Studio Philosophy

Architecture is a kind of intervention; it puts forth a concrete form in an environment, compelling a continuation, interruption, or change of its surrounds. Focusing on the urban impact of architecture, this studio provokes students to investigate and imagine architectures that catalyze their cities. The city, holding officiating powers of society, governance, and industry within its confines, becomes a major site for interventions across a range of scales and officiation. At the small or large scale, official or ad-hoc urban interventions have the capacity to transform its environment, repairing, renovating, or stimulating the city’s forms and functions.

This studio looks to the city – public space, street, square, neighborhood, or node – as the site for radical architectural interventions. Exploring the limit, scale, time-frame, and intention, this studio proposes that urban interventions catalyze new uses, purposes, and meanings for its spaces. This studio encourages students to broaden their conception of architecture and produce interventions that incite new urban forms and sociopolitical milieus.