this semester, there are 17 studios from which to choose. there were several good studio presentations during the studio lottery - a few studio briefs were in response to the global economic recession that came during the fall of 2008 (laurie hawkinson and jeffrey inaba, for example) with wpa-esque references to finance or infrastructure since president obama has promised infrastructural construction as part of the economic recovery plan. but if that was not your cup of tea, there were definitely very different studio topics to go for. here is the full list of studio critics (with links to their work) and the studio travel destinations:

. laurie hawkinson (smith-miller + hawkinson), hong kong and shanghai
. galia solomonoff (solomonoff architecture studio), mexico city
. juan herreros (herreros arquitectos), madrid
. scott marble (marble fairbanks), bhutan and india
. leslie gill (leslie gill architect), brazil
. steven holl (steven holl architects), la tourette and paris
. jeffrey inaba (inaba), dubai, jordan, oman
. jeffrey johnson (slab), beijing
. keith kaseman (kbas), rio de janeiro
. fred levrat (levrat design), dubai
. ada tolla + giuseppe lignano (lo-tek), morocco
. alfredo brillembourg + hubert klumpner (urban think tank), casablanca, morocco and utrecht, netherlands
. enrique walker (his columbia bio), tokyo
. reinhold martin (martin/baxi architects), mumbai and new delhi
. ed keller (a|Um studio), beijing and tokyo
. mimi hoang + eric bunge (nArchitects), amsterdam, rotterdam, utrecht, zeeland in the netherlands
. mario gooden (huff + gooden), cape town and johannesburg, south africa

how is every single studio able to travel? for the last semester at columbia, each studio gets funding for transportation and lodging from the school's kinne travel grant. so unlike other schools that have some studios traveling and some not, every studio takes a funded trip (kinne trip) one week before spring break to a different location that is tied to their studio's topic/research.


i'm ending my luck with the studio lottery process on a high note - got my first choice and am in a studio taught by eric bunge and mimi hoang of nArchitects with billy feuerman as our ta. this is the second time they are teaching an advanced studio at columbia (see mark's blog for their studio from the previous year).

our studio is titled "manhattan dystopia" - the studio straddles between something very real and very close (manhattan) and something very not (utopian/dystopian future).

to paraphrase, what will manhattan evolve in to when a singular crisis overtakes the city and becomes the norm? how has everyday life adapted to the new landscape? between the twelve students in our studio, the crises are rising water levels, garbage, energy, epidemics, security, traffic congestion, unemployment, hunger, and air pollution. each project incorporates housing within the urban and architectural responses to the crisis-affected landscape. please click here if you'd like to read the entire studio brief.

an update of how i'm dealing with my crisis of air pollution (and hopefully some studiomates' stuff as well) very soon.