Mariana Ibañez - Professor and Chair of the Department of Architecture and Urban Design at UCLA. Image courtesy of UCLA AUD.

Academic leaders have the demanding task of steering and shaping a school's culture and pedagogy. Not only are they responsible for overseeing an institution's administrative affairs, but they are also charged with fostering environments for students and faculty to thrive.

Since 2013, Archinect's Deans List series has provided in-depth conversations with architecture and design leaders (Deans and Department Chairs), giving us invaluable perspective on their pedagogical stances, the institution’s curriculum, and academic environment. For this Deans List interview, I chatted with Mariana Ibañez, Associate Professor and Chair of UCLA's Department of Architecture and Urban Design.

A little over two years into her tenure as UCLA AUD's Department Chair, Mariana has cemented herself as a fixture at the school, helping influence the growth and adaptability of its academic pedagogy. When asked what sparked her interest in architecture and pursuing it as a career, she explained that she knew she wanted to become an architect at 13, but her "exposure" to architecture was self-initiated. 

"I didn't know anyone who was an architect," she explained. "I come from a family of engineers, doctors, and accountants, but I was always very much interested in the arts and sciences. It sounds like a cliche, but I was good at math, physics, chemistry, etc. I also loved the arts”. While her childhood interests seemed to "fit the mold" of pursuing an architecture career, we started our conversation by discussing how most people begin their interest in architecture because of a family member or someone they knew growing up. 

...there is a big notion that an architect designs buildings, which is a big part of what we do, but not all of what we do. I think the kind of ideas and agency that architecture has is simply unknown outside of architecture.

We soon transitioned into the topic of "pipelines" in architecture. She explained, "How do we get more people interested in architecture? How do we get more people to know what an architect does? If you think throughout your life, you meet doctors because you go to the doctor’s office when you’re sick, and you meet teachers because they teach you every day…but usually, people don’t encounter architects. So maybe there is a big notion that an architect designs buildings, which is a big part of what we do, but not all of what we do. I think the kind of ideas and agency that architecture has is simply unknown outside of architecture. Returning to your question, 'How did I get into architecture?' I cannot say, but in the context of the arts, architecture enters the conversation often, and maybe from that point, that began to make sense to me. I come from a family that appreciates the arts but is not artistic themselves, and because I didn't have that, I wanted it. I wanted to learn." 

*Editor’s note: This interview was conducted during the close of the 2022-2023 academic year. The conversation below has been transcribed and edited for clarity. 

Katherine Guimapang: Growing up in Argentina, how was your experience pursuing an architecture education in Buenos Aires? 

Mariana Ibañez: What’s interesting to reflect on now, in this role at a public university, is that I attended a public university myself. The University of Buenos Aires (UBA) gave me an incredible education–and I didn’t have to pay for that education. It was free for everybody. The UBA is a very big school, with thousands of graduates per year, and the architecture faculty were some of the best architects in Buenos Aires. 

For me, the notion of what it means to access a higher level of education in a big, public university for free and, at the same time, be educated by the top architects in the country is unique. There, I absorbed another essential value: which is a commitment to give back. I had the opportunity to start teaching at UBA before graduating, and that sparked an interest in pedagogy as a project.

Pedagogy is an exciting thing because the project of pedagogy is open-ended. The 'project of pedagogy' must evolve to remain relevant and productive. I believe for me, and everyone committed to architectural education, the space of pedagogy must be constantly reshaped.

I want to go back to your comment about public education and pedagogy. For someone who went to a public university and then decided to teach at a public university, how would that impact your intentions as an educator? You talk about pedagogy and sharing it, giving back. Whenever I think of pedagogy, I often visualize a very traditional setting, someone sitting on a chair discussing this topic with rigidity. But hearing you talk about pedagogy, the metaphorical visual I get is of a table at which we all get to sit at, where there is an exchange of ideas. 

Pedagogy is an exciting thing because the project of pedagogy is open-ended. The “project of pedagogy” must evolve to remain relevant and productive. I believe for me, and everyone committed to architectural education, the space of pedagogy must be constantly reshaped. Otherwise, education becomes outdated, obsolete, and stagnant. At AUD, ideas and dialogue about pedagogy are virtually endless. Like my early days in Buenos Aires, I think of architecture education as an active project. It’s an incredible context in which to think about the future–about a better future–and what we can do today to shape it.

You bring up a great point. How we think about pedagogy and perceive the word and its use should be different. When I think of the word, it is always juxtapositioned with something that makes it more complex or complicated. That makes it less fluid sometimes.

The pressures that the "pedagogical project" encounters constitute, in a sense, the essence of what reshapes teaching. We create methods, goals, build skills, and tools, and ensure the acquisition and production of knowledge. Through that exercise, we place the stakes in the ground that signal or declare what our interests, agendas, and priorities are. This exercise also opens the possibility to start conversations with others and for other agendas to enter. 

I primarily teach studios, and I have always loved teaching thesis. I always tell my students that they need to make clear claims and know what's at stake when they make them. This positioning inherently means leaving some interests or ideas to the side, but it also can bring clarity and focus to the work. 

The pressures that the "pedagogical project" encounters constitute, in a sense, the essence of what reshapes teaching. We create methods, goals, build skills, and tools, and ensure the acquisition and production of knowledge. Through that exercise, we place the stakes in the ground that signal or declare what our interests, agendas, and priorities are.

That's true. It's an essential skill for students to learn and develop at school.

Something I say to prospective students when discussing this is that an architecture education gives you the skills and knowledge to design buildings, cities, spaces, and all the elements that shape the built environment, and also gives you the skills to analyze and organize the systems and communities that inhabit those spaces. We do this through synthetic thinking and expertise that allow architects to reorganize complex sets of conditions and ideas and give them new form. If you think of developing and nurturing that as a basic skill or capacity, you can reimagine anything anew. 

Many students come to school because they believe in the power of the built environment to shape our lives. Others come to school not pursuing a traditional career in architecture, but to work in adjacent fields that can leverage the skills and expertise of architects. Especially as an educator, it’s important to articulate clearly what an architecture education offers, in terms of general, nimble skill sets and enriched perspectives, including but also operating beyond the shaping of form and space. 

Many students come to school because they believe in the power of the built environment to shape our lives. Others come to school not pursuing a traditional career in architecture, but to work in adjacent fields that can leverage the skills and expertise of architects.

Especially as an educator, it’s important to articulate clearly what an architecture education offers, in terms of general, nimble skill sets and enriched perspectives, including but also operating beyond the shaping of form and space. 

In your opinion, how has architectural academia changed from when you first started teaching to now? 

Some questions are always there but are and continue to be inflected by the different contexts and people I’ve encountered as I moved around institutions, countries, and communities. Some ideas, principles, and techniques serve as constants but change from place to place, from culture to culture.

I find myself reflecting on things I've been interested in for a long time in my own work and research, like the role of design experimentation, technology’s impact in shaping the future of the built environment, and how that comes hand in hand with cultures of making, material cultures, and spatial experience. It’s one of the reasons why I work with artists and the arts which brings me back to UCLA and the big umbrella of the School of the Arts and Architecture that we are a part of. 

My project as an educator in leadership is to find places to activate those two forms of inquiry and their interconnections.

Art can experiment in ways that sometimes architecture cannot. We may not always see that in the field itself, but our allied fields in the arts help infuse this spirit into our dialogues, our research, and ultimately our production.  

Architecture and an architectural education are well suited for operating in the space between the super precise and specific and the big-umbrella questions. My project as an educator in leadership is to find places to activate those two forms of inquiry and their interconnections.

I'm curious if what educators want to do right now parallels or mirrors what they wanted to do when they first entered academia. As you said, people change. Things change. People and conditions grow and evolve, which is important. But if something sticks with you over time, there tends to be "trace elements" of it somewhere in your work. In a person’s lifetime, I believe these trace elements of things from when we were younger emerge into our adult lives.

I love the idea of trace elements. When you visit for reviews, you'll hear me say that! Some of my first work as an architect was doing stage design for theatre and public events, and I still do that kind of work. As both space and art, I find theatre a productive and exciting site and medium for architectural experimentation. Building buildings takes a long time, and the project of art has offered us the chance to test ideas faster, see them fail faster, and rethink them faster. That ethos around the arts as an element of provocation is, for me, my "trace element." Those have evolved in many ways to produce architecture, but certainly there is an important origin story for me there. 

What excites you right now about your role as the school's chair? 

I started this role during the pandemic, and my first 8-9 months as Chair was done while I was on the East Coast, I was still in Cambridge. I'm calling this my “second first year” because it has been this vertigo-inducing speed of change with conditions that are "less than normal." Having said that, we have done a lot within the department that I'm very proud of, from faculty hires to curriculum changes that include new voices, themes, and tools within our teaching and production.  It is exciting to see what we can accomplish in just over 2 years. 

Something I have to bring up is your faculty. It is quite a stacked list of individuals. 

One of the questions you had initially asked me was what drew me to UCLA, to UCLA Arts, and to AUD, and what is unique about the school. There are many things, but the faculty and the people are at the top of the list. The faculty at AUD and UCLA Arts is fantastic. When you look at the history of the faculty, who has passed through AUD and has shaped the department, and who is teaching here today, it is this collection of inspiring, pioneering, and remarkable individuals. 

I feel incredibly lucky to have had the chance to teach at the GSD and MIT–design and research schools within big universities– and to study at the AA. For me, that mix between UCLA’s big, public research university and AUD’s design-centric culture captures a lot of the best aspects of my previous experiences as both a student and an educator. 

What would you say to a high school student or prospective graduate student curious about architecture and looking to apply? What's something you would have said to your younger self entering architecture school?

Early in my career, I had an idea of what an architecture education would give me, but it was quite narrow in retrospect. Today I know that an architecture education gives you tools and skills to understand, transform, create, and to re-imagine the world around you in fundamental ways. You see this in dialogue at AUD: our architecture programs in dialogue with our critical studies students and our MSAUD program, which is charged with exploring architecture’s margins. Part of my agenda is to foster that duality that explores the productive friction between the field’s center and its periphery. 

I was lucky enough to sit in on one of our studios earlier this year. After speaking with you and seeing you teach in person, you have a very hands-on approach to leading and teaching. That isn’t common for many department chairs or deans. Some primarily focus on the administrative side of leading a school, which is important. But your overall approach to being a leader in academia is different. How does working closely with students help you be a better chair?

I practice, research, and teach, and now I am in a leadership position. Those are very distinct from one another. They frame different interests, and they require different skills, but I see them as intrinsically connected. They are distinct but neighboring domains. 

In all those forms of engagement and production, I look around and try to learn from everybody. I learn every day from my students and from my faculty colleagues. We’re all trying to figure out what higher education means and can offer during the present moment and how that translates into the things we do outside of school. People work differently now than they did even a few years ago, and that is a challenge, as is the evermore rapid pace of change. 

What are your goals as a department chair? As an instructor?

Leading with kindness and compassion is important while maintaining high expectations and aspirations. My model is: We do it together. My role in leadership is to give students and faculty the tools to be operative and to succeed while shaping the collective project. I often tell my students that they are not here to show us what they already know but that they are here to learn, experiment, and grow. I think everybody in our community is doing the same, we are lifelong learners. That is why pedagogy, the content, and how we teach it is something that you design. It is a project in itself. 

Mariana Ibañez received her Bachelor of Architecture from the Universidad de Buenos Aires and a Master of Architecture and Urbanism from the Architectural Association (AA) in London. After graduating from the AA, Mariana joined the office of Zaha Hadid and relocated to the United States in 2007. Mariana is the co-founder and principal of the award-winning office Ibañez Kim.

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