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Exciting student projects, academic research, and fellowships at architecture schools in 2023

2023-12-26T14:20:00-05:00

Continuing with our 2023 Year in Review series, we look back at the exciting design and research projects from students and faculty at architecture schools across the U.S. and abroad.

2023 proved to be a year filled with new academic research expanding on building materials, applications in AI, and 3D printed fabrication and modeling. We also covered the appointment of new academic fellows and published in-depth conversations about the results of their work, including the Harry der Boghosian Fellow and Schidlowski Emerging Faculty Fellow.

Notable Thesis Projects

Archinect's ongoing Thesis Review series offers a look at the work and process of thesis projects produced each year by graduate and undergraduate students. In 2023, we connected with B.Arch and M.Arch graduates to dive into their process, architectural perspectives, and their post-graduation pursuits.

51mi + 25km = 13ft — Archiving the place that remains, thesis project by Sophie Akoury. Thesis advisor: Marcelyn Gow. Image...

Recognizing the grit and determination of architecture students and academic fellows in 2022

2022-12-20T08:00:00-05:00

2022 proved to be a year filled with reevaluating what it means to offer an architecture education as well as to receive one. Schools, students, and faculty across the globe continued to adjust to remote learning while students were also welcomed back to campus. This, however, didn't stop the innovative and inquisitive minds of students, academic researchers, and fellows from producing new and exciting work.

Each year comes with its own sets of challenges and questions. Nonetheless, the perseverance of students provides the industry with a glimpse into the future of architecture as a whole. To recognize and celebrate student work, research, and fellowship in architectural academia published on Archinect in 2022, we've curated a collection of stories worth revisiting.

Exploring Architecture Studio

Exploring and highlighting academic work has been one of Archinect's editorial pillars for years. Beyond exclusive interviews with students and graduates this year, our team launched a new...

SCI-Arc's upcoming 'Select Graduate Thesis' exhibition showcase projects representing ideas emerging in architecture today

2022-09-21T12:40:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by SCI-Arc, an Archinect Partner School

Select Graduate Thesis ‘22 showcases imaginative responses to provocations transforming the discipline of architecture today. This year’s exhibit includes Graduate Thesis award recipients of the Gehry Prize, Peer Recognition Award, and Merit Thesis Awards.

Crossing over with the first week of the fall term, Graduate Thesis at SCI-Arc is the nexus of school events, cultivating an inevitable link between outgoing thesis ideas with incoming students’ curiosities.

The weekend of reviews gives thesis students an invaluable platform to articulate, propose, and defend their work to the SCI-Arc community and beyond. 62 students and 17 faculty advisors will converge with an array of invited guest critics from within and outside the discipline of architecture to review, debate, and contemplate the provocations of this year's thesis projects.

Reflections of Utopia - work by M.Arch II student Jordan Micham. Faculty advisor: Wi...

Celebrating the work and perseverance of architecture students and academic fellows in 2021

2021-12-29T18:34:00-05:00

Pursuing an architecture education is no easy feat, and with the events that took place in 2020 and 2021, there were plenty of obstacles that could dampen the goals of students around the world. Nevertheless, architecture schools learned as much as they could in 2020 to help students and faculty adapt and persevere.

While 2021 proved to be another year filled with challenges for the architecture industry, architectural academia also experienced its fair share of events. From the announcement of architecture deans leaving to new academic leaders emerging, we must not forget the students and architecture fellows who continued to work hard and keep going.

This year, remote learning, virtual studio crits, and graduations were also met with some in-person learning through hybrid teaching approaches. However, despite the continued obstacles, undergraduate, graduate, and Ph.D. students across the globe continued to learn, explore, and propel the future of architecture and design forward....

Graduating this semester? Send us your thesis or year-end project for publication on Archinect

2020-05-28T10:01:00-04:00

With a great deal of uncertainty and instability currently present in the job market, it can be difficult to find a way to make your work stand out as a graduating architecture student. While architecture and design firms are still hiring (See our roundups of diverse architecture positions recently posted to Archinect Jobs), many practices have had to pause recruitment initiatives in the face of the historic economic crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Previously on Archinect: "Thesis Review: Natou Fall Problematizes Superficiality in Architecture Through The Lens of Self-Expression and Self-Construction." Image © Natou Fall.

Previously on Archinect: "Latent Rationality & Incompatible Worlds; A Conversation with Zahra Safaverdi." Thesis Model. Image via Zahra Safaverdi.

To help rising early-career designers get a leg up on the competition, Archinect is putting out a call for graduating thesis projects to highlight in upcoming editorial features on Archinect.

Previously publi...

In school, sometimes more research is just more procrastination

2020-01-08T17:59:00-05:00

More research isn't always better

Occasionally, we have tendency to look for more information even when it does not cause us to take action. Here's an example: let's say your thesis explores the intersections of music and architecture. You start by scanning the literature on these two disciplines. Naturally, you have access to a lot of architectural works, and through investigation, you discover some works on music.

After some study, you decide that your project will focus on the rhythmic aspects of music and how that can also be interpreted in spatial rhythms through architecture. This becomes the focus. As your presentation approaches, you determine that in order to have a "strong idea" that you need to learn more about how musical instruments are made and how their structural qualities are similar to that of buildings. This will deepen your understanding of the dichotomy you're exploring, you think.

Going further down this rabbit hole, you begin to also examine the physics behin...

Thesis project develops drone architecture for adaptable public spaces

2018-09-07T14:49:00-04:00

A recent thesis project from three students explores adaptable architecture using drones and "smart" materials. The project, Cyber Physical Macro Material, uses lightweight carbon fiber building blocks with integrated sensing communication to create dynamic public spaces.

Cyber Physical Macro Material thesis project by Miguel Aflalo, Behrooz Tahanzadeh, and Jingcheng Chen. Image: University of Stuttgart.

The user can program drones to reconfigure the canopy according to the sun's position, providing occupants with optimum shade thorughout the day. The architecture system can also actively rebuild itself to influence the occupants or retreat completely to nearby rooftops.

Cyber Physical Macro Material thesis project by Miguel Aflalo, Behrooz Tahanzadeh, and Jingcheng Chen. Image: University of Stuttgart.

The project was developed by students Miguel Aflalo, Behrooz Tahanzadeh, and Jingcheng Chen within the Integrative Technologies and Architectural Design Research (ITECH) Master Progr...

Yaohua Wang wins 2014 Harvard GSD thesis prize with “Salvaged Stadium”

2014-11-18T20:58:00-05:00

Recent Harvard Graduate School of Design graduate Yaohua Wang finished his M.Arch program on a high note by winning the 2014 James Templeton Kelley Prize for Best M.Arch II Thesis for his project, "Salvaged Stadium". Although Wang doesn't win an award every single time for his projects, his intricate ideas have spurred some debate in the past.

Salvaged Stadium explores the notion of finding architecture's "hidden dimension". In the introduction, Yaohua Wang writes:

"Let’s begin with a joke. A man went into a restaurant, and he asked the waitress; 'Can I have a coffee without milk, please.' The waitress answers: 'Sorry we don’t have milk today, can I give you a coffee without cream.' For me, this is a very interesting moment. It reveals that what you don’t get is also defining what you get, the hidden dimension behind the appearance. How could architecture gain this hidden dimension, beyond the physical form?"

Learn more about Salvaged Stadium on Bustler. You can also watch the animated story below.

ZIP: Studio400 book show installation, by Cal Poly students

2013-02-11T11:39:00-05:00

A quarter of a million zip ties altered a gallery into a bristled vortex of swirling, cavernous zip tie fabric magnified through reflective cellophane and augmented by subtle changing color. ZIP expresses the story of collaborative effort through research, acquisition, design, and construction of an environment designed as haptic reading room. Designed as an experience to exhibit thesis books, Professor Karen Lange’s fifth year studio (Studio400) at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), San Luis Obispo, was assigned a collaborative installation project to showcase their previous personal research and transition into the design phase of their individual thesis projects.

Nineteen students worked tirelessly through the zipping, snipping, and stitching of the zip ties together composing an intricate three-dimensional fabric that could be swirled onto itself to create multiple experiences within a small storefront space. Entry portal, tubular book receptacles, undula...