Brief background/experiences
Jonas Barre, 26 years old and Swedish. I moved to the US for college at the University of Pennsylvania after finishing my military service as a non-commissioned second lieutenant in an armored brigade. At Penn, I initially thought I would pursue film studies and business, but after a short foray in the Wharton school I was swept into the architecture program by a freshman writing seminar held by Witold Rybczynski. My professional career proceeded in a roughly similar fashion – having done a major in economics in addition to the architecture program I decided to pursue management consulting, but after three months at the Boston Consulting Group I quit to move to go work for Bjarke Ingels Group in Copenhagen.

Ian Starling, 24 years old and from New Orleans. Studied philosophy and architecture, also at Penn. He spent the summer between junior and senior year in college building Red and Blue Rietveld chairs, which occupy a prime spot in his portfolio. During his gap year he worked for OMA and Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

Why you chose your school/program
The main draw for both of us was the variety of architectural perspectives present at Yale. The size of the program, the location and the building of course also influenced our decisions.

Architecture interests
Jonas:
One of my main interests in the field of architecture is the future structure of the architectural practice. The low pay and decreased influence of our role is an untenable position, and I would like to look into what possible avenues out of this situation are open to both individual architects and the profession as a whole. Linked to this is of course the lack of influence from architects on the majority of houses built, and I believe that if we can solve the problem of the architects’ role, we can improve the built environment in general.

Ian:
Will fill out later – on a road trip through the south.

Other interests
Jonas:
Kayaking through the Stockholm archipelago. The state of world economics. Cooking.

Ian:
Will fill out later – on a road trip through the south.