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.

UCLA AUD's M.Arch Research Studio Explores Speculative 'Future Histories' of Los Angeles

2022-12-15T13:57:00-05:00

The latest installment in Archinect's Studio Pin-Ups series presents graduate student work from one of UCLA Architecture and Urban Design (AUD)'s Research Studio Seminars. The studio, titled "Future [Hi]Stories of the City," is led by Kutan Ayata, AUD's Vice Chair, Associate Professor, and co-founder of Brooklyn-based architecture practice Young & Ayata.

This research-based studio encouraged M.Arch students to explore and document "speculative future histories of Los Angeles through the design of episodic instances. In pairs, students choose an issue that currently pressures and influences the development of LA; the task is to document the state and impact of these issues towards the Year 2062."

FireCity | FireLAnd: New Models of Resilience and Community with UCLA's Hitoshi Abe and Jeffrey Inaba's Research Studios

2021-07-22T13:48:00-04:00

What does building resiliency look like for urban landscapes? With the effects of climate change increasing, architects, urban planners, and landscape architects must work towards land use design strategies while having humans and nature coexist effectively.

The University of California, Los Angeles Department of Architecture and Urban Design's faculty and students continue to unpack challenges between land development and urban conditions. An institution that focuses on collaborative research between its students and faculty, it strives to create learning environments fueled by experimentation and discovery. To highlight these initiatives, Archinect connected with Associate Adjunct Professor Jeffrey Inaba and Professor Hitoshi Abe to discuss their collaborative research studios FireCity and FireLAnd. In addition, they explain common misconceptions students have when learning about urban regeneration, land use, and ways to approach design strategies for fire resilient urban infrastr...

A Bridge to Architectural Education: Exploring UCLA Architecture and Urban Design’s Summer Programs with Julia Koerner

2021-05-13T11:32:00-04:00

With summer right around the corner, high school students, young professionals, and individuals looking to explore new disciplines seek programs that spark their interests while learning new skills. With virtual learning practices adopted globally, the opportunity for students to participate in notable summer school programs from any part of the world is readily available.

This summer, UCLA Architecture and Urban Design's notable summer programs welcome individuals interested in exploring design and learning introductory skills in architecture in a new virtual format. By offering two programs created for high school students and adults, the Teen ArchStudio and JumpStart programs provide participants with a glimpse into studio culture at one of the leading public universities in the world in addition to earning University of California (UC) course credit. This year's summer program welcomes Assistant Adjunct Professor Julia Koerner as its newly appointed Summer Programs Director. Wit...

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...