Mid Reviews (sort of)

Of the benefits of a three (and a half) year masters program is the opportunity to see your classmates and yourself develop as architects and people over time. We finished our a mid-review/pinup last week, which for a lot of us was the first time we are seeing each other with developed individual ideas since last May. Everyone has come a long way over the summer, it’s becoming more apparent everyone’s individual interests and strengths as well as what is becoming our years collective vocabulary (more on that another time).

Personally I used to be (note past tense usage) fixated on theory and diagramming but after working this summer at a small firm my interests shifted slightly. Not that this was my first work experience it is actually my third – my prior office was a two year stint, so the fact that my interests evolved were more to do with the focus of the latest office instead of the profession as a whole.

Now that we’re in the heart of the semester I’m finding myself critical of the overdrawn conceptualizing and process-making of the Cornell studio, it seems that you cannot make architecture without adobe illustrator any longer. I believe in transparency in process and the (re)insertion of agency into architecture however the dichotic  nature of studio is; if the ‘concept’ is too clear it is interpreted as simplistic. This however is a superficial summary of a more complex argument which will have to be an ongoing conversation – for now here are some well shot photos of studio work by Angela Afandi.

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Ryan

I started my architectural education in my hometown; Toronto, Canada, at Ryerson University. The program there is an undergraduate degree in architectural science (B.Arch. Sci.). Generally considered a technical program due to Ryerson's roots as a polytechnic institute, before becoming a university, its now changing its curriculum and effectively its image. During my tenure there, it was a changing school trying to shed its 'technical' image, for a more theoretical stance. However the curriculum was slow to change and parts of the old program remained while new types of classes were being tested. As a result, I've obtained a sort of schizophrenic undergrad invested in mechanical materiality and theory. The two years between my undergrad and grad school were spent working at a couple of firms; primarily Moriyama and Teshima Architects, then a change of pace at a couple of smaller offices including a very talented Toronto firm; Reigo and Bauer Architects. I managed to squeeze in some traveling in the last two years, but some of the best travel experience I've had were in my undergrad with my studio, something I look forward to in grad school.

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