality of John Lautner.”

A Sampling of PhD Alumni and Their Pedagogy

Iman Ansari , Assistant Professor of Architecture, the Knowlton School, Ohio State University

Tulay Atak , Adjunct Associate Professor, Pratt School of Architecture

Shannon Starkey , Associate Professor of Architecture, University of San Diego

Ece Okay , Affiliate Research, Université De Pau Et Des Pays De L'adour

Zheng Tan , Department of Architecture, Tongji University

Pelin Yoncaci , Assistant Professor, Department Of Architecture, Middle East Technical University

José L.S. Gámez , Interim Dean, College of Arts + Architecture, UNC Charlotte

Eran Neuman , Professor, School of Architecture, Tel Aviv University

Marie Saldana , Assistant Professor, School of Interior Architecture, University of Tennessee - Knoxville

Sergio M. Figueiredo , Assistant Professor, Eindhoven University of Technology

Rebecca Choi , Assistant Professor of Architecture History, School of Architecture, Tulane University

Will Davis , Lecturer in History, Theory and Criticism, Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore

Maura Lucking , Faculty, School of Architecture & Urban Planning, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

Kyle Stover , Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, Montana State University

Alex Maymind , Assistant Professor of Architecture and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Architecture, University of Minnesota

Gary Riichirō Fox , visiting faculty member at Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) and lecturer at USC School of Architecture

Randy Nakamura , Adjunct Professor, College of Arts and Sciences, University of San Francisco

Aaron Cayer , Assistant Professor of Architecture History, School of Architecture + Planning, University of New Mexico

Whitney Moon , Associate Professor of Architecture, School of Architecture & Urban Planning, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

Todd Gannon , Professor of Architecture, the Knowlton School, Ohio State University

Dora Epstein Jones , Professor of Practice, School of Architecture, the University of Texas at Austin

Sarah Hearne , Assistant Professor, College of Architecture and Planning, University of Colorado Denver

PhD Typical Study Program

*The choice of language to fulfill this requirement must be discussed with the Ph.D. Standing Committee

Our Current PhD Cohort

AUD's cohort of PhD candidates are leaders in their fields of study, deepening their scholarship at AUD and at UCLA while sharing their knowledge with the community.

Adam Boggs is a sixth year Ph.D candidate and interdisciplinary artist, scholar, educator and Urban Humanist. His research and teaching interests include the tension between creativity and automation, craft-based epistemologies, and the social and material history of architecture at the U.S.-Mexico border. He holds a BFA in Sculpture Cum Laude from the Ohio State University, and an MFA in Visual Art from the State University of New York at Purchase College. Prior to joining the doctoral program at UCLA he participated in courses in Architecture (studio and history) at Princeton University and Cornell University. His dissertation analyzes the history of indigenous labor during the Mexican baroque period to form a comparative analysis with the 20th century Spanish revival architecture movement in Southern California and how the implementation of the style along the U.S.-Mexico border might function as a Lefebvrian “thirdspace” that disrupts binary thinking. In Spring 2024 he will teach an undergraduate seminar course at AUD on the history of architecture at the U.S.-Mexico border as part of the CUTF program.

Hanyu Chen is a second-year doctoral student at UCLA AUD. Her research focuses on the intersection between (sub)urban studies, heritage conservation, and the genders of the space. Specifically, it concerns the dynamics of genders in (sub)urban areas and how these dynamics are conserved as heritage. Born and raised in China for her first 18 years, Hanyu chose the conservation of comfort stations in China as her master's thesis at the University of Southern California, where she earned her master’s degree in Heritage Conservation and officially started her journey in architecture. Her thesis discusses the fluidity and genders of comfort stations and how they survive in contemporary China’s heritage conservation policies.

Hanyu also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in AMS (Applied Mathematics and Statistics) and Art History from Stony Brook University.

Yixuan Chen

Yixuan Chen is an architectural designer and a first-year doctoral student in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design at UCLA. Driven by an impulse to demystify both the grand promises and trivial familiarities of architecture, her research embarks on the notion of everydayness to elucidate the power dynamics it reveals. She investigates the conflicts between these two ends and focuses on modernization across different times and places.

Prior to joining UCLA AUD, she was trained as an architect and graduated from the University of Nottingham's China Campus with a first-class honors degree. Her graduation project “Local Culture Preservation Centre,” which questioned the validity of monumental architecture in the climate crisis, was nominated for the RIBA President's Medal in 2016.

She also holds a Master of Arts degree with distinction in Architectural History from the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. Her dissertation, “Shijing, on the Debris of Shijing,” explores the vanishing shijing places, or urban villages, where rural migrant workers negotiate their urban identity in Chinese cities, revealing shifting power relations. Additionally, she authored an article in Prospectives Journal titled "Architectural Authorship in ‘the Last Mile,’" advocating for a change to relational architectural authorship in response to the digital revolution in architecture.

Pritam Dey is an urban designer and second-year doctoral student at UCLA AUD. His research interest lies at the intersection of colonial urbanism, sensorial history, and somatic inquiries. His architecture thesis investigated the crematorium and temple as sensorial infrastructure, and was presented at World Architecture Congress at Seoul in 2017. Previously Dey worked in the domain of urban design, specifically informal markets, as a shaper of urbanism in Indian cities. Prior to joining the AUD doctoral program, his past research focused on investigating the role of informal and wholesale markets in shaping up urbanity in the Indian city cores and co-mentored workshops on Urbanity of Chitpur Road, Kolkata with ENSAPLV, Paris which was both exhibited at Kolkata and Paris. He also co-mentored the documentation of the retrospective landscape of Hampi with the support of ENSAPLV and French Embassy. His investigations on the slums of Dharavi title ‘The tabooed city’ was published in the McGill University GLSA Research series 2021 under the theme: the city an object or subject of law?

An urban designer and architect, Pritam Dey pursued his post graduation from School of planning and Architecture, Delhi. During his academic tenure at SPA, he was the recipient of 2018 Design Innovation Center Fellowship for Habitat design allowing him to work on the social infrastructure for less catered communities in the Sub Himalayan Villages. In 2022 He mentored a series of exhibitions on the theme of Water, Mountains and Bodies at Ahmadabad.

He was the 2022-23 Urban Humanities Initiatives Fellow at UCLA and recipient of 2023 UCLA Center for India and South Asia fellowship for his summer research.

Carrie Gammell

Carrie Gammell is a doctoral candidate working at the intersection of architectural history, property law, and political economy. Her research focuses on claims, investments, and intermediary organizations in the United States, from the Homestead Act of 1862 to the Housing Act of 1934.

Carrie is also a Senior Research Associate at cityLAB UCLA, where she studies state appropriations for California community college student housing. In the past, she contributed to Education Workforce Housing in California: Developing the 21st Century Campus, a report and companion handbook that provides a comprehensive overview of the potential for land owned by school districts to be designed and developed for teachers and other employees.

Prior to joining AUD, Carrie worked as an architectural designer in Colombia and the United States, where she built a portfolio of affordable housing, multi-family residential, and single-family residential projects as well as civic and cultural renovations and additions. She holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Rice University and a Master in Design Studies (Critical Conservation) from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Anirudh Gurumoorthy

Anirudh Gurumoorthy is a PhD candidate at UCLA AUD. His dissertation, tentatively titled (Un)Certain Tropics and the Architecture of Certain Commodities, 1803-1926, focuses on the spatial and environmental histories of natural history/sciences in the long-nineteenth century as it related to the political economy of empire within South Asia. He is interested in the ways the materiality of commodity extraction and production contends with how, where, and why certain ‘tropical’ animals, vegetables, and minerals are attributed with a metropolitan sense of ‘value’. Moving from the United States to Britain (and back) through various parts of the Indian Ocean world as markets for singular forms of ice, rubber, and cattle form, peak, and collapse, the dissertation ultimately aims to reveal interconnected spatial settings of knowledge, control, regulation, display, and labor where knowledge systems, technical limits, human and nonhuman action/inaction, differentiated senses of environments and value continually contend with each other to uphold the fetishes of the world market. Gurumoorthy holds a B.Arch. from R.V. College of Architecture, Bangalore, and an M.Des in the History and Philosophy of Design and Media from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Chi-Chia Hou

Chi-Chia Hou is a doctoral candidate in his sixth year at UCLA AUD. His working dissertation, “New Frontier: Architecture and Service 1893-1960,” explores his interest in architecture and wealth, changing ideas of profit and management, and social scientific discourses for measuring work and worker, self and others, and values of landed property.

His research locates moments of theorizing methodologies to manage income-generating properties in schools of agriculture, home economics, and hotel studies. The schools taught their students theories, while instilling the imminence of faithful direction of oneself, of self-as-property. The pedagogies, existing beyond the purview of Architecture, were of immense architectural consideration.

Chi-Chia Hou took a break from school in the previous academic year to learn from his daughter and has now returned to school to learn from his brilliant cohorts.

Adam Lubitz

Adam Lubitz is an urban planner, heritage conservationist, and doctoral student. His research engages the intersection of critical heritage studies and migration studies, with an emphasis on how archival information can inform reparations. His community-based research has been most recently supported by the Columbia GSAPP Incubator Prize as well as the Ziman Center for Real Estate and Leve Center for Jewish Studies at UCLA.

Prior to joining AUD, Adam worked at World Monuments Fund within their Jewish Heritage Program, and taught GIS coursework at Barnard College. His master's thesis applied field research with experimental mapping techniques in the old town of a municipality in Palestine. Adam holds MS degrees in Historic Preservation and Urban Planning from Columbia University and a BA in Urban Studies from New College of Florida.

José Monge is a PhD candidate in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design. His dissertation, titled Maritime Labor, Candles, and the Architecture of the Enlightenment (1750-1872) , focuses on the role that whale-originated illuminants, specifically spermaceti candles and oil, played in the American Enlightenment as an intellectual project and the U.S. as a country. By unravelling the tension between binaries such as intellectual and manual labor–the consumers that bought these commodities and the producers that were not able to afford them–the project understands architecture as a history of activities that moved from sea to land and land to sea, challenging assumptions about the static “nature” of architecture.

Kurt Pelzer

Kurt Pelzer is a fourth-year PhD candidate at UCLA AUD. Their research explores the relational histories, material flows, and politics of land in and beyond California in the long nineteenth century during the United States parks, public lands, and conservation movements.

Their current scholarship traces the settler possession and exhibitionary display of a Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) in the 1850s; an act that contested the ways Miwok peoples ancestral to California's Sierra Nevada knew and related to life and land. Their broader interests include histories of colonialism and capitalism in the Americas, environmental history, and Blackness and Indigeneity as a methodological analytic for political solidarities and possibilities.

Prior to arriving at UCLA, Pelzer worked at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in the Architecture and Design Curatorial Department participating in exhibitions, programming, and collections work. Pelzer completed a Master of Advanced Architectural Design in the History, Theory, and Experiments program from California College of the Arts in San Francisco, and earned their Bachelor's degree in Landscape Architecture from the College of Design at Iowa State University.

Shota Vashakmadze

Email Shota Vashakmadze

Shota Vashakmadze is a sixth-year PhD candidate at UCLA AUD. His dissertation traces the conjoined histories of architectural computing, environmental design, and professional practice in the late 20th century, adopting critical approaches to architecture’s technical substrates—the algorithms, softwares, and user protocols of computation—to examine their social and political dispositions. In his scholarship and pedagogy, he aims to situate forms of architectural labor within the profession’s ongoing acculturation to environmental crisis. Most recently, he has been leading the development of the interdisciplinary “Building Climates” cluster, a year-long course sequence at UCLA, and co-organizing an initiative dedicated to fostering discourse on climate change and architecture, including a two-day conference entitled “Architecture After a Green New Deal.”

His research has been supported by the Canadian Centre for Architecture and appeared in journals including Architectural Theory Review , The Avery Review, and Pidgin Magazine. He is currently completing a contribution to a collection on landscape representation and a chapter for an edited volume on architecture, labor, and political economy.

Shota holds an MArch from Princeton University and has a professional background in architecture, landscape, and software development. Before coming to UCLA, he researched methods for designing with point cloud data and wrote Bison, a software plugin for landscape modeling.

Alexa Vaughn

Alexa Vaughn (ASLA, FAAR) is a first year PhD student in Architecture + Urban Design and a Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellow , from Long Beach, California. She is a Deaf landscape designer, accessibility specialist, consultant, and recent Fellow of the American Academy in Rome (2022-23). She is a visionary speaker, thought leader, prolific writer and researcher, and the author of “ DeafScape : Applying DeafSpace to Landscape,” which has been featured in numerous publications.

Her professional work is centered upon designing public landscapes with and for the Deaf and disabled communities, applying legal standards and Universal Design principles alongside lived experience and direct participation in the design process. She is an expert in designing landscapes for the Deaf community (DeafScape) and in facilitation of disabled community engagement. Prior to joining the A+UD program, Alexa worked for several landscape architecture firms over the course of six years, including OLIN and MIG, Inc.

Through a disability justice lens, her dissertation will seek to formally explore the historical exclusionary and inaccessible design of American urban landscapes and public spaces, as well as the response (activism, policy, and design) to this history through the present and speculative future. She will also actively take part in activist- and practice-based research with cityLAB and the Urban Humanities Institute .

Alexa holds both a BA in Landscape Architecture (with a minor in Conservation and Resource Studies) and a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture (MLA) from the University of California, Berkeley, with specialization in accessible and inclusive design. Much of her work can be found at www.designwithdisabledpeoplenow.com and on Instagram: @DeafScape.

Yashada Wagle

Yashada Wagle is a third year PhD student in Critical Studies at UCLA AUD, and a recipient of the department's Moss Scholarship. Her research focuses on imperial environmental-legislative regimes in British colonial India in the late nineteenth century. She is interested in exploring questions around the histories of spaces of extraction and production as they network between the metropole and the colony, and their relationship with the conceptions of laboring bodies therein. Her master's thesis focused on the Indian Forest Act of 1865, and elucidated the conceptualization of the space of the ‘forest’ through the lenses of its literary, legislative, and biopolitical trajectories, highlighting how these have informed its contemporary lived materiality.

Wagle holds a Bachelor in Architecture (BArch) from the Savitribai Phule Pune University in India, and a Master in Design Studies (History and Philosophy of Design and Media) from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She was previously a Research Fellow at the Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture and Environmental Studies (KRVIA) in Mumbai, India.

In her spare time, Wagle enjoys illustrating and writing poetry, some of which can be found here .

Dexter Walcott

Dexter Walcott is a registered architect currently in his fifth year with the Critical Studies of Architecture program at UCLA. His research focuses on the Latrobe family and early nineteenth century builders in the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys. He is interested in the role of the built environment in histories of labor, capitalism, steam-power, and industry.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Joy is a fifth-year PhD student in architecture history. Her research explores geology as antiquity from early 19th – 20th century British colonial Hong Kong and China. She holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature with a focus in German from Middlebury College in 2017, and is a graduate of The New Normal program at Strelka Institute, Moscow in 2018. Previously, she has taught in the Department of Architecture at University of Hong Kong, as well as the Department of Design at Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

After working as a curatorial assistant at Tai Kwun Contemporary in 2019, she has continued the practice of art writing and translation, collaborating with many local Hong Kong artists as well as international curators such as Raimundas Malašauskas. In her spare time, she practices long-distance open water swimming. In 2022, she completed a 30km course at the South of Lantau Island, Hong Kong.

The MA and PhD programs welcome and accept applications from students with a diverse range of backgrounds. These programs are designed to help those interested in academic work in architecture develop those skills, so we strongly encourage that you become familiar with fundamental, celebrated works in the history and theory of architecture before entering the program.

Applicants to the academic graduate programs must hold a Bachelor’s degree, or the foreign equivalent. All new students must enter in the fall quarter. The program is full-time and does not accept part-time students.

Applications for the MA and PhD programs (Fall 2024 matriculation) will be available in Fall 2023, with application deadline of January 6, 2024; please revisit this page for updates. Accepted candidates who wish to enroll must file an online Statement of Intent to Register (SIR) by April 15, 2024.

How to Apply

Applying to the MA and PhD programs is an online process via the UCLA Application for Graduate Admission (AGA).

Completing the requirements will take some time, so we strongly recommend logging in to the AGA in advance to familiarize yourself with the site and downloading the documents and forms you will need to complete your application.

You can also download this checklist to make sure you have prepared and submitted all the relevant documents to complete your application.

Your Statement of Purpose is a critical part of your application to the MA and PhD programs. It is your opportunity to introduce yourself and tell us about your specific academic background, interests, achievements, and goals. Our selection committee use it to evaluate your aptitude for study, as well as consideration for merit-based financial support.

Your statement can be up to 1500 words in length. Below are some questions you might want to consider. You don’t need to answer every question; just focus on the elements that are most relevant to you.

• What is your purpose in applying to the MA or PhD program? Describe your area(s) of research interest, including any areas of concentration and specialization.
• What experiences have prepared you for this program? What relevant skills have you gained from these experiences? Have your experiences led to specific or tangible outcomes that would support your potential to contribute to this field (e.g. performances, publications, presentations, awards or recognitions)?
• What other information about your past experience might help the selection committee in evaluating your suitability for this program? E.g. research, employment, teaching, service, artistic or international experiences through which you have developed skills in leadership, communication, project management, teamwork, or other areas.
• Why is UCLA Architecture and Urban Design the best place for you to pursue your academic goals?
• What are your plans for your career after earning this degree?

Your Personal Statement is your opportunity to provide additional information to help the selection committee evaluate your aptitude for study. It will also be used to consider candidates for UCLA Graduate Division fellowships related to diversity. You can read more about the University of California Diversity Statement here .

Your statement can be up to 500 words in length. Below are some questions you might want to consider. You don’t need to answer every question; just focus on the elements that are most relevant to you.

• Are there educational, personal, cultural, economic, or social experiences, not described in your Statement of Purpose, that have shaped your academic journey? If so, how? Have any of these experiences provided unique perspective(s) that you would contribute to your program, field or profession?
• Describe challenge(s) or barriers that you have faced in your pursuit of higher education. What motivated you to persist, and how did you overcome them? What is the evidence of your persistence, progress or success?
• How have your life experiences and educational background informed your understanding of the barriers facing groups that are underrepresented in higher education?
• How have you been actively engaged (e.g., through participation, employment, service, teaching or other activities) in programs or activities focused on increasing participation by groups that have been historically underrepresented in higher education?
• How do you intend to engage in scholarly discourse, research, teaching, creative efforts, and/or community engagement during your graduate program that have the potential to advance diversity and equal opportunity in higher education?
• How do you see yourself contributing to diversity in your profession after you complete your academic degree at UCLA Architecture and Urban Design?

A Curriculum Vitae (résumé of your academic and professional experience) is recommended but not required.

Applicants must upload a scanned copy of the official transcripts from each college or university you have attended both in the U.S. and abroad. If you are accepted into the program you will be required to submit hard copies. These can either be sent directly from each institution or hand-delivered as long as they remain in the official, signed, sealed envelopes from your college or university. As a general rule, UCLA Graduate Division sets a minimum required overall grade-point average of 3.0 (B), or the foreign equivalent.

As of this Fall 2023 cycle, the GRE is NOT required as part of your application to UCLA AUD. No preference will be given to those who choose to submit GRE scores as part of their application.

However, if you do take the GRE exam and wish to include it as part of your application: More information on this standardized exam can be found at www.ets.org/gre . In addition to uploading your GRE scores, please direct ETS to send us your official score sheets. Our ETS codes for the GRE are below:

UCLA Architecture and Urban Design Institution Code: 4837 Department Code: 4401

We recommend you take the exam at least three weeks before the application deadline as it usually takes 2-3 weeks for ETS to send us the test scores.

If you have received a Bachelor’s degree in a country where the official language of instruction and primary spoken language of daily life is not English, you must submit either a Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or an International English Language Testing System (IELTS). Exempt countries include Australia, Barbados, Canada, Ireland, Jamaica, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. This is a requirement that is regardless of your visa or citizenship status in the United States.

To be considered for admission to the M.Arch. program, international students must score at least a 92 on the TOEFL or a 7 on the IELTS exam. Because processing, sending, and receiving TOEFL and IELTS scores can take several weeks, international students must schedule their exam no later than October 31 in order to meet UCLA deadlines. TOEFL scores must be sent to us directly and uploaded as part of the online submission. Our ETS codes for the TOEFL are below:

UCLA Architecture and Urban Design Institution Code: 4837 Department Code: 12

If your score is less than 100 on the TOEFL or 7.5 on the IELTS, you are also required to take the English as a Second Language Placement Examination (ESLPE) on arrival at UCLA. The results of this test will determine any English as a Second Language (ESL) courses you need to take in your first term of residence. These courses cannot be applied towards your minimum course requirements. As such, you should expect to have a higher course load than students not required to take ESL courses.

If you have earned a degree or completed two years of full-time college-level coursework in the following countries, your TOEFL / IELTS and ESLPE requirements will be waived: U.S., U.K., Canada (other than Quebec), Australia, and New Zealand. Please provide official transcripts to demonstrate course completion. Unfortunately, we cannot accept any other documentation to demonstrate language proficiency.

Three (3) letters of recommendation are required. These letters should be from individuals who are familiar with your academic and professional experiences and can evaluate your capacity to successfully undertake graduate studies at UCLA. If you do not have an architecture background please note that we are looking for letters that evaluate your potential as a graduate student, not necessarily your architecture experience.

Letters of recommendation must be sent electronically directly to UCLA by the recommender. When logged in, you can enter the name and email address of each of your recommenders. They will be contacted by email with a request to submit a letter on your behalf. You can track which letters have and have not been received. You can also send reminders to your recommenders to send their letters.

Writing samples should illustrate an applicant’s capacities for research, analytical writing and scholarly citation. Texts may include seminar papers, theses, and/or professional writing.

Please complete and submit the Department Supplement Form to confirm your intention to apply to the MA or PhD program.

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Architecture Thesis Prep

Assistive Intelligence: Replication and Mediation of Modern , Madeline Alves, Kimberly Esquilin, Pramita Mital, Erin Zearfoss, Julia Kubowoski, and Chloe DeMarco

Suppression | Liberation: Memorial to the LGBTQ + Holocaust Victims , Justin Difabritis

Dissolve of Living Space: Living Space Under the Development of Metaverse , Wenting Feng and Nuo Lyu

Paradigm of the Post Natural: Critiquing Capitalist Ideals Through Environmental Degradation , Andrea De Haro and Charlotte Bascombe

MARS 2100: A Microcosm of Ecocentric Design , Andrea Hoe

My Abject Body: Dissimulating & Disheveling Fleshy Matter , Taylor Hoople

Immersive Inoculation: Testing if Architecture can become a form of Emotional Supplementation , Julia Kazubowsi and Chloe De Marco

Eternal Imprint: Two Libraries Linked in Time , Jaifer Sultan

The Ark: Sanctuary for ISFs , Zejun Sun and Wei Wei Li

Tectonic Thresholds: Reclaiming Space Through Geomorphological Design , Amreeta Verma

Panopticon: A Privacy Revelation , Kexin Wang and Zhexu Yang

Unearthed; Villa s(av)oil , Megha Murali

Picture Perfect: Ephemera, Icons, and Disaster , Riley Patrick

Debrisia , Alice Rong, Jing Ying Chin, and Tanya Tungkaserawong

Communion Composed: Fostering Unity Through a Nourished Architecture , David Acevedo

Latent Territories , Vasundhra Aggarwal and Jaclyn Doyle

Hidden Narratives , Diego Becerra

“Urban Corridor”: Growing the Connective Tissue of Nashville , Lindsey Brown

Mutualistic Infra\structures , Dylan Crean

Qi and Garden Wall , Gaole Dai

Entangling Manila’s Seams , Patrick de Garcia

Mycotecture of Contamination , Maria Gutierrez and Elise Zilius

Image Carnival , Kaixin Huang and Siting Xing

Dissolving Reality: An Endless Domestic Landscape , Hanzhang Lai and Phang Lim

Rethinking Participatory Design: Tools for Modelling Community Potentials , Adam Liu and Stephen Marinelli

Resembling Legitimacy: Restructuring the American Civic Architectural Myth , Estefany Lona

Living Memories: Rethinking Remembrance , Timothy Mulhall

The Politics of the Trash Heap , Kyle Neumann

Olympic Gardens After the Games , Kaylee O'Brien

Privacy Reconfigured: Examining Public Interactions Within Domestic Space , Vanessa Poe

An Interface: An Architecture that Stitches Species , Suren Sivaram

Drawing Ambulatory Cartographies: Understanding Urban Experience through Walking , Bonnie Yu

Beyond the Border: On the Contested Island , Ruxuan Zheng and Shengwei Liu

Waiting: Sidewalk Sheds and Urban Identity , Sukhmann Aneja

Alternate Americanisms , Ella Arne

Naturalizing the Neoliberal Subject, The Object: to Change the Soul , Hanneke van Deursen

An Authentic Reality , Genevieve Dominiak and Hannah Rachel Michaelson

Intentionally Unsustainable Forms for Crisis Design: Planned Obsolescence , Daniel Hogan

Spatializing Erasure: Counter-Histories on the Verge of Disappearance , Isabel Munoz and Sarah Quinn

Building Translations: Narratives on Bizarre Preservation , Alexandra Allen and Scott Michael Krabath

MATTER DIS//ASSEMBLED: Revealing the Economies and Ecologies of Aluminum , Noah Anderson

CASTING Contradictive LANDSCAPES: a thesis by sarah catherine beaudoin , Sarah Catherine Beaudoin

Embracing the American Atlantis: Designing for a Post-Disaster New Orleans , Mikayla Beckwith and Katherine Truluck

Transitional Spaces: Re-thinking of Disaster Relief Housing , Evelyn Brooks

Death of a PostHuman , David Bullard and Carolina Hasbun Elias

Surfaces of Exchange: Formulating connections and experiences in the physical and digital landscape , Brooke Calhoun and Ross Hanson

Multiplicitous Realities: Hybridizing the Virtual and the Physical , John Carino

Crude Urbanism , Ahnaf Chowdhury and Anuradha Desai

City of Brick: Spatial and Material Explorations in 21st Century Urbanism , William Collins

Finding a New Center: A study of Neo-Industrial America , Juliet Domine and Virginia Paulk

The Cultural Mosaic: Knowledge, Conflict and the Power of Place , Shanaya Girdharlal

The New Urban Artifact , Ricardo Rodriguez Huerta

Mediating Propagated Consumption: Integrated Shielding for a Wireless World , Olivia Humphrey

Volcano: Tools + Projections , Sang Ha Jung and Young Joon Yun

Political Archipelago: Repoliticizing Post-Umbrella Revolution Hong Kong , Dora Yui Kei Lo

re-Wildin Detroit: Return of a blighted city back to nature , Nivedita Keshri and Shreeya Shakya

Relink Tangible and Intangible , Weibin Lao and Xiaobai Zhao

Imitation & Dissimulation , Weiqiao Lin

2047 City , Mike Liu and Raul Sadhwani

[Chinese Urban Villages Research] , Yan Liu

Old Buildings, Progressive Forms: Exploring Radical Methods of Historic Preservation , Ian Masters

Emoji Disorder , Doria Miller and Irving Shen

P.E.T.S.: Personal. Empathic. Topological. Series. , Ian Mulich and Jose Sanchez

Avoiding the Real World , Ryan Oeckinghaus

Public Space with Character: A Late, Late Entry to the Chicago Central Public Library Competition , Kokeith Perry II

Vimana: A Crisis of Translation , Apoorva Rao

Urban Rangers: The Scope of Medellin through Informal Waste Collection , Christina Rubino

Gender Segregation: What does dividing space across gender mean? , Mikayla Hope Starr

Drone Mapping the 140: A Narrative of Architecture in the Conflict Zone , Rasan Taher

Growing Syracuse: The Architect's Role in Improving Syracuse, NY's Food Environment , Stephanie Wagner

Baita, Xiong’an: Towards and Alternative Urbanism , Minglu Wei and Ying Zuo

Speculative Spoliation: Spolia as an instrument of locus making & identity mediation , Amelia Gan Wen Jiun

Mirage: Architecture's Confounding Experiences , Nuofan Xu and Ziyao Zhang

Regenerative Refugee Housing: Creating Temporary Housing with Low Environmental Impact , Erika Guldner

We Die as We Live , Yücel Güven

Urban Archtifice: Regenerating Residential Facades Through Acupuncture , Ran Mei

Architecture Amidst Smog , Hui Sheng

Challenging the Pattern , Gary Thurston

The "D.A.R." Object , Zhe Wang

Rethinking "Stuff" , Jonathan Anthony

Paradise in Conflict: Let's Make Europe Great Again! , Rui Bao

Parameters for Permanence: Planning Independent Settlements for Syrian Refugee Reintegration , Katherine Barymow and Jacqueline Morin

What Is Sacred , Maxwell K. Baum

Inscrutable Places For Cyborgs , Christopher Bressler and Colin Thomas Hoover

In the Projects: Rebuilding Social Housing in New York City , Ruo Piao Chen and Caroline Jeon

Reconstruct the Missing Narrative: Rethinking Contemporary Chinese Architecture Through Ancient Landscape Paintings , Taiming Chen and Yiwei Wu

Cyber Security in an Age of Insecurity , Angela Copes

Learning from the Informal , Cherif Farid

Y'all Come Back Now, Ya Hear: A Reflection on Tourism and the Carnivalesque , Kolby Forbes

Public Domesticities , Taylor Hagan

Life as a House: A Manifesto for the New Iconic House , Ana Paola Hernandez Derbez and Domenica Velasco

A Re-Application of Neo-Plasticism: De Stijl Architecture in a Contemporary Context , Tyler Holdren

Provisional Permanence , Ian M. Jackson and Matthew J. Marinelli

The Public Sky-Spacer , Piotr Jankowski

Details Matter: Architecture is Understood as a Sum of Its Details , Rajkumar Kadam

Atlas of Walls: Wall Speculations , Casiana Kennedy

Charon's Passage: The Journey to Nimiety , Nicholas Kronauer

Character & Features: Reframing the Everyday Through What It's Not and What It's Near , Paul Lee

Urban Amnesia , Teriya Lee

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Designing the School of the Future: Multifunctional Spaces for Dynamic Learning

• Written by Camilla Ghisleni | Translated by Diogo Simões
• Published on August 21, 2024

The 21st century has dramatically transformed school architecture , driven by new educational philosophies, technological progress, and social values emphasizing sustainability and inclusion . This change goes beyond mere aesthetics, deeply reshaping how physical spaces contribute to education . Traditional narrow hallways and rows of desks have been replaced by dynamic, flexible spaces that are well-integrated with their surroundings and the community. These modern designs prioritize versatility and multifunctionality.

Traditional school buildings typically featured standardized classrooms and hallways used only for moving between spaces. They had few shared areas and offered limited opportunities for interaction among students and staff. In contrast, modern school spaces are multifunctional and often interconnected, both internally and with the outside environment. They feature vibrant colors and materials that reflect the identity of the institution and its students. Hallways become gathering places, bleachers are used for dance rehearsals, and walls serve as projectors. Labels and rigid designations are no longer welcome.

Moving away from traditional, rigid structures towards adaptable spaces acknowledges that effective learning does not always happen in a conventional environment. Multifunctionality goes beyond simply using movable furniture; it involves creating spaces that can change in terms of acoustics, color, lighting, and materials, while also considering interactivity and technology . In this way, the school becomes a tool that teachers can adjust to meet the demands of ever-evolving education.

Several studies support the importance of adaptability in school spaces. The global report " Future of the Classroom " by Google for Education , which analyzes educational data worldwide, highlights the trend towards flexible spaces. The report shows that in the United States, classrooms with hybrid designs outperformed 91% of traditional schools in reading and math tests.

In practice, the Casa Fundamental Kindergarten in Brazil exemplifies this approach by offering flexible spaces that adapt to changing teaching needs throughout the year. Classrooms can be combined into a large area that supports different layouts. Similarly, the Hongling Experimental Primary School in China enhances flexibility with its drum-shaped design. This shape allows for greater adaptability compared to traditional rectangular classrooms. The curved, rhythmic design of the learning units and the rounded edge of the courtyard create a dynamic outdoor space for children.

The multifunctionality of school spaces is also crucial when addressing technology in an environment of constant change and innovation. The new generation of students has grown up in a world dominated by intuitive devices and instant information. They seek collaborative learning, advanced technology, sustainable buildings, and dynamic environments that align with their evolving interests. For instance, the shift from computer labs to laptops and portable devices has transformed teaching and classroom design, requiring schools to provide greater power and connectivity. This evolution challenges architects and educators to quickly anticipate and meet the new needs of students.

The Jätkäsaari Comprehensive School in Finland , known for its innovative education, has flexible spaces with few fixed elements, designed to adapt to future needs. This approach provides an inspiring learning environment and evolves alongside its users. The aim is to create multifunctional areas that encourage children to learn and collaborate while being adaptable to future changes and innovations.

A truly flexible and adaptable school must meet the needs of students, teachers, and administrators, and to effectively respond to future changes and challenges, it should also serve the surrounding community. In this regard, Colombia , which has also made strides in school infrastructure—albeit from a different perspective than Finland—champions the democratization of education through quality architecture in underserved areas. Notably, the Educational Institute La Samaria stands out with its hybrid spaces designed to serve both students and the local community. The school's first floor includes the library, a multipurpose hall, an internet room, laboratories, and art rooms, all with independent access and logistics to facilitate community weekend use. This approach enhances the school's public role, making it a vital community asset integrated into the neighborhood.

These examples represent just a few of the many school environments that embrace a holistic understanding of education, highlighting the critical role of architecture in the learning experience. Multifunctional spaces are crucial for navigating an uncertain and ever-evolving future, equipping schools to address various challenges and meet the needs of students, teachers, and communities both now and in the years to come.

This article is part of the ArchDaily Topics : Multi-Purpose Spaces . Every month we explore a topic in-depth through articles, interviews, news, and architecture projects. We invite you to learn more about our ArchDaily Topics . And, as always, at ArchDaily we welcome the contributions of our readers; if you want to submit an article or project, contact us .

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B.Arch Thesis – The Neighbourhood School, by Akshay Mirajkar, Rachana Sansad Academy of Architecture,

• October 12, 2017

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B.Arch Thesis by Akshay Mirajkar | Rachana Sansad Academy of Architecture.

In the recent times, the field of education has witnessed numerous variations on a large scale. Due to the rising commercial aspect, schools are becoming grander in terms of garnering the image of being the best one in its field. In order to sustain in this competition, schools tend to market themselves through various lucrative offers, thereby rendering the students as mere consumers of a product. Over the years, School marketing, in India and across the world, has become a booming industry, and is set to grow even further as the focus of schools is on building sustainable brands. Research shows that marketing spends are on the rise in response to the increased competition for students, staff, and resources. The aim is to attract and increase the quality of students every year, retain top faculty, increase student placement opportunities through continuous interaction with businesses, optimize cost of achievement per candidate. Also, in this scenario, misleading architectural imagery plays a significant role where it becomes the platform to attract the consumers.

Due to this rat race, quality of education suffers the most as the schools are evolving with providing various infrastructural facilities, but the quality of space required for learning has remained constant or is left unexplored. Firstly, through documentation of two city schools; the thesis studies the existing schooling scenario. Thus, after drawing conclusions from the above study, the thesis tries to answer the needs of the city through a design project.

Documentation and Analysis of two city Schools

The LFS has an oval shaped layout with a single loaded corridor connecting all the programs having service cores at each ends. Due to the large scale volume of the atrium, the noise coming from children playing in the central space causes a nuisance to the classrooms on the ground as well as the floors above. Also, the hotel like lobby space (without any windows opening on to the corridor) and the standardised composition of the programs hampers the curiosity amongst the students.

The layout of BCS consists of a long and narrow corridor which connects the classrooms in the middle and resource centres and staff space at each ends, having two service cores for the working staff and the students. The scale of the lobby causes a nuisance to the classrooms due to the noise coming from children walking or playing in the lobby and also creates a sense of suffocation, as the only opening is at the end of corridor. The hotel like lobby space and the standardised cell like composition of the programs hamper the curiosity amongst the students. On comparing the classrooms, the scale as well treatment of the interiors of them for different user age group remains the same throughout.

After studying the existing situation, it is clear that there are various schools in the city imparting education through diverse approaches, with each having its own scale of conduct. Theoretically speaking, the learning environment required for each of them should be different, based on their principles of functioning. But in practice, a standardise plan of a double or single loaded corridor with classrooms and other program spaces on either sides becomes the common ground when it comes to formulating a dedicated space for the same.

Looking at the documentation of the city based schools; the most striking flaw, which requires serious attention, would be the failure to address the curiosity of the child at any given age. Children at any age, have a tendency to know about what their schoolmates are learning, irrespective of the age group. With a walled – fortress like classroom, this desire of the child often gets unanswered.

Another major area of concern is the ignorance towards the scale of spaces. In order to maximise the space and avoid any complicated structural arrangement, the scale of the classrooms as well as other program spaces remain the same throughout all the age groups. Due to this, there is a sense of reluctance amongst the students to familiarize with the school space.

Finally, the quality of space, which differs from each institution, requires instant consideration. The learning environment required for each age group is different and depends on their psychological growth at each stage. Use of repetitive and uninteresting as well as over stimulating visuals of spaces may create a hurdle in learning by altering their thought processes. Hence, a significant amount of energy should be spent on to create a visually inspiring learning environment with equilibrium maintained between the dull as well as over doing of spaces.

Site context

Site justification

The aim is to design an institution which promotes education with an holistic approach of learning which focuses on – finding child’s true identity, meaning and purpose of his life.

The above can be achieved through connections to community, to natural world and spiritual values. Hence, such a project requires a strong neighbourhood where cross exchange of knowledge takes place between the students and the community, thus educating both of them.

With this project, apart from learning, the intervention would serve as a core to restore harmony within its people.

The site at chinchpokli is up for redevelopment, in order to upgrade and modernize the current situation. The planned project is a school tower at the present site which will accommodate all the requirements. And thus, can be a blunder of the past mistakes.

Hence, to avoid the above scenario, the designed project will thus serve as a proposal to the redevelopment project and also, to the city as an example of a school with an out of the box approach of learning which takes cues from its own people and nature when it comes to facilitate education in a dense neighbourhood.

Analytical plans

On closely studying the movement patterns, it is clear that majority of the students, learning in this institution reside in the close proximity of the institute. Currently, the institute does not provide any seating or waiting area for the parents who have come to drop of their children. Due to this, they are forced to wait at the school gate causing traffic jam and inconvenience to other residents.

Site scenario

The part of the School building which faces the main road has been rented out for commercial activities like Doctor’s clinic, private office spaces, government post office, etc. Also, there is a line of shops thronging along the northern edge of the school plot, which is backed by an old deserted warehouse. There is a public recreational ground on the rear side of the school plot, but it does not have any official access to it. A tertiary road leads up to the open space, but it is blocked by a temple and a private office.

Program derived and Idea spring point –

The main aim of the project was to design a knowledge hub, thereby enhancing the learning process, emotionally as well as physically. The program to be derived should be based on the holistic learning of the students i.e. not binding within the four walls of the school. Hence, Special programs like a community centre is included which would encourage cross exchange of knowledge within the students and the parents as well as the society (neighbourhood). Based on the idea of interpreting ‘Education – as solving a mystery’, a series of pause points guides the program chain whereby the RG becomes the revelation in this circulation. The practice of the institution should not be bound to its students, but should also be learning as well as a social hub for the local residents. In this way, the school actually becomes an indirect connection between the neighbourhood and the recreational ground.

Design development

Based on the Idea, the situational analysis and the program chain derived, the design was developed in such a way that two third part of the plot will have the maximum programs in it (oriented by the introduction of an axis), while the one third fronting the main road will have the drop off zone (private entrance) and a small recreation area. The deserted warehouse was demolished and the shops were relocated in such a way that the roof (ramp) of the relocated shops becomes a secondary entrance to the school, thereby giving an access to programs like the Community Centre (a café, lecture hall and workshop hall) and the RG.

Exploded isometric view

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Floor plans

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One Response

Loved the design. Overall, most of the aspects has been taken care of, which is quite impressive. Though, I couldn’t see the area of the Site. Let me know if it is there and I missed out.

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Beyond Design: Challenges and Opportunities in the Indian Architectural Profession

Vinod Gupta, of Opus Indigo Studio reflects on the evolution and challenges of the Indian architectural profession, emphasizing the need for architects to reclaim responsibilities beyond design to revitalize the industry’s trajectory.

Lalli Residence, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, by My MAATI

Simple yet bold compact home, the Lalli residence in Raipur, India, by My MAATI, mirrors its client’s virtues.

Boulder House, Shoolagiri, Tamil Nadu, by HabitArt Architecture

Nestled amidst the landscapes of Shoolagiri, Tamil Nadu, Boulder House, by HabitArt Architecture presents a unique canvas for sustainable living.

Casa Aum, Ahmedabad, India, by Mistry Architects

Casa Aum – Residence for Sujan and Aastik, set in Ahmedabad, India, designed by Mistry Architects, reflects the affinity towards outdoors.

Moving School, Kutch, Gujarat, by Mette Lange Architects, Henning Larsen, and Hunnarshala Foundation

Moving School, Kutch, designed by Henning Larsen and Mette Lange Architects, in collaboration with Hunnarshala Foundation, provides education for migrating pastoral and fishing communities.

“There are no experts who can define conservation and how things should be done because heritage has very much to do with society.” – A.G.K. Menon

Architectural Heritage in India series features a conversation with A.G.K. Menon, delving deep into the meaning of heritage and the challenges in the field.

Potash Tower, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, by INI Design Studio

Potash Tower (Indian Potash Limited Corporate Tower) in Ahmedabad, India, by INI Design Studio, stands as an office space that transcends functionality becoming an embodiment of brand identity.

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Teaching Architecture to the Masses: Vkhutemas and the Pedagogy of Space, 1920-1930 (2017)

Abstract: My dissertation explores the mass character of early twentieth century design education in Soviet Russia as an essential condition for the modernist paradigm. The Higher Art and Technical Studios in Moscow, known as Vkhutemas (Russian: BxyтeMac, acronym for Vysshiye Khudozhestvenno-Tekhnicheskiye Masterskive) adopted the “objective method” in order to facilitate instruction on a mass scale. The objective method translated contemporary scientific knowledge and abstract visual language into modern design pedagogy. The central figures in this undertaking—the architects and pedagogues Nikolay Ladovsky, Vladimir Krinsky, and Nikolay Dokuchaev—called themselves “Rationalists,” believing that they had devised a “rational” knowledge of form and space based on universal principles and the laws of perceptual psychology. Their colleagues, Vasily Kandinsky, Alexander Rodchenko, Lazar Lissitzky, and Moisey Ginzburg, contributed to shaping the Rationalist doctrine through their theorization, teaching, design, and critiques.

The core curriculum at Vkhutemas was the first venture of its kind to implement an accessible mass design education. It combined nascent industrialized and long-standing academic methods to initiate a new type of pedagogy, which I call universalist. A significant condition of this educational agenda was that the subject itself was deductive and stripped of historicized embellishment, as the principal elements explored in the core curriculum—space, volume, color, plane, and line—were a priori abstract. Since modernism as a sphere of knowledge, was untested at the time, all of the established conventions of existing design education had to be reexamined.

As opposed to the classical training that required knowledge of historical canons, the universalist approach was explorative in nature and built around a continuous feedback between assignments and solutions. The top down academic instruction was recast into a model of open mass education based on active exchange between students and teachers. The thesis examines the way in which the Vkhutemas core curriculum exercises challenged the established canons of academic tradition by replacing it with an open- ended inquiry into abstract form and traces how the resultant architectonic experiments were articulated into architectural and urban projects within the framework of the school’s advanced studios. This universalist educational model is explored through four separate channels—the institution, its research, its pedagogy, and its practice—each grounded in a different set of historical sites. The first chapter of the dissertation focuses on the institution, from its immediate context to its international outreach; the second is grounded within the research organizations and laboratories of Vkhutemas, contextualizing these through the theoretical doctrines and scientific achievements of its time; the third looks inside the classrooms, focusing on the methods and materials of the core curriculum; while the fourth addresses the pedagogy and practice of architecture, shifting its focus to the city itself—whether to its streets or the sky above it.

Bio: Anna Bokov is an architect, urban designer, educator, and historian. She holds a Ph.D. from Yale University, a Master’s degree in Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Syracuse University. She has taught at the Cooper Union, Yale School of Art, Northeastern University School of Architecture, the Moscow Architectural Institute, and Strelka Institute.

Anna has worked as an architect and urban designer with Office for Metropolitan Architecture in Rotterdam; NBBJ in Moscow; Gluckman Mayner Architects and Polshek Partnership (Ennead) in New York; and the City of Somerville Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development in Somerville, Massachusetts. She has served as an editor for the Project Russia magazine, a leading architectural periodical in Russia. Her work has been presented at the Walker Art Center, Venice Biennale, Moscow Architectural Biennale, and AIA New York.

Breaking down the AI transformer

A new open-source web-based tool designed at IBM Research and Georgia Tech lets you interactively explore the neural network architecture that started the modern AI boom.

It can be easy to mistake the fluent stream of text flowing from a large language model as magic. The point of Transformer Explainer is to show that it’s not. “The model is just learning how to make a probability distribution,” said IBM’s Benjamin Hoover.

Hoover is an AI engineer at IBM Research who co-designed the open-source and interactive Transformer Explainer with a team at Georgia Tech, where he’s also studying for a PhD in machine learning. The team’s goal was to give non-experts a hands-on introduction to what goes on under the hood of a transformer-based language model, which learns from large-scale data how to mimic human-generated text.

The tool integrates a live GPT-2 model that runs locally on the user’s web browser. Type a phrase into the chat window and watch the transformer’s components work together to predict the next word. Words are split into tokens which are converted to numerical vectors, then funneled through multiple transformer blocks until the model returns a ranked list of candidates for the next predicted word.

How deep you want to dive into the details depends on your level of interest. You can stay with the high-level overview or click into specifics like how the transformer computes an “attention” score for each word in your prompt. The model uses this score to determine which words are most important for choosing the next word to generate.

The tool was designed for non-experts, but techies have enthusiastically shared it on social media over the last week. “This is one of the coolest LLM Transformer visualization tools I’ve come across,” one AI influencer wrote on LinkedIn .

Hoover’s first project after joining IBM’s Visual AI team in 2019 was exBERT , a tool to help other researchers understand a new deep-learning architecture that was starting to gain traction: the transformer . Later that year, exBERT was runner-up for best demo at NeurIPS.

After exBERT, Hoover helped build RXNMapper , a tool that showed that transformers could learn the language of chemistry.   Chemical and Engineering News ended up putting the visualization on its cover.

During the pandemic, Hoover decided to go back to school. He chose Georgia Tech because the school allowed him to continue working. For an adviser, he chose Polo Chau, a professor specializing in data visualization, because of his rave reviews from past students.

Transformer Explainer was born five months ago, after three of Chau’s students proposed designing an educational tool about transformers. Chau assigned Hoover to be their technical consultant.

In the five years since the release of exBERT, Hoover’s first attempt at explaining the transformer, many other data visualizations have appeared. “But they’re either too technical or too high level,” he said. “We wanted to find the right level of abstraction to reach the widest audience.”

The design the team settled on allows users to connect with the material in as much detail as they like by zooming in. Another key feature of Transformer Explainer is its sliding “temperature” scale that lets you adjust how creative you want the model to be in choosing its next word.

“A low temperature is the equivalent of picking the most likely prediction,” Hoover said. “If you want more creative answers, you turn up the temperature.”

The team used Svelte and D3 to design the visualizations on the front end, and the ONNX runtime and Hugging Face’s Transformers library to run GPT-2 in a browser.

What’s next

Transformer Explainer will be presented at VIS 2024 , IEEE’s annual data visualization conference in October, along with Diffusion Explainer , a similar tool aimed at explaining image-generating diffusion models. The team behind Transformer Explainer was led by Georgia Tech’s Aeree Cho, Grace Kim, and Alex Karpekov, with contributions from Alec Helbing, Jay Wang and Seongmin Lee, in addition to Hoover.

The team is currently looking into allowing users to interact with their own models in addition to GPT-2, which they chose for its size. “We wanted something that could run on a browser that students could pull up on their computer while the professor was teaching,” said Hoover. “GPT-2 was small enough to run on a CPU.”

As part of his PhD thesis, Hoover is working with IBM researcher Dmitry Krotov to develop a variation on the transformer , inspired by physical descriptions of how memory works. If that sounds confusing, not to worry. There will almost certainly be a visualization breaking it down for anyone to understand.

• Kim Martineau
• Generative AI