Have a few friends in the program, they reside somewhere a few floors above me at john street. They have been using Generative Components, and generally seem to be doing some very interesting work.

Luis ...

how would you compare it with DRL ?

I was going to ask the same question supernova...

from what I see, they are dealing with the production techniques..the purpose of drl seems more about proposing new architectural space relations..

I graduated from the EmTech programme 2 years ago. It is similar to DRL in some ways, but quite different also. Before going into the conceptual differences there are three main structural differences:
1. EmTech is smaller than DRL. It is usually between 10-15 people compared to DRL's 40-80 people.
2. EmTech is geared towards individaul work compared to DRL's collective teams.
3. EmTech is open to engineers, industrial designers, etc. Not just architects.

Overall the programs look at many of the same things (biology, emergent organizations and structures, fabrication, simulation, computation, etc.) however it could be true that DRL is more "Architectural" in the traditional sense of the word. That is, they are aiming at developing "buildings" at the end of the day. In Emtech the research is broader and the final projects are often not buildings, but techniques and/or strategies.

At least while I was there, there was a funny relationship between the DRL and EmTech where each group wished they were in the other. DRL students would get tired of applying techniques without deeper development and EmTech students would get tired of developing techniques without applying them. I think the programs complement each other quite well.

If you want to see what I did while I was there go to my website: materialsystems.org and click on the "manifold" project.

feel free to email if you have more questions.

Yes, check out this man's website, there are some very interesting things to see. Thanks for chiming in there Andrew . . . that is a damn accurate description of the differences. . .

you gotta be kidding me!...I just saw your project at the AA last year, when I was there for summer school. Your project was amazing, It was on the cover of the Graduate catalogs as well. Thanx for the clarification and the differences by the way. :)

i go to stevens...product architecture and engineering....its the dopest shit on the planet.....and will cost you a third of what it would be to go to the AA...and you are like 10 mins from lower manhattan.....most of us work in manhattan at offices associated with the program.....

i can go on if anyone is interested.

Andrew .... some very intresting work there...

I am thinking about applying. I'm just wondering for those people are have graduated there and who are going there, what type of work did you have in your portfolio. 

Is it better to be familiar with the software programs such as grasshopper/ rhino before going there? 

I went to their reviews over a year ago.
Getting a head start on Grasshoppper would help, since that seems to be their interface of choice. Although, they are getting into Python and processing also lately

They are also working more in teams now, less individual, although it still happens. Anything by Weinstock/Menges can give you a window into their ideas.