Archinect - Features

'Architecture Education as an Active Project': A Conversation with Mariana Ibañez, Chair of UCLA's Department of Architecture and Urban Design

2023-11-13T11:05:00-05:00

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.

Narrative, Media, and AI in Architectural Academia; A Conversation with Natasha Sandmeier

2023-11-06T13:00:00-05:00

Archinect last spoke with Natasha Sandmeier on the themes of visual media and narrative storytelling in 2019. Back then, few could have imagined the seismic impact that generative AI would have on such fields. In her leading role at UCLA AUD's Entertainment Studio, Sandmeier sits at the forefront of an architectural academic landscape, already asking what the recent popularized adoption of AI in design and world-building means for authorship, ethics, representation, learning criteria, and the role of the architect.

The intervening four years since 2019 have also seen a shift in Sandmeier's own responsibilities. Beyond her position as an assistant adjunct professor at UCLA, Sandmeier is now the Executive Director of Los Angeles' A+D Museum, offering yet another outlet to explore the question of how technology is changing the face of architecture and media. The latest appointment adds to Sandmeier's long list of prior positions in the worlds of architectural academia, practice, and cu...

Discussing Technology and 'Architecture as Transient Media' With Güvenç Özel and Benjamin Ennemoser of UCLA's IDEAS Technology Studio

2021-02-19T13:39:00-05:00

Architecture is currently at the cusp of a paradigm shift, where the environments we occupy are becoming increasingly virtual and mobile. Considered as an ecosystem of technologies rather than a tectonic assemblage of materials, architecture is shifting toward a non-static and non-physical form of experience. This opens up the potential for it to be considered as a transdisciplinary medium that merges the worlds of fabrication, gaming, and media design.

The IDEAS Technology Studio, one of four studios offered as part of UCLA Architecture and Urban Design’s Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design (M.S.AUD) program, investigates the design of new media in digital and physical forms and its potential to radically transform the human experience. Recognized as a leading research institution UCLA Architecture and Urban Design is also a part of the UCLA School of Arts and Architecture. This unique blend and integration of departments allow both students and faculty "to connect ...

X-WORLDS: UCLA's 2020 IDEAS Summer Studio Transforms Their Summer Programming Into an Incubator for Remote Exploration

2020-11-15T12:59:00-05:00

Summer 2020 proved to be a season of tackling the unknown as the pandemic impacted architectural academia. With nearly all summer programs pivoting and transitioning to remote learning, popular summer programs aimed to find a way to motivate students during such challenging times with online experiences that allowed them to explore digital possibilities within architecture.

UCLA's IDEAS Summer studio shares with Archinect, "This year's IDEAS Summer Studio "X-WORLDS" marked the first entirely virtual introduction to the one-year Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design (M.S.AUD) program at UCLA Architecture and Urban Design. The six-week program provided an immersion into the intersecting worlds of each of the four M.S.AUD research studios: Entertainment, Mobility, Technology, and Urban Strategy."

Archinect connected with the team from UCLA's IDEAS Campus Summer Studio to learn about the program's goals and highlight the work of student participants created during their s...

Architectural Memory and Film with UCLA's Alekya Malladi, Gesthimani Roumpani, and Yanrong Yang

2020-07-29T13:11:00-04:00

Architecture and it's ability to frame visual narratives has impacted film and entertainment for decades. With the evolution of design techniques and software, a new form of digital storytelling can aide how architecture is used to test design process and pedagogy. University of California Los Angeles Architecture and Urban Design M.Arch students Alekya Malladi, Gesthimani Roumpani, Yanrong Yang use film to dissect architecture and AI in their project, Incognito.

Advised by UCLA's IDEAS Entertainment Studio advisors Natasha Sandmeier and Nathan Su, the group explains how their film "serves as an exposé on memory, spatial reconstruction, and the role of contemporary media in delivering fact and fiction." Archinect connected with the trio as they share their perspectives on working through the pandemic and what their future holds as they enter professional practice. "Our interactions with professionals in the architecture industry have shown us that establishing a clear identity and i...

ALLTHATISSOLID Talk Remote Work, Architectural Perspectives, and Starting Their Practice During a Recession

2020-07-28T12:22:00-04:00

Running a practice, in general, is no easy task, however as the onslaught that is 2020 continues, it's been made clear that studios and firms will continue to be challenged in unforeseen ways. Although the events that have taken place this year have prompted many re-evaluations within the industry, practices like ALLTHATISSOLID are using this abundance of obstacles to pause, reassess, and persevere.

The Los Angeles and Kuala Lumpur-based architecture practice consists of architects Max Kuo, Alex Chew, and Danielle Wagner. When the trio met as students in UCLA's Architecture and Urban Design M.Arch program, their bond over architecture, influential female figures, and creating a practice that "designs at many scales" helped establish the ethos of their studio. Starting their practice during the 2008 recession, they share their thoughts on the pandemic and the future of the industry.

For this week's Studio Snapshot, Archinect connected with Kuo, Chew, and Wagner to discuss their studi...

UCLA's Chinmayi Suri, Xinran Ge, and Xue Zhao Reshape LA's Mountaintops

2020-07-17T13:17:00-04:00

The iconic hills of Los Angeles not only play a role in the city's eccentric history, but also shape its land use trends over the decades. Chinmayi Suri, Xinran Ge ,and Xue Zhao are students in UCLA Architecture and Urban Design's Master of Architecture II (M.Arch.II program). Archinect connected with the trio to discuss their final project, Third Mountain. Studying within the school's IDEAS - Urban Strategy program led by Associate Adjunct Professor Jeffrey Inaba, Gillian Shaffer, and David Jimenez Iniesta, the students explore a the addition of new urban fabric for the city of Los Angeles. According to the group, "These new sites [Third Mountain project] create a different identity for Los Angeles’s urban fabric, inspiring new glamour and ideas of building with earth and landscapes."

The research-based projects at UCLA's IDEA's campus, according to the educators, push students to not only conceptualize possible outcomes through data and prototyping but also to foster solutions fo...

UCLA's Chunsu Ouyang, Tianyi Song, and Xianrui Wang on Unpacking Architecture Through Video Game Narratives

2020-07-01T10:00:00-04:00

This week Archinect connected with Chunsu Ouyang, Tianyi Song, Xianrui Wang to learn more about their final project - INNERMOST. The trio of recent graduate students of UCLA Architecture and Urban Design's Master of Architecture II discuss their project's use of video game narratives in architecture, working remotely, and their outlook on finding a job after graduating.

Advised by Natasha Sandmeier & Nathan Su of UCLA's IDEAs Entertainment Studio program, the students work towards "conceiving a game that can make a metaphor of people growing up/self-developing while collaborating with others, in order to explore the possibility of a game as a new social medium."

Archinect's Spotlight on 2020 Thesis Projects: 2020 has been an extraordinarily challenging year for architecture graduates. Students were displaced as schools shut down, academic communities had to adapt to a new virtual format, end-of-year celebrations were canceled or changed dramatically, and now these students are gradu...

UCLA AUD Master of Architecture II Students Interrogate the Climate Risk of LA Real Estate

2020-06-23T09:00:00-04:00

Wenhan Dong, Linyi Zhang, and Xiyan Wang are students in UCLA Architecture and Urban Design's Master of Architecture II (M.Arch.II program). Archinect caught up with Dong, Zhang, and Wang to discuss their final project within the school's IDEAS - Urban Strategy program. Led by Associate Adjunct Professor Jeffrey Inaba, Gillian Shaffer, and David Jimenez Iniesta students unpack the city of Los Angeles and the effects climate change will have on land-use and development in the year 2050.

UCLA Thesis Students Investigate LA's Iconic Bunker Hill

2020-06-11T12:51:00-04:00

Gaurav Puri, Jingyi Wang, Ruchi Singhania, and Yuxuan He are students in UCLA Architecture and Urban Design’s Master of Architecture II (M.Arch.II program). Archinect was able to connect with Puri, Wang, and Singhania to explore their final project within their IDEAS - Urban Strategy program. Recognized as an institution focused on its research-based approach and student-faculty collaborations, UCLA's IDEA's programming enables students to explore topics that focus on issues and solutions whose application can be actualized.

Together, the team, under the instruction of Associate Adjunct Professor Jeffrey Inaba, Gillian Shaffer and David Jimenez Iniesta, explore Los Angeles's iconic Bunker Hill and its historical transitions with regards to land-use. By breaking down the area's topographic and land transformations, the group works together to explore new design methods to create a more substantial "foundation for post-disaster urban life." In addition to their exploration of land-use...

Developing a Better City With UCLA's IDEAS Urban Strategy Studio

2020-02-27T14:30:00-05:00

How do we go about shaping a better city? How can land use and urbanism be explored to create solutions for pressing urban problems? Can multidisciplinary approaches to urban planning help create new ways of defining and shaping urban growth?

In Los Angeles, ubiquitous and challenging land development conditions have positioned the University of California, Los Angeles Department of Architecture and Urban Design to unpack these topics and explore them like perhaps no other school of design can. An institution that focuses on collaborative research between its students and faculty, UCLA AUD strives to create learning environments fueled by experimentation and discovery. As a means to highlight the initiatives being focused on at the school, Archinect spoke with Associate Adjunct Professor, Jeffrey Inaba, and lecturers David Jimenez Iniesta and Gillian Shaffer of UCLA AUD's IDEAS Urban Strategy Studio. The studio is one of four research topics: Entertainment (studio previously covered...

Neil Denari On Balancing Practice, Teaching, and Experimental Design

2019-12-14T07:30:00-05:00

In 2019, Neil M. Denari was awarded the 2019 Educator of the Year award by the American Institute of Architects Los Angeles chapter, an award that caps a three-decade long career situated at the intersection of practice and teaching.

In light of the award, Archinect caught up with Denari to discuss his career in academia and his perspectives on education.

Exploring the Future of Narrative in Architecture with Natasha Sandmeier and Nathan Su of UCLA's IDEAS Entertainment Studio

2019-11-14T20:30:00-05:00

Narrative, drama, and fiction have always played a key role in the production of architecture.

During the 19th Century, for example, architects like Louis Sullivan and McKim Mead & White mixed organic and formal languages to tell stories about the activities that took place within the buildings they designed, while Modernist architect Le Corbusier often worked through episodic vignettes while designing buildings and urban plans alike. In the 1980s, Jon Jerde mixed these approaches to create his trademark "experience architectures," precedents that architects like Rem Koolhaas and Zaha Hadid melded with an urban focus to create buildings that extend the street indoors and create seamless collections of spaces that blur the distinction between inside and outside.

In recent years, architecture's narrative turn has largely focused on a variety of digital fronts, where virtual and augmented reality experiments, filmic approaches, and sophisticated visualizations are creating yet another ...