This week was MIT’s spring break. For myself and the rest of my classmates in the Media Lab’s “Quito Innovation Hubs” course, however, there would be no catching up on House of Cards or sleeping until noon. Rather, we spent the week exploring the surprisingly lovely city of Quito, Ecuador (latitude 0.00).

We spent the week running around on mountainsides, church rooftops, and spanish-colonial plazas galore. Features included dinner with the archbishop, shopping for assorted alpaca wool home goods, a gondola ride up the mountain, collaborating with a class at Quito’s Catholic University, and more amazing ceviche than I’ve ever consumed in my life.

Now, to catch up on all the work I didn’t have time to do!

---

See more photos from our Quito trip, and posts from other MIT Architecture students, at Arch Kiosk

Last weekend, my studio went on a site visit the New Jersey Meadowlands. Our project is an urban design/landscape project that mediates between the development pressures of this site (just 20 minutes from New York) and its environmental factors. At 31+ square miles, the meadowlands is one of the... View full entry

So, I don’t particularly consider myself a feminist. And I don’t mean to get all provocative up in here. But I do believe in equality, and it doesn’t take long in the discipline of architecture to figure out that there’s some kind of problem going on. Go to any review, and you’re most... View full entry

So, this is my first semester of freedom at MIT. That is, the first semester where I was in charge of choosing all of my classes- no core studios, no required classes on how to make a grasshopper script, no droning lectures on planning theory. So I should be having a lot of fun, right? But the... View full entry

As we circulate between buildings 7, 9, and 10, with the occasional trip to the grocery store or the GSD, its easy to forget that we live in a globally significant city. So, as an attempt to expand my bubble before the semester hits me hard, I trekked across the river this weekend to see what was... View full entry

When I visited Tallinn a few summers ago, as part of a two-week adventure with my dad through the Baltic states, I wasn’t sure what to expect. On the one hand, Tallinn’s historic center is a UNESCO world heritage site, and the area has been settled since 5000 BC. On the other hand, the... View full entry

Mark your calendars!In case you missed it, HQ just released our list of upcoming lectures, symposia, and events for the spring semester. I have to say, they’ve really outdone themselves this semester! Not only do we have some flashy names on the calender (i.e. Sylvia... View full entry

Our “Gujarat Waterscapes Workshop” started not in Gujarat state at all, but in Mumbai. Our first week began with meetings at AKPBSI, our partner organization, and familiarization with what I’ve decided will be one of my new favorite cities. Mumbai fits all of my criteria: colors... View full entry

For the next couple of weeks, I’ll be sharing my adventures as I travel around Mumbai and Gujarat with a group of MIT Architecture and Planning students, as part of a workshop called “Gujarat Community Waterscapes”. Before getting my learning on though, I’ve spent the last... View full entry

Where I’m from, its winter more than its any other season. So naturally, we make the most of it: winter festivals, celebrations of the Finnish god of winter Heikki Lunta, and one of the largest ice sculpture competitions in the world. One of my favorite part about these ice sculptures is... View full entry

As you may have guessed by the petering out of posts over  at Arch Kiosk, this was final review week at MIT. My studio was no exception; this week we finished the third of three Core studios in our sequence. Our day featured fishy-themed snacks related to our fish pier adaptation proposal... View full entry

In honor of the holidays, I thought I’d share a more personal architectural experience as I spend the weekend avoiding studio with home-cooking, board games, and family. Built after her recovery from polio over 60 years ago, my grandma’s house was designed in the tradition of Alden B... View full entry

Just one mile outside of Utrecht, NL's historic (and highly adorable) city center, housing Utrecht University's science and medical campu, de Uithof contains maybe the highest density of contemporary (st)architecture that I have ever observed. OMA, Weil Arets, and Mecanoo, just to name a few. And... View full entry

My split identity: Jane Jacobs + le Corbusier So, lately it seems that people from both my architecture and planning lives are interested in what's happening on the other side. Given the many questions I've received lately on my foray into simultaneous dual degree land, I thought it might be... View full entry

Recently, this roaming city project by Spanish thesis student Manuel Domínguez featured on ArchDaily got me thinking about the trajectory of relocatable cities throughout recent history. Archigram’s Walking City is an obvious parallel, but what is interesting about... View full entry

Luigi Serafini really took on the idea that architects can be whatever they want with his 1981 completion of the Codex Seraphinianus; a two volume, 254 page tome describing an alternate reality through an invented alphabet and surreal illustrations. The book is divided into eleven sections... View full entry

  Open house is an exciting time; new faces, fresh ideas, and a chance to re-evaluate who we are and what we’re doing at MIT Architecture. The Spring Open House was a deciding factor in my decision to attend MIT- I resonated with people here and the ideas they were sharing.   So... View full entry

This week, I’m interviewing my friends over at Section Cut, an online design resource curated by young professionals. Listen in! Q: What is Section Cut? There are a few dimensions of S|C but, primarily, we’re a collection of highly curated design resources that design students and... View full entry

Unfortunately, a massive sellout of all bus tickets to NYC precluded my attendance, but Pidgin launched its 16th issue last night! (If you haven't been lucky to have had your hands on one yet, Pidgin is the publication edited and designed by graduate students at the Princeton University School of... View full entry

In case you missed it, this past Friday as a part of our architecture design lecture series we had Spanish architect Inaqui Carnicero (of Pitch House fame) in the AVT. We actually had a lot of amazing lectures this week- I also especially enjoyed Francine Houben of Mecanoo and Landscape... View full entry