EX-CHANGE 2023

EX-CHANGE 2023

IDENTITY & BOOK DESIGN

Lisa Maione for instance, a design practice with Asad Pervaiz

STUDENT TEAM

Spring

Eva Chen

Nadia Cho

Yifan Feng

Max Hong

Bella Salazar

Octavius Tan

Tom Vite

Starr Wasler

Rong Yuan

Patrick Zheng

Summer

Andrew Chan

Nadia Cho

Eric Feng

Grace Kolosek

Mira Teng

Starr Wasler

Esme Williams

Rong Yuan

Patrick Zheng

Fall

Nadia Cho

Airla Fan

Eric Feng

Faris Khan

Grace Kolosek

Negin Shahidi

Mira Teng

Starr Wasler

Esme Williams

Rong Yuan

Patrick Zheng

EX-CHANGE ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Dana Cupkova

Tommy CheeMou Yang

Zain Islam-Hashmi (B.Arch ’19)

Bobuchi Ken-Opurum (PhD-AECM ’22)

Suzy Li

Luke Bulman DIRECTOR

Sarah Rafson

STAFF ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Special thanks to:

Alycia Barney

Christi Danner

Jon Holmes

Terry Hritz

Melinda Johnson

David Koltas

Meredith Marsh

Aaron Martin

Nathan Sawyer

2023 SPONSORS

Perkins Eastman

Strada | Design With People In Mind®

EX-CHANGE is an annual exhibition and publication celebrating the work of the Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture (SoA) from first year to Ph.D. Inaugurated in 2017, EX-CHANGE represents an ongoing opportunity to shine new light on the SoA’s programs and to position the work within larger questions of research and practice. Exhibitions are on view on campus August 28-September 10, 2023 in the College of Fine Arts, Margaret Morrison Carnegie Hall and Hunt Library.

Materiality

During the 2022-23 school year, the School of Architecture (SoA) facilitated discussions around the concept of Materiality through public programs and advanced studios, with an emphasis on Aesthetics in the fall and Extractivism in the spring. Materials play an important role in the design and research process across SoA programs.

With that in mind, we’ve chosen to highlight materiality in the content of this publication as well. This edition highlights projects from undergraduate and graduate students that examine the tactile, structural and visual qualities of the materials used in architectural practice.

In our exhibitions of student work on campus this fall, materiality guides the placement of student projects. A landscape of models fills the Great Hall from August 28September 10, 2023. A display on the fourth floor of Hunt Library highlights explorations of color, and screens on the fourth floor of Margaret Morrison Carnegie Hall (MMCH) feature videos of graduate student research on materiality from multiple vantage points. Additionally, faculty Nida Rehman’s exhibition on the first floor of MMCH, Containment, Care + Community, showcases work from earlier and more recent periods of pandemic life exploring social and spatial prospects for preventing contagion, providing care, and building community. As you make your way through the material that the SoA produced over the past year, take care to think about the materials we use, their sources and their afterlives.

I am very excited to share with you student work produced over the 2023-23 academic year at Carnegie Mellon Architecture. In EX-CHANGE 2023, you will find innovative design proposals and research projects that push the architectural imagination. They demonstrate the variety of approaches our undergraduate and graduate programs take in exploring the complex issues facing the built environment. All the programs remain committed to our three pedagogical challenges — climate change, artificial intelligence and social justice — and aim to address the problems and opportunities each challenge poses for the future.

This year’s public programs series, Materiality: Aesthetics and Extractivism, helped us reflect on our three challenges by interrogating the changing meaning of “materiality” in contemporary architecture. While aesthetic and performative concerns remain paramount for architects, environmental costs — including carbon emissions, toxic manufacturing and embodied energy — play a huge role in guiding these choices. Even as materials’ durational, poetic and affective qualities

remain relevant in contemporary work, we are seeing how digital and information technologies open new opportunities for fabricating conventional materials, repurposing discarded materials and inventing new materials. Our public programs also shed light on materials’ profound costs to the environment, labor and health. Massive construction projects across the world, like the stadiums built for the World Cup in Qatar, highlight how labor can be extracted and exploited. The manufacturing, storage and disposal of construction materials disproportionately affects the health conditions of marginalized communities; these communities are vital for architecture’s creation and yet they are rarely its beneficiaries.

You will see in these pages a diversity of positions on technology, culture, ethics and the art and science of building. Also on materiality. EX-CHANGE 2023 aims to capture the life of the school over the last year, and I hope it conveys the energy and creativity I witnessed. I am immensely proud of the way our faculty have organized their courses to give our students unique learning opportunities that challenge them to take on big problems and offer both tangible and imaginative solutions for the future.

— Omar Khan, Head of the School of Architecture

In 2023, the School of Architecture worked with the Office of Luke Bulman to envision a new branding and identity, which will roll out in the 2023–24 school year.

In our initial meetings, Omar Khan described the School of Architecture as a “school of many.” With that in mind, the visual identity is simultaneously well-formed and open. It combines two primary elements: a unit mark and an icon. They may be used independently or in tandem. The unit mark is meant to clearly state the association of the school with Carnegie Mellon University while also asserting a precise and clear tone. The icon, which exists in multiple figurations, suggests the confluence of measurement, multiplicity and shape. The color palette is vibrant and energetic — we seek to embrace the use of color in identity and communications. As the identity goes into use, it is hoped that it remains flexible and expressive, reflecting and extending how the school sees itself and is seen by others.

—Luke

Bulman, Office of Luke Bulman, lukebulman.com

INSTRUCTORS: EDDY MAN KIM (COORDINATOR), JENNA KAPPELT, JACKIE

Esha Shah

FALL 2022

48-100 Architecture Design Studio: Poiesis Studio I Instructors: Eddy Man Kim (Coordinator), Jenna Kappelt

62-122

Digital Media I

Instructor: Matthew Huber

Ishika Dinesh (above left), Kiki (Ying Qi) Kuang (above right), Jesse Zhang (left) FALL 2022

INSTRUCTORS: EDDY MAN KIM (COORDINATOR), JENNA KAPPELT, JACKIE

Simon Han FALL 2022

48-100 Architecture Design Studio: Poiesis Studio I

Instructors: Eddy Man Kim (Coordinator), Jenna Kappelt

Yansheng Lyu (above)

FALL 2022

48-100

Architecture Design Studio: Poiesis Studio I

Instructors: Eddy Man Kim (Coordinator), Garrett Wood-Sternburgh

Andrew Chan, Manaen Hu, Guene Mao, Rong Yuan (below)

FALL 2022

48-100

Architecture Design Studio: Poiesis Studio I

Instructors: Eddy Man Kim (Coordinator), Daniel Tompkins

Kiki Kuang

FALL 2022

48-100

Architecture Design Studio:

Poiesis Studio I

Instructors: Eddy Man Kim (Coordinator), Garrett Wood-Sternburgh

Owen Petrucci (facing page, below)

FALL 2022

48-100

Architecture Design Studio:

Poiesis Studio I

Instructors: Eddy Man Kim (Coordinator), Jackie Joseph Paul McFarland

Monica Wan

FALL 2022

48-100 Architecture Design Studio: Poiesis Studio I Instructors: Eddy Man Kim (Coordinator), Jenna Kappelt

Rong Yuan

FALL 2022

48-100 Architecture Design Studio: Poiesis Studio I

Instructors: Eddy Man Kim (Coordinator), Daniel Tompkins

Andrew Li

FALL 2022

48-100 Architecture Design Studio: Poiesis Studio I

Instructors: Eddy Man Kim (Coordinator), Jackie Joseph

Paul McFarland

FALL 2022

48-100

Architecture Design

Studio: Poiesis Studio I

Instructors: Eddy Man Kim (Coordinator), Garrett Wood-Sternburgh

Zoe Botta

INSTRUCTORS: EDDY MAN KIM (COORDINATOR), JENNA KAPPELT, JACKIE

Jason Asiedu

SPRING 2023

48-100 Architecture Design Studio: Poiesis Studio I

Instructors: Eddy Man Kim (Coordinator), Daniel Tompkins

FALL 2022

48-100

Architecture Design

Studio: Poiesis Studio I

Instructors: Eddy Man Kim (Coordinator), Garrett Wood-Sternburgh

Chloe Zhu

INSTRUCTORS: EDDY MAN KIM (COORDINATOR), JENNA KAPPELT, JACKIE

FALL 2022

62-125

Drawing I

Instructor: Doug Cooper

Eva Chen (above right); Octavius Tan (below left); Kate Shaw (below right)

FALL 2022

62-125

Drawing I

Instructor: Doug Cooper

Lily Frank (left), Chenmiao Shi (below)

INSTRUCTORS: TOMMY CHEEMOU YANG (COORDINATOR), NICKIE CHEUNG, MANUEL RODRIGUEZ LADRÓN DE GUEVARA, GINGER BROOKS

Francesca Menendez

SPRING 2023

48-105

Poiesis Studio II

Instructors: Tommy CheeMou

Yang (Coordinator), Ginger Brooks Takahashi

Eve Frackelton

"Paws of Butler"

SPRING 2023

48-105

Poiesis Studio II

Instructors: Tommy CheeMou Yang (Coordinator), Nickie Cheung

Catalina John-Melendez (facing page)

"Checkered with Reclamation"

SPRING 2023 48-105

Poiesis Studio II

Instructors:

Tommy CheeMou Yang (Coordinator), Ginger Brooks Takahashi

Zara Song (left)

SPRING 2023 48-105

Poiesis Studio II

Instructors:

Tommy CheeMou Yang (Coordinator), Melanie Ngami

DOUG COOPER (DRAWING II), MATTHEW HUBER (DIGITAL MEDIA II)

Taylor Wang

“The Blue Moon Music Club”

SPRING 2023 48-105

Poiesis Studio II

Instructors: Tommy CheeMou Yang (Coordinator), Melani Ngami

Eve Frackelton

“Paws of Butler”

SPRING 2023 48-105

Poiesis Studio II

Instructors: Tommy CheeMou Yang (Coordinator), Nickie Cheung

Nathan Cottrell

“Pittsburgh Grease Plant”

SPRING 2023

48-105

Poiesis Studio II

Instructors: Tommy CheeMou Yang (Coordinator), Manuel Rodriguez Ladrón de Guevara

Ashley Jauregui

SPRING 2023

48-105

Poiesis Studio II

Instructors: Tommy CheeMou Yang (Coordinator), Nickie Cheung

Simon Han (above)

“The ReUnion”

SPRING 2023

48-105

Poiesis Studio II

Instructors: Tommy CheeMou Yang (Coordinator), Nickie Cheung

Christian Duckworth (left)

SPRING 2023

48-105

Poiesis Studio II

Instructors: Tommy CheeMou Yang (Coordinator), Manuel Rodriguez Ladrón de Guevara

David Decker

“Squirrel Hill Jazz Club”

SPRING 2023

48-105

Poiesis Studio II

Instructors: Tommy CheeMou

Yang (Coordinator), Ginger

Brooks Takahashi

Airla Fan (above)

“Multiplicity”

SPRING 2023 48-105

Poiesis Studio II

Instructors: Tommy CheeMou Yang (Coordinator), Melanie Ngami

Farah Daveau (right)

“Crossroads”

SPRING 2023 48-105

Poiesis Studio II

Instructors: Tommy CheeMou Yang (Coordinator), Manuel Rodriguez Ladrón de Guevara

Mikayla Gee (above);

“Boundless Nexus” SPRING 2023

48-105

Poiesis Studio II

Instructors: Tommy CheeMou Yang (Coordinator), Melanie Ngami

Andrew Chan (left)

(COORDINATOR),

Leo (Yifan) Wu

SPRING 2023

48-105

Poiesis Studio II

Instructors: Tommy CheeMou Yang (Coordinator), Nickie Cheung

Max Hong

“Connect”

SPRING 2023

48-105

Poiesis Studio II

Instructors: Tommy CheeMou Yang (Coordinator), Manuel Rodriguez Ladrón de Guevara

Ishika Dinesh

“A Choice”

SPRING 2023

48-105

Poiesis Studio II

Instructors: Tommy CheeMou Yang (Coordinator), Nickie Cheung

Lily Frank

“Pink House”

SPRING 2023

48-105

Poiesis Studio II

Instructors: Tommy CheeMou

Yang (Coordinator), Manuel Rodriguez Ladrón de Guevara

Naza Monjor (right)

SPRING 2023

48-105

Poiesis Studio II

Instructors: Tommy CheeMou Yang (Coordinator), Ginger Brooks Takahashi

Ryan Shen

“Terra”

SPRING 2023

48-105

Poiesis Studio II

Instructors: Tommy CheeMou Yang (Coordinator), Melanie Ngami

Poiesis Studio II Radical Empathy in Architecture: Storytelling as an Architectural Manifesto SPRING 2023

SPRING 2023

62-126

Drawing II

Instructor: Doug Cooper

David Decker (above); Yansheng Lyu (below)

SPRING

62-126

Drawing II

Instructor: Doug Cooper

Dian Zhu (left); Andrew Li (right)

2023

INSTRUCTORS: LAURA GARÓFALO (COORDINATOR), PRIYANKA BISTA, ELIJAH HUGHES, MANUEL RODRIGUEZ LADRÓN DE GUEVARA,

Tracy Zhang

FALL 2022

48-200

Poiesis Studio III

Instructors: Laura Garófalo (Coordinator), Tommy CheeMou Yang

Instructors: Laura Garófalo (Coordinator), Priyanka Bista

Michael Li (above right); Julia Kasper (below left)

FALL 2022

48-200

Poiesis Studio III

INSTRUCTORS: LAURA GARÓFALO (COORDINATOR), PRIYANKA BISTA, ELIJAH HUGHES, MANUEL RODRIGUEZ LADRÓN DE GUEVARA,

Mingyang Zhu, Leyi Han

FALL 2022

48-200

Poiesis Studio III

Instructors: Laura Garófalo (Coordinator), Elijah Hughes

FALL 2022

48-200

Poiesis Studio III

Instructors: Laura Garófalo (Coordinator), Tommy CheeMou Yang

Elizabeth Hager, Starr Wasler

Charlie Hymowitz, Isabella (Yaoran)

Shi, Selina (Yanan) Zhou

“The Culinary Axis”

FALL 2022

48-200

Poiesis Studio III

Instructors: Laura Garófalo (Coordinator), Tommy CheeMou Yang

Angela Yang, Tracy Zhang

FALL 2022

48-200

Poiesis Studio III

Instructors: Laura Garófalo (Coordinator), Tommy CheeMou Yang

Andy Jiang, Michael Li

“Cascading Canopy”

FALL 2022

48-200

Poiesis Studio III

Instructors: Laura Garófalo (Coordinator), Priyanka Bista

INSTRUCTORS: LAURA GARÓFALO (COORDINATOR), PRIYANKA BISTA, ELIJAH HUGHES, MANUEL RODRIGUEZ LADRÓN DE GUEVARA, CHARLIE SCHMIDT, TOMMY CHEEMOU YANG

Ana Furtado, Stephanie Choi

FALL 2022

48-200

Poiesis Studio III

Instructors: Laura Garófalo (Coordinator), Priyanka Bista

Shay Freund, Dana Lau

FALL 2022

48-200

Poiesis Studio III

Instructors: Laura Garófalo (Coordinator), Manuel Rodriguez

Ladrón de Guevara

Hazel Froling, Henry Youngren (facing page)

FALL 2022

48-200

Poiesis Studio III

Instructors: Laura Garófalo (Coordinator),

Manuel Rodriguez Ladrón de Guevara

INSTRUCTORS:

Charlie Hymowitz, Isabella (Yaoran) Shi, Selina (Yanan) Zhou (above)

FALL 2022

48-116

Introducton to Building Performance

Instructor: Nathan Sawyer

Oscar Wang, Alice Yu (below)

FALL 2022

48-200

Poiesis Studio III

Instructors: Laura Garófalo (Coordinator), Charlie Schmidt

FALL 2022

48-200

Poiesis Studio III

Instructors: Laura Garófalo (Coordinator), Elijah Hughes

Ternilla Robinson, David Vargas

INSTRUCTORS:

GARÓFALO (COORDINATOR), PRIYANKA BISTA, ELIJAH HUGHES, MANUEL RODRIGUEZ LADRÓN DE GUEVARA,

Nadia Cho, Benni Guo

FALL 2022

48-200

Poiesis Studio III

Instructors: Laura Garófalo (Coordinator), Tommy CheeMou Yang

Paul Li, Aayush Saxena (facing page)

“Exoskeleton”

FALL 2022

48-200

Poiesis Studio III

Instructors: Laura Garófalo (Coordinator), Priyanka Bista

INSTRUCTORS:

Shahzadi Padda, Sonia Prashant, Abby Quigley

“Cocina de Vanguardia”

FALL 2022

48-200

Poiesis Studio III

Instructors: Laura Garófalo (Coordinator), Charlie Schmidt

Abhikram Shekhawat, Patrick Zheng, Pauline Zhang (facing page)

FALL 2022

48-200

Poiesis Studio III

Instructors: Laura Garófalo (Coordinator), Charlie Schmidt

Shay Freund (above); Xinran (Alice) Yu (below)

Fall 2022

48-215

Materials & Assembly

Instructor:

Gerard Damiani

Kaiwen (Serena) Sun, Leyi (Tina) Han (above); Erika Litwin, Stephanie Choi (below)

Spring 2023

62-275

Fundamentals of Computational Design

Instructor: Eddy Man Kim

Theresa Ye

SPRING 2023

48-205

Second Year Options Studio: Untangling the Threads

Instructor: Stefani Danes

Elizabeth Hager

SPRING 2023

48-205

Second Year Options Studio: Untangling the Threads Instructor: Stefani Danes

SPRING 2023

48-205

Second Year Options Studio: Interface Architecture – Architecture Interface Instructor: Eddy Man Kim

(left to right)

Aayush Saxena, Andrew Wang; Angela Yang, Mingyang Zhu; Darin Kim, Abhikram Shekhawat; Jiapei Wang, Sonia Prashant

SPRING 2023

48-205

Second Year Options Studio: The Ancestral Home –Past-Present-Future Instructor: Jackie Joseph

Paul McFarland

Bella Salazar Harper (above); Shreeja Harisrikanth (below)

David Vargas SPRING 2023 48-205

Second Year Options

Studio: The Ancestral Home – Past-Present-Future

Instructor: Jackie Joseph Paul McFarland

Patrick Zheng

SPRING 2023

48-205

Second Year Options

Studio:

The Ancestral Home – Past-Present-Future

Instructor: Jackie Joseph Paul McFarland

Second Year Options Studio: The Ancestral Home – Past-Present-Future Instructor: Jackie Joseph Paul McFarland

Paul Li (above); Jerry Xu (below) SPRING 2023 48-205

Selina (Yanan) Zhou

SPRING 2023

48-205

Second Year Options Studio: The Ancestral Home – Past-Present-Future

Instructor: Jackie Joseph Paul McFarland

Tristan Hineman

SPRING 2023

48-205

Second Year Options Studio:

The Ancestral Home – Past-Present-Future Instructor: Jackie Joseph Paul McFarland

SPRING 2023

48-205

Second Year Options Studio: Mobile Home Instructor: Jared Abraham

Benni Guo (below left); Khoi Do (below middle); Henry Youngren (below right)

STEVE LEE, JACKIE JOSEPH PAUL MCFARLAND

Isabella Shi (left)

SPRING 2023

48-205

Second Year Options Studio:

Mobile Home Instructor: Jared Abraham

SPRING 2023

48-205

Second Year Options Studio: Mobile Home

Instructor: Jared Abraham

Ella Maxwell (above); Shahzadi Padda (below)

SPRING 2023

48-205

Second Year Options

Studio: Mobile Home

Instructor: Jared Abraham

Eric Yu (above); Ella Moon (below)

INSTRUCTORS:

48-205

2023

Second Year Options

Studio: Mobile Home

Instructor: Jared Abraham

Tina (Leyi) Han (above); Zoe (Shiyue) Liu (below) SPRING

JARED ABRAHAM, STEFANI DANES, EDDY MAN KIM, STEVE LEE, JACKIE JOSEPH PAUL MCFARLAND

Jordan Scott

SPRING 2023 48-205

Second Year Options Studio: Mobile Home

Instructor: Jared Abraham

Lee (above); Delaney Rice (below)

Vanshika Bhaiya, David Warfel (facing page)

“A Closed Loop is Not a Circle”

FALL 2022

48-300 Architecture Design Studio: Praxis Studio I

Instructors: Heather Bizon (Coordinator), Jared Abraham, Zaid Kashef Alghata

Neha Chopra, Graham Murtha

“The Generative Framework”

FALL 2022

48-300 Architecture Design Studio: Praxis Studio I

Instructors: Heather Bizon (Coordinator), Vicky Achnani, Ala Tannir

INSTRUCTORS: HEATHER BIZON (COORDINATOR), JARED

Michael Bi, Jason Shao

FALL 2022

48-300

Architecture Design Studio: Praxis Studio I

Instructors: Heather Bizon (Coordinator), Jared Abraham, Zaid Kashef Alghata

Keanu Dong, Eric Feng, Andrew Yoon

FALL 2022

48-300

Architecture Design Studio: Praxis Studio I

Instructors: Heather Bizon (Coordinator), Vicky Achnani, Ala Tannir

Grace Kolosek, J. Brody Ploeger

FALL 2022

48-300

Architecture Design Studio: Praxis Studio I

Instructors: Heather Bizon (Coordinator), Jared Abraham, Zaid Kashef Alghata

FALL 2022

48-300

Architecture Design

Studio: Praxis Studio I

Instructors: Heather Bizon (Coordinator), Jared Abraham, Ala Tannir

I Lok U, Jackie Yu

FALL 2022

48-300

Architecture Design Studio: Praxis Studio I

Instructors: Heather Bizon (Coordinator), Jared Abraham, Ala Tannir

Alexandra Meilan Wang, Siyi (Suzie) Liu

FALL 2022

48-300 Architecture Design Studio: Praxis Studio I

Instructors: Heather Bizon (Coordinator), Vicky Achnani, Ala Tannir

Jacky Jia, Ashley Su (left)

INSTRUCTORS: JEREMY FICCA (COORDINATOR), VICKY ACHNANI, GERARD DAMIANI, KATIE LAFOREST

Emily Franco

SPRING 2023

48-305

Praxis Studio II

Instructors: Jeremy Ficca (Coordinator), Vicky Achnani

Graham Murtha

SPRING 2023

48-305

Praxis Studio II

Instructors: Jeremy Ficca (Coordinator), Gerard Damiani

INSTRUCTORS: JEREMY FICCA (COORDINATOR), VICKY ACHNANI, GERARD DAMIANI, KATIE LAFOREST

Henry Von Rintelen

SPRING 2023

48-305

Praxis Studio II

Instructors: Jeremy Ficca (Coordinator), Gerard Damiani

I Lok U

SPRING 2023

48-305

Praxis Studio II

Instructors: Jeremy Ficca (Coordinator), Vicky Achnani

INSTRUCTORS: JEREMY FICCA (COORDINATOR), VICKY ACHNANI, GERARD DAMIANI, KATIE LAFOREST

Jacky Jia

SPRING 2023

48-305

Praxis Studio II

Instructors: Jeremy Ficca (Coordinator), Gerard Damiani

Michael Bi

SPRING 2023

48-305

Praxis Studio II

Instructors: Jeremy Ficca (Coordinator), Vicky Achnani

SPRING 2023

48-305

Praxis Studio II

Instructors: Jeremy Ficca (Coordinator), Katie LaForest

Ashley Su (above); J. Brody Ploeger (below)

Eesha Nagpal

SPRING 2023

48-305

Praxis Studio II

Instructors: Jeremy Ficca (Coordinator), Katie LaForest

Alexandra Wang

SPRING 2023

48-305

Praxis Studio II

Instructors: Jeremy Ficca (Coordinator), Gerard Damiani

FALL 2022

48-400

Architecture Design Studio: Praxis Studio III

Instructor: Hal Hayes

Amy Hu, Jing Jing Wu, Robert Yang

HAL HAYES, STEVE LEE, JILL SWENSON

FALL 2022

48-400 Architecture Design

Studio: Praxis Studio III

Instructor: Hal Hayes

Rebecca Cunningham, Mira Teng, Shray Tripathi

Sophie Chao, Howie Li, Jerry Zhang, Kevin Yao (left);

Brian Hartman, Kit Tang, Colin Walters (right)

FALL 2022

48-400

Architecture Design Studio: Praxis Studio III

Instructor: Gerard Damiani

Gabrielle Benson, Sharon Fung, Sarah Kwok

FALL 2022

48-400

Architecture Design Studio: Praxis Studio III

Instructor: Gerard Damiani

DAMIANI, HAL HAYES, STEVE LEE, JILL SWENSON

FALL 2022

48-400

Architecture Design Studio: Praxis Studio III

Instructor: Steve Lee

Athan Chang, Emma Nilson, Anishwar Tirupathur (above right); Studio meetings

INSTRUCTORS:

Cody Chen

FALL 2022

48-500 Advanced Synthesis Option Studio:

Framing Maxo - Spatial Narratives of Social Justice

Instructor: Christine Mondor

STEFAN GRUBER, THEO ISSAIAS, STEVE LEE,

Dongtao Bi, Yiting Zhang

FALL 2022

48-500

Advanced Synthesis Option Studio:

Framing Maxo - Spatial Narratives of Social Justice Instructor: Christine Mondor

Rachel Kim

FALL 2022

48-500 Advanced Synthesis Option Studio: Construction_Engendered Instructor: Mary-Lou Arscott

FALL 2022

48-500

Advanced Synthesis Option Studio:

Construction_Engendered

Instructor: Mary-Lou Arscott

Suzie Kim (left); Xu Xu (right)

INSTRUCTORS:

Kuiyang Yang

FALL 2022

48-500 Advanced Synthesis Option Studio:

Degree Zero – Unearthing Stone Materiality

Instructor: Jeremy Ficca

STEFAN GRUBER, THEO ISSAIAS, STEVE LEE,

Jiaxi Gu

FALL 2022

48-500 Advanced Synthesis Option Studio: Degree Zero – Unearthing Stone Materiality Instructor: Jeremy Ficca

INSTRUCTORS:

Jason Garwood

FALL 2022

48-500 Advanced Synthesis Option Studio:

Beside* Glitter – Spaces of Queer Solidarity and Love Instructor: Theodossis Issaias

STEFAN GRUBER, THEO ISSAIAS, STEVE LEE,

Favour Adesina, Tracy Meng, Antoni Zhang (below)

FALL 2022

48-500

Advanced Synthesis

Option Studio:

Beside* Glitter –Spaces of Queer

Solidarity and Love Instructor:

Theodossis Issaias

Gavin Hurley, Kushal Shah (above);

Howie Li, Katia Peppas

SPRING 2023 48-510

Advanced Synthesis Option Studio: Ephemeral_Enduring — Performance Architecture for a New Permanent and Seasonal Theater for the Festival d'Avignon Instructor: Hal Hayes

Graana Khan, Gloria Huang SPRING 2023 48-510

Advanced Synthesis Option Studio: Ephemeral_Enduring — Performance Architecture for a New Permanent and Seasonal Theater for the Festival d'Avignon

Instructor: Hal Hayes

INSTRUCTORS:

Sharon Fung, Mira Teng (above); Favour Adesina, Tejaswini Rane (below)

SPRING 2023

48-510

Advanced Synthesis Option Studio: Ephemeral_Enduring — Performance Architecture for a New Permanent and Seasonal Theater for the Festival d'Avignon Instructor: Hal Hayes

Amy Hu

SPRING 2023

48-510

Advanced Synthesis Option Studio: Domesticating Bigness — Speculating on a Future for Ecological Social Housing Infrastructures

Instructor: Zaid Kashef Alghata

SPRING 2023

48-510

Advanced Synthesis Option Studio: Obsolescence — Exploring Praxis, Material Cultures and Labor in South Asia

Instructor: Sarosh Anklesaria

Anishwar Tirupathur (above); Jackson Lacey (facing page, above); Jai Bhatnagar (facing page, below)

Shray Tripathi

SPRING 2023

48-510

Advanced Synthesis Option Studio:

Obsolescence — Exploring Praxis, Material

Cultures and Labor in South Asia

Instructor: Sarosh Anklesaria

Ann Mulgrew (above);

Ankitha Vasudev (facing page, below);

Jing Jing Wu

SPRING 2023

48-510

Advanced Synthesis Option Studio: Empathy, Architecture and the Anthropocene Instructor: Priyanka Bista

Shenyuan Li (facing page); Neha Hedge (above)

SPRING 2023

48-510

Advanced Synthesis Option Studio:

IMAGE DEEP:/ reImagine

Instructor: Dana Cupkova

Jiaxi Gu (facing page); KuiYang Yang

SPRING 2023

48-410

Advanced Synthesis Option Studio:

IMAGE DEEP:/ reImagine Instructor: Dana Cupkova

Brian Hartman, Colin Walters

SPRING 2023 48-510

Advanced Synthesis Option Studio: Past Futures: The American Rust Belt – Architecture, Environment and Aesthetics Through Speculative Fictions Instructor: Heather Bizon

INSTRUCTORS: SAROSH

SPRING 2023 48-510

Advanced Synthesis Option Studio: Past Futures: The American Rust Belt –Architecture, Environment and Aesthetics

Through Speculative Fictions

Instructor: Heather Bizon

Sean Chen, Robert Yang (above); Rebecca Cunningham, Jason Garwood (right)

INSTRUCTORS: SAROSH

Carson Michaelis, Kit Tang

SPRING 2023 48-510

Advanced Synthesis Option Studio: Past Futures: The American Rust Belt –Architecture, Environment and Aesthetics

Through Speculative Fictions

Instructor: Heather Bizon

FALL 2022

48-630

M.Arch Studio: Praxis I

Instructors: Sarosh Anklesaria, Jonathan Kline

Ajay Chovatia, Spencer Bordenick

FALL 2022

48-630

M.Arch Studio: Praxis I

Instructors: Sarosh Anklesaria, Jonathan Kline

Charlie Hsu, Parth Danait

FALL 2022

48-630

M.Arch Studio: Praxis I

Instructors: Sarosh Anklesaria, Jonathan Kline

Anna Soryal, Hrushikesh Shah (above left); Jenish Thakkar, Rovina George (below right)

FALL 2022

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M.Arch Studio: Praxis I

Instructors: Sarosh Anklesaria, Jonathan Kline

Clara Jiao, Ruoying Xie

FALL 2022

48-630

M.Arch Studio: Praxis I

Instructors: Sarosh Anklesaria, Jonathan Kline

Marcus Valdez, Toris Ye

Trevor Orgill

FALL 2022

48-630

M.Arch Studio: Praxis I

Instructors: Sarosh Anklesaria, Jonathan Kline

Priyanka Thakur

FALL 2022

48-630

M.Arch Studio: Praxis I

Instructors: Sarosh Anklesaria, Jonathan Kline

Shail Sheth, Shayla Thomas

FALL 2022

48-630

M.Arch Studio: Praxis I

Instructors: Sarosh Anklesaria, Jonathan Kline

SPRING 2023

48-640

M.Arch Studio: Praxis II

Instructors: Azadeh Sawyer, Matthew Huber

Charlie Hsu, Marcus Valdez, Jiahua Wu, Steven Huo

Rovina George, Jenish Thakkar, Anshuka Suresh, Hurshikesh Shah

SPRING 2023

48-640

M.Arch Studio: Praxis II

Instructors: Azadeh Sawyer, Matthew Huber

Priyanka Thakur

SPRING 2023

48-640

M.Arch Studio: Praxis II

Instructors: Azadeh Sawyer, Matthew Huber

SPRING 2023

48-640

M.Arch Studio: Praxis II

Instructors: Azadeh Sawyer, Matthew Huber

Rachel Ruscigno, Autumn Dsouza, Ajay Chovatia, Shail Sheth

SPRING 2023

48-640

M.Arch Studio: Praxis II

Instructors: Azadeh Sawyer, Matthew Huber

Shayla Thomas, Moyin Okulate, Anna Soryal

Trevor Orgill, Parth Danait

SPRING 2023

48-640

M.Arch Studio: Praxis II

Instructors: Azadeh Sawyer, Matthew Huber

SPRING 2023

48-640

M.Arch Studio: Praxis II

Instructors: Azadeh Sawyer, Matthew Huber

Clara Jiao, Ruoying Xie, Toris Ye, Yvie Zhang

Xinyue Zhang, Fangyu Huang

FALL 2022

48-692

Urban Studio I

Instructor: Stefani Danes

Urban Studio I

Instructor: Stefani Danes

Koushik Srinath, Yash Parikh (above); Aditi Shreedhar, Aniket Surve (below)

FALL 2022

48-705

Urban Studio I

Instructor: Stefani Danes

Shreya Mathur, Seyoung Choo (above); Rutuja Badve, Yihan Liu (below)

Urban Studio II: Urban Systems

SPRING 2023

48-706

Instructor: Nida Rehman

SPRING 2023

48-647

Anushka Asani (above); Rovina George (below left); Shail Sheth (below right)

Materiality and Construction Systems

Instructor: Jeremy Ficca

SPRING 2023

48-647

Materiality and Construction Systems

Instructor: Jeremy Ficca

Autumn Dzousa (above); Tory Tan (below)

FALL 2022

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Introduction to Urban Design Media

Instructors: Jared Abraham (created with MidJourney)

Yihan Liu (right); Koushik Srinath (facing page, above); Seyoung Choo (facing page, below)

SPRING 2023

48-692

Shaping Daylight Through Simulation and Virtual Reality

Instructor: Azadeh Sawyer

Negin Shahidi (above); Tabeer Tariqm, Sidra Khan (below)

Monalisa Malani

SPRING 2023

48-769

Generative Systems for Design

Instructor: Vivian Loftness

Di Wu

SPRING 2023

48-785

MAAD Research by Design Project

Instructors: Jeremy Ficca, Joshua Bard

FALL 2022

48-356 Color Drawing

Instructor: Doug Cooper

Howie Li (facing page, above); Nicolas Jun (facing page, below);

Tony Tao (above right); Jiafei Hu (below right)

FALL 2022

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Beyond the Building's Footprint

Instructor: Zaid Kashef Alghata

Lake Lewis (left); Starr Wasler (right)

Tianschu Huang

SPRING 2023

48-355

Perspective

Instructor: Doug Cooper

J.Brody Ploeger, David Warfel SPRING 2023 48-328

Detailing Architecture

Instructor: Gerard Damiani

Ann Mulgrew

SPRING 2023

48-543 Color Constructs

Instructor: Laura Garófalo

Benni Guo

SPRING 2023

48-543 Color Constructs

Instructor: Laura Garófalo

Koushik Srinanth

SPRING 2023

48-543 Color Constructs

Instructor: Laura Garófalo

Neha Hedge (facing page, above); Tory Tan (facing page, below)

Dickson Yau (above); Tommy Vite (below)

FALL 2022

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The City Unsettled: An Ecological Ethnographical Approach in Situating Architecture and Urbanism Instructor: Tommy CheeMou Yang

SPRING 2023

48-557

Formless as an Operation Instructor: Heather Bizon

Anna Payha (above left); Carson Michaelis (below right)

Siyi Liu

SPRING 2023

48-557

Formless as an Operation

Instructor: Heather Bizon

Jerry Zhang (above, left); Sean Chen (below, left); Jackson Lacey (above, right); Hazel Froling (below, right)

Instructor: Vicky Achnani

Design Team: Shail Sheth, Emilio Bustamante Paez, Stephanie Choi, Rovina George, Alexandra Wang; Management: Akanksha Tayal; Documentation: Paul Li, Serena Sun, Jordan Lee; Fabrication: Michael Bi, Yael Cannan, Nadia Cho, Nathan Cottrell, Ana Furtado, Mikayla Gee, Leyi Han, Catalina John Melendez, Shazadi Padda, Amanda Qian, Ternilla Robinson, Xuze Shao, Aditi Shreedhar, Priyanka Thakur, David Vargas, Shiyue Liu

SPRING 2023

48-516

Carnival Gateway Project Instructor: Vicky Achnani

THESES& DISSERTATIONS

Graduating undergraduate and graduate students leverage the unparalleled academic opportunities at Carnegie Mellon University to pursue independent research on pressing topics.

Independent Thesis/Collective Studio: Inquiries, Observations and Provocations through Architecture

An architectural thesis is a proposition that results from a critique and reexamination of the role of architecture as a critical participant in the conditioning of (public) space. A thesis demands that students take a position and contribute to the ongoing discourse in the widening sphere of architecture.

Marking the transition between academic and professional practices, the thesis project is an opportunity to define an individual position relative to the discipline of architecture. Theses by students in the Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch), Master of Architecture (M.Arch) and Master of Advanced Architectural Design (MAAD) programs reflect a diversity of experiences and interests, ranging from building construction, design research, emerging technologies and materiality, social issues, landscape, urbanism, spatial perception and methods of conceptual thinking. In addition to the public exhibition and symposium, the studio culminates in a book project that encapsulates the process of research and design.

COORDINATORS:

FRANCESCA TORELLO (FALL SEMINAR)

LAURA GARÓFALO AND SARAH RAFSON (SPRING STUDIO)

Anjali Kanodia, B.Arch 2023 Agency Agency: Towards Non-Extractive Service Design

This thesis challenges traditional assumptions and priorities of architecture practice on two levels. First, it redefines the limits of practice, moving beyond the design of the built environment. Second, it raises a question about process, particularly whether priority is given to considering the consequences of what we produce beyond first-order or immediate effects. Both of these lines of inquiry are woven into my proposal for a model of design practice and a case study that tests a new mode of operation. My work places emphasis on taking a more expansive view of the forms of synthesis that may be considered “architecture” as well as the realm of influence of what we design.

Environmental policy analyst-turnedarchitect Martha Bohm describes the architect’s ability to be a detective, carefully examining disparate contextual cues that are often invisible to the “untrained eye” and synthesizing them to draw meaningful conclusions. In my work, I foreground this ability and apply it to the growing paradigm of service design through Agency Agency, a transdisciplinary think tank that adopts a systems-thinking lens to reveal the invisible externalities of everyday services. Agency Agency advocates for policy-level change and facilitates the creation of a coalition among policy-makers and other stakeholders to collectively identify leverage points where multiple stakeholders’ needs overlap. Challenging the notion of the expert designer, this agency affords agency to its clients and other stakeholders — not only users of a given service but also those impacted by it — traditionally left out in the decision-making process.

Advisors: Paul Pangaro, Skip Shelly

Consultants: Mary-Lou

Arscott, Molly Wright

Steenson, Sinan Goral

Claire Xu, B.Arch 2023

Intertwined Network: Rethinking Architecture in Tropical Catastrophes

Advisors: Mary-Lou Arscott, Tommy CheeMou Yang

The Philippines is an archipelago that experiences frequent, unpredictable typhoon catastrophes. This thesis research examines the complex network that ties people’s lives together through these traumatic events and investigates the forces that push them through this network. The thesis challenges the perception that “natural” disasters are inevitable and highlights the link between human activities, typhoon events’ effects on vulnerable communities and modes of resilience. The investigation of typhoon events delves into topics such as chaos, movement, memory, exclusion, entanglement, confinement, regulation, relocation, awareness, response and adaptation. The aim is to create a holistic portrait

of the stories and potentials linked to these topics. Personal and research findings synthesized through tactile, movable and mobile artifacts encourage personal and architectural potentials through a multi-sensory experience. Beyond the islands, this thesis offers a new perspective on architecture and society through the context of tropical catastrophes, highlighting the importance of a responsive and adaptable social milieu that can withstand the effects of natural disasters. The project culminates in an immersive film that ties together the different media used to document the networks of connection and synthesizes the research through personal experience.

Franklin Zhu, B.Arch 2023

Domesticating Time: ThreeGenerational Dwelling in an American Context

Advisors: Jeremy Ficca, Jared Abraham

With the increasing concern over housing shortages and material scarcity, the way houses are thought of and built in America needs to be thought about in generations. In his book “How Buildings Learn,” Stewart Brand states that “European families think in generations while Americans are still trying to master decades.” We are seeing more generations living under one roof in America. However, American homes are built for the single family, forcing families to convert basements and attics into rooms. This thesis argues that with increasing cultural diversity, three-generational homes are a

necessity in America. Thus, the thesis asks: What does it mean to build a three-generational home in the American context? Because homes are being built in thin, cheap layers, houses are torn down after an average of 30 years. This is often due to homes not being able to adapt and grow to new family needs and the cheapness of materials. This thesis investigates and adapts American stick framing but proposes to build with materials that can absorb weathering and the effects of time to better age in place with the dweller.

Jerry (Yi) Yang, B.Arch 2023 Metaphors of Knowledge Categorization

Advisors: Francesca

Torello, Matthew Huber, Louis Suarez

All concepts, ideas and knowledge can be understood relationally. Efforts to organize, depict and understand these relationalities often rely on visual metaphors of physical space. However, due to the increased understanding of the complexity of these networks, relationships and entanglements, it has become harder to encapsulate the relationships. The historic canonization of knowledge into discrete recognizable parts has become less effective in its way of pathfinding since all boundaries of categorization have become blurred. As a result, traditional ways of organization and thinking about knowledge now prohibit innovation, creative exchange of ideas and thinking between scholars of different disciplines. This creates what Jean Piaget calls “disciplinary ignorance.” This thesis investigates the characteristics of existing knowledge categorization, speculates about possible new forms of organizing knowledge through digital media and interprets the resulting characteristics of these new forms.

Lydia Randall, B.Arch 2023

IMAGE, SPACE, TIME: Projecting a Black Vernacular

Advisor: Jackie Joseph Paul

McFarland

Consultants: Mary-Lou

Arscott, Jeff Hinkelman

Architecture is inherently a white (Eurocentric) practice: a tool for enabling and expressing power and wealth. It is a weapon of capitalism used to control people and suppress individualism. Along with this, the control, oppression and erasure of Black Americans is foundational to the history of the United States. Much of that control has been made possible by the tactical and systematic regulation of the Black body and physical spaces Black people and other minority groups occupy. Thus, an architecture centered in ideas of Black identity, needs and desires cannot exist within traditional confines of Architecture as it is known in academia and traditional space-making/building practice. Black people are spatial activators. Our presence disrupts and disturbs designed space. Our expressions of joy and the loudness of our art shifts conceptions of space. Our identities can control how space is felt,

maneuvered and experienced. This is powerful and valuable. This is an intangible and non-physical power that expands beyond notions of space defined by form. The intent of this thesis is to create a method of space-making that subverts traditional, formdominated architectural practices and spatializes the fullness of the human experience. Filmmaking has historically been a practice that questions the representation of reality and conventional methods that capture how the world is experienced. Through filmmaking and projection, I visualize Blackness existing free of systemic control and also explore its capacity to manipulate space. The visitors’ navigation through the space captures these non-physical and intangible qualities of space as they traverse through and inhabit projections as Black people. This negates the confines of built form and resists the oppressive powers of architectural practice.

Madeline Cotton, B.Arch 2023

Old Growth

Architectural Timber & Indigenous Ways of Knowing

Advisor: Jeremy Ficca

Consultant: Kai Gutschow

As the order of institutions follows its course, the forests move further and further away from the center. One eventually forgets that one is dwelling in a clearing.

Giambattista Vico, “A New Science,” 1725

In order to understand the world around us, we tell stories. In the creation stories of the Pacific Northwest Coast Salish, the western red cedar was given as a gift to humanity as a reward for their generosity towards one another. During colonial times, stories of the vast forests of old growth cedar in Washington state spread to eastern prospectors who rushed to exploit the new resource. Today, the use of timber in architecture

is ubiquitous and unquestioned, as the logging industry continues to position timber as a sustainable material. With this, the exploitation of trees as a commodity persists, blind to the externalities of lumber production. This thesis rewrites the relationship between architects and timber to understand it as an outgrowth of settler-colonial violence, weaving a new narrative between architects and the materials we exploit. Informed by Indigenous wisdom and modes of knowledge transfer, six fables are told through the voice of an ancient western red cedar tree, proposing a new vantage point from which to reevaluate disciplinary ideals.

Max Chen, B.Arch 2023

Reimagining Future Apartment Typologies Against Future Pandemics

The lockdown strategy during the period of COVID has required cities to close places of work, education and leisure, which usually draw us out of our homes, forcing the global population to stay at home. This isolation has had a significant psychological impact on the global population that is detrimental to mental health, resulting in loneliness, anxiety, fear and depression. My thesis proposes a series of kits-of-parts for use along the existing facade of my home in Guangzhou, China. These parts will allow for better accommodation during future pandemics requiring city-wide lockdown by allowing the apartment complex to function as an independent city of its own. By enabling residents’ agency to participate and engage in the optimization of their own units, residents choose their desired amenities for themselves and their community, while enhancing their sense of belonging in the process. Housing units will no longer be stacked in repetition with no relation whatsoever to the residents living in them — resulting in a sentimental bond between housing and people.

Advisor: Christine Mondor

Consultant: Sarah Rafson

Melinda Looney, B.Arch 2023

Porous Panama: Utilizing Water Infrastructure and Ad Hoc Marketplaces to Dismantle Colonialism

EXTRACTION: Panama City’s value has been entrenched in extraction through foreign nations’ control of the Panama Canal. A once rich port-life marketplace has been replaced by the industrial, profit-driven values of the shipping container. This capitalistic system has perpetuated construction by foreign investors along the shoreline. The water infrastructure in these buildings is derived from the same source as the canal. With a larger water capacity needed in the canal lock system from the 2016 canal expansion and worsening effects of climate change drying the region incontestably, water is a dwindling resource.

WATER: Porous Panama utilizes water as the generator to untether Panama City from its colonial history and untangle the shared water infrastructure for city residents. It proposes an architectural solution that highlights publicly centered water systems and marketplaces, and that generates the capture of energy and water independent of existing infrastructure.

MARKET: The architecture reoccupies the lower levels of money-laundered skyscrapers, currently unoccupied monuments of capital excess, with urban marketplaces constructed of old shipping containers. This architecture mutates the parasitic relationship of these corrupt skyscrapers made for monetary gain into a symbiotic relationship that revives public space for markets and provides independent potable water and energy for Panamanians.

Advisors: Jonathan Kline, Christine Mondor

Xiaoyu Kang, B.Arch 2023

Memorance in Co-Living: A Morphological Exploration of the Generational Dissonances in Chengdu

Advisors: Mary-Lou Arscott, Tommy CheeMou Yang

The concept of “Memorance” describes the act of reliving memories as well as experiencing the tension and dissonance between past and present. As China shifted from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy, it went through a rapid process of urbanization. Building typologies changed from single-story family housing to high-rise apartments. This meant that the three generations of people born before, during and after the urbanization process grew up with very different social and economic backgrounds. To help situate my thesis in this large pool of questions related to generations, I use my family’s own experience in Chengdu as the anchor point.

I start by conducting interviews with people from different generations. By extracting individual narratives and connecting them with historical research, I aim to create an immersive experience for people to understand generational dissonance using various media like drawing, mapping, animation and modeling. By jumping back and forth between memories and reality, I want to elicit a personal connection with the audience and highlight the mismatch that comes with generational dissonance.

Colin Cusimano, M.Arch 2023

Producing “Place”: Mapping the Spatial Process

Advisor: Tommy CheeMou Yang

Consultants: Jonathan Kline, Heather Bizon

What defines a space? We carry out our lives in space. A “place” is defined when we give space meaning. To understand “place” requires apprehending both the physical processes that shape the material of the world and the non-physical processes that give that material meaning. This thesis uses mapping, diagramming and narrative to understand the creation of “place” as a superimposition of physical conditions, abstract conception and remembrance of events. The physical landscape and materiality of a place defines how we inhabit it. It also provides

the material that we give meaning to. Abstract conceptions of space — for example, the latitude and longitude systems — impact how the material of a space is organized. The remembrance of events in a space influences how that space is experienced. Through mapping, diagramming and narrative, this thesis explores methods of representing the superimposition of these spatial processes to understand how they co-produce and interact with one another to form a “place.”

Elise (Xinyi) Wang, M.Arch 2023 Hidden Power: Manifesting Architectural Labor Through the Lens of Digitalization

Advisors: Sinan Goral, Valentina Vavasis, Eddy Man Kim

The history of architecture has never been written from the bottom up. This thesis is for the architectural workers who long suffer from being overworked and underpaid in the profession, who contribute the majority of the work in an office yet often receive the lowest compensation. Over the years, numerous digital technologies have changed our workflow and modes of practice. On the one hand, digital advancements have promised faster and more efficient production. On the other hand, architectural workers continue to be overworked and underpaid.

In a survey conducted in 2022, a majority of architectural professionals surveyed are dissatisfied with their wages, and almost half of respondents say they’ve been told to under-report excessive hours. Through crowdsourcing, this thesis exercises collective imagination and worldbuilding to present stories from possible realities where digital products become advocacy tools to valorize architectural labor. The stories create space for critique and new directions for architectural labor solidarity.

Emma Cafiero, M.Arch 2023

Placemaking and Permanence in the City: Empowering Displaced Communities Through Architectural Intervention

Advisor:

Sarosh Anklesaria

Millions of people are displaced each year due to conflict, persecution and violence around the world, and everyone’s experience of displacement is unique. In resettlement cities, there are barriers in access to housing, transportation and social engagement with local and other displaced communities. Nonprofits in Pittsburgh such as City of Asylum, Hello Neighbor, Sewforward and SHIM Family Center offer services and connections, inspiring activities that strengthen bonds between communities and cultures and help build a stronger sense of identity and wellbeing in a new environment. My thesis amplifies architecture’s ability to create spaces of inclusion, agency and empowerment through the adaptive reuse of vacant buildings in Pittsburgh neighborhoods. These proposed spaces of flexibility will encourage interaction between existing and new communities and inspire selfexpression, co-creation and rich cultural exchange.

Jordan Luther, M.Arch 2023

Redefining Care: Spatial Considerations for De-Stigmatizing Substance Abuse

Advisor: Erica Cochran

Hameen

Consultants: Azadeh Sawyer, William Bates, Joshua Lee, Jacqueline Rech

In Pittsburgh today, substance abuse remains at the forefront of societal issues. In the last 10 years, thousands have overdosed in Allegheny county. My thesis aims to challenge what the architecture of contemporary care should be for people recovering from substance abuse and for their families. I propose a model for clinics within underserved neighborhoods that is informed by conversations with psychologists, psychiatrists, community members and designers.

Johann Hari, in his book Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, states: “The opposite of addiction is not sobriety. It is human

connection.” In order to eliminate the stigma and change the narrative in our society, it is critical that we come together as a community. The clinic explores the barriers to accessibility in services and restores a vacant space within Homewood, a neighborhood with a high number of neglected properties. It advocates for a system in which facilities provide care not only to the individuals but also to the physical fabric of the community. Models of decentralized care influence the adaptive reuse of a set of row houses. This will promote a scalable approach to care and the physical spaces that house it.

Sidra Khan, M.Arch 2023

Rethinking the Hermetic Seal: Case of Mumbai

Advisor: Sarosh Anklesaria

This thesis questions hermetically sealed building envelopes in the context of Mumbai, and it does so by raising concerns about air equity, the reliance on mechanical systems and the urgency to reimagine our built environments. It proposes alternate building envelope systems that can support microclimates, allowing room for porosity and thus encouraging cross ventilation and making room for loose fits and informal programs. Mumbai is witnessing increasing levels of air pollution after the lockdown of 2020 because of the resumption of heavy construction activities and vehicular traffic. In addition, the coastal wind patterns have changed, which has also added

to the problem. As part of the research, this thesis critiques the steel/concrete and glass commercial building typology that does not belong in the city and fails to address social and environmental concerns in Mumbai. It proposes a lightweight, locally sourced screen that can replace the existing curtain wall by strategically peeling it from some areas, opening up the hermetic seal, and replacing it with operable openings. In addition, this would act as a secondary building envelope made of bamboo that would not only support microclimates but also encourage a circular economy and create job opportunities for local laborers.

Di Wu, MAAD 2023

Wax Printing: A Modern Distinguishing Technique for Cultural Heritage Preservation

This thesis showcases the innovative use of wax printing technology as a means of preserving the cultural heritage of waxdyeing in the southwest region of China. This traditional craft, which involves the use of wax-resistant dyeing to create intricate patterns on fabric, not only represents the local people’s love for life, but also the continuous development and evolution of ethnic minority cultures in Southwest China for nearly 1,000 years. This culturally significant craft has faced numerous challenges in contemporary China, such as the loss of skilled artisans, a history of pollution and increased fabrication. Using wax-printed paper, this exhibition presents a system that is accessible to today’s digital designers, using a low-cost and biodegradable material with controllable sequential deformation, which can preserve the cultural uniqueness of wax-dyeing while overcoming its limitations. The project focuses on the design factors, fabrication process, and sequential control and transformation of this wax printing technique, while adding a component relevant to contemporary architectural practice: responsiveness. By combining bilayer bending actuation, the hygroscopic nature of the paper and the hydrophobicity property of the wax, the technology produces wax paper actuators with highly controllable sequential deformation, ranging from seconds to hours. Visitors can witness the dynamism afforded by this technology in an installation that hopes to expand the library of morphing materials.

Advisors: Jeremy Ficca, Lining Yao

Hari Vardhan Sampath, MAAD 2023

Systematized Mutability: Adaptable Facade Systems

Advisor: Jeremy Ficca

Consultant: Zhan Shi

Construction and demolition waste contributes to a significant portion of the total waste generated in the United States, accounting for about 40%. With the growing urgency of climate change, along with the demand for new and renovated structures due to population growth and rapid urbanization, architects are forced to consider the creative use of material and corresponding technologies. Architects have long adopted strategies to incorporate construction waste streams into useful building components. However, there is an alternate strategy in rethinking materials as resources and using construction techniques that enable modification and adaptation as the starting point for design, while accepting that buildings are built with a finite life cycle and vary across different geographies. My research contextualizes office park typology, which is growing obsolete due to ever-shifting work culture. Built during the early 1950s and occupying the suburbs, these buildings were once a symbol of power, representing forwardthinking corporate structure through architecture and little-to-no connection to their neighboring environments. “Systematized Mutability” explores the use of systemic strategies that not only address technological concerns, but also raise sociological questions by transforming the monolithic facade into a space with multiple identities.

Scott Lin, MAAD 2023

Change the Unchangeable: Flexible Architecture in Fictional Setting

Advisor: Jeremy Ficca

Flexible design that uses elements such as movable partitions, movable furniture and convertible furniture is able to make spaces versatile and adaptable. It also enables spatial boundaries between people to be dynamic. However, use of flexibility is often necessitated by a lack of space, while users who own ample space might not need flexibility at all. What might be the relationship between the presence of architectural flexibility and the economic status of users? This thesis project aggregates the residences of people in different social classes through architectural flexibility in a self-written sequel to the film Parasite (Bong Joon-Ho, 2019). Embracing the context of inequality in Parasite, this thesis explores the pragmatic benefits of flexibility for people owning limited space, as well as flexibility’s social implications as an architectural language. The thesis explores several questions: What can flexibility change and what can it not? Is it a privilege to not require flexibility? Is flexibility, as an architectural language, potentially a form of class discrimination?

Commoning the City Thesis Studio: Negotiating Top-Down and Bottom-Up Urbanism

Who or what do you care for, care about or care with? What kind of infrastructures and spaces are necessary to create communities that care?

Commoning the City is a yearlong, research-based design studio for Master of Urban Design (MUD) students focused on social justice and communityled urban transformations. Here, we explore design as an agent of change and how to support citizens in claiming their right to the city. The first semester, taught by Stefan Gruber, provides a theoretical framing and uses case study research as a stepping stone for developing individual thesis proposals. Building on the studio’s shared investigations and a commoning toolkit, students define a research question and begin testing their design hypothesis in an urban milieu of their choice. At the end of the semester, each student has framed a design proposal and methodology that is theoretically grounded, geographically and culturally situated, and politically informed. Working empirically, throughout the semester students go back and forth between research and design. The second semester, taught by Jonathan Kline, then supports students in fully developing their individual projects, culminating in an exhibition.

COORDINATORS: STEFAN GRUBER (FALL), JONATHAN KLINE (SPRING)

Ariba Asad, MUD 2023

Mobilizing an Informed Return: From Rehabilitation to Recovery

Advisors: Jonathan Kline, Stefan Gruber

The 2022 floods in Pakistan brought a huge burden, especially on the province of Sindh. The injustice caused by climate change affects the population in this region each year, where the scale of catastrophes vary, but the nature of damage remains the same. As analyzed from 2010’s floods, Pakistan has performed poorly in dealing with postdisaster recovery, leading to a 50% reduction in income in 2011. This thesis investigates issues from a “solidarity, not charity” perspective and works on a model of monetary aid that addresses income loss and gender-biases.

The 6-12 months of time spent in camps is identified as time to learn, practice and deploy skills for the production of local craft, and for the construction of a spatial intervention to be used by the community as a learning lab and workshop space while they are still in the rehabilitation phase. As people go back to their homes with newly developed skill sets, the space transforms into a women’s community center and weekly marketplace. This way, the affected communities can build back their income chains with a smooth transition into a recovery phase and better preparedness for future disasters.

Chang Liu, MUD 2023 Conversation Infrastructures

Advisors:

Jonathan Kline, Stefan Gruber

Infrastructure allows for conversation across space, age, time and various conditions. As designers, we build the infrastructure for communication, integrating it into people’s daily routines and lives. This creates a foundation for dialogue that spans all levels, from educating the public to educating governments. This thesis designs a multidimensional decision-making process, promoting trust and understanding. The Conversation Infrastructures project has three main phases: a Memory Database; a new community organization with developed guidelines; and the transformation of a state-owned enterprise into a cooperative entity. Its goal is to gradually expand its reach from educating the public to engaging a wider range of stakeholders, ultimately educating the government. The project aims to bridge the gap between the needs of the local community and market forces while amplifying community voices. It could preserve local culture — both tangible and intangible heritage. Dashilar’s initiative also might serve as an excellent example for addressing similar challenges in other areas.

Jonathan Pett, MUD 2023

Between Density and Ecology: Housing Co-Ops & Common Wetlands

Advisors: Jonathan Kline, Stefan Gruber

Densifying regions of U.S. suburban sprawl has become increasingly necessary, both economically to address issues of affordable housing, and environmentally to enable the transition to more sustainable lifeways. However, existing lowdensity suburban patterns also provide an ecological opportunity in their accidental preservation of open spaces and fragments of often degraded habitats. Commons – public partnerships between housing cooperatives and local governments – offer a path towards “missing middle” densification of suburbs and the restoration of local habitats. In exchange for public financial and regulatory support, housing cooperatives can provide the local organized capacity to engage in projects of restoring and maintaining wetlands, woodlands and other open spaces. These three case studies set in College Park, Maryland, explore this concept in: the creation of woodland and shared space within a traditional suburban block, restored wetland and community spaces in a portion of a student-dominated neighborhood, and the largescale parallel redevelopment and rewilding of a local golf course.

Keyi Chai, MUD 2023

Reenvisioning Greenville: Integrating Ecosystems and Communities in the Wake of the Dixie Fire

Advisors: Jonathan Kline, Stefan Gruber

Nestled in the foothills of the Indian Valley lies Greenville, California — a town of stunning natural beauty and historic charm. But in 2021, the Dixie Fire swept through, leaving destruction in its wake. Despite the devastation, Greenville’s spirit remains unbroken. People continued to celebrate Veterans Day amidst the ruins, and started to rebuild by mutual-aid, dreaming of the day when their beloved town would be restored. This thesis project explores new approaches to rebuilding Greenville. By integrating modified Wildland-Urban Interface patterns, firesmart landscapes and incremental cooperative housing, the project fosters shared resources and a thriving ecosystem. Through a collective commitment to resilience and a deep connection to the land, Greenville can rise again — stronger and more beautiful than ever before. With its unique identity and enduring spirit, Greenville is a beacon of hope and renewal for communities facing similar challenges.

LinYue Luo, MUD 2023

Camp Evolution: Rebuilding Syrian Communities

Advisors: Jonathan Kline, Stefan Gruber

Consultant: Stefani Danes

The Za’atari refugee camp, as the largest in the Middle East and a symbol of the long-running Syrian refugee crisis, has stabilized at around 80,000 people since its opening a decade ago. In my thesis, I explore more efficient ways of arranging caravans and suggest ways for providers and sponsors to extend the lifespan and enjoyment of caravans. Additionally, I examine building patterns that reflect the lifestyle of refugees and aim to transform the “cold” refugee camps into

“warm” living places that improve the quality of refugees’ lives. To further enhance the well-being of the refugees, I propose initiatives to increase money flow, create job opportunities and enrich recreational lives by planning spaces such as public greens, squares and sports fields. Ultimately, my research seeks to contribute to the reconstruction of Syrian communities by drawing on traditional housing types found in Syria’s rural areas.

Ritika Narang, MUD 2023

Empowering Informal Settlements for Social Inclusion and Urban Integration

Advisors: Jonathan Kline, Stefan Gruber

The Mumbai metropolitan region’s population is over 26 million, with a population density of 12,340 per square mile. Informal settlements in Mumbai exhibit a unique character as they are dispersed throughout the city center and its periphery, with more than 60% of the population residing in them. The rising property rates have forced people to choose between living outside the city, enduring long travel hours, or residing in informal settlements without access to basic amenities like light, ventilation and sanitation, making them vulnerable to fire hazards. This thesis uses Behrampada, a 60-year-old informal settlement with a population of around 25,000, as a starting point to explore the interplay among vulnerable communities, their social lives, and access to basic necessities and other formal neighborhoods. The term “informality” may be wrong to describe the extremely formal economy with a well-established zari embroidery business and garment enterprise. How can the existing life and culture of the place be retained while providing people with the basic necessities of livelihood? What will it take to prevent informal settlements from gentrifying? How can Mumbai’s fabric blur existing dichotomies of housing forms to create an interwoven and accepting community?

Ruoxi Xie, MUD 2023

Reimagining Lilong in Shanghai: Balancing Private and

Public Spaces

Advisors:

Jonathan Kline, Stefan Gruber

To pursue a sustainable approach to the regeneration of “lilong” buildings, this project explores the balance between private and public spaces by preserving the main structure of the lilong building and creating a new organization of shared spaces. By studying one, two and three slices of lilong buildings as various

paradigms, this project presents diverse design proposals that combine the circulation system with public spaces in lilong buildings, as well as ways of commoning the shared spaces. The ultimate goal of this approach is to create an enjoyable, sustainable and resilient living environment suitable for all ages.

Ruoyu Li, MUD 2023 Commoning Housing Advocacy: A New Solution to Chinese Rotten-Tail Apartments

Due to the economic recession during the pandemic, there is a rapid increase in “rotten-tail apartments” in China — unfinished apartments individuals purchase before the developer eventually fails to finish construction. According to official records, there are around 35,000 unfinished apartments throughout the country, and Zhenzhou, the biggest city in Henan Province, has the most unfinished apartments (699) on record. Moreover, people may even unsafely live in these apartments without utilities, as they have spent

Advisors: Jonathan Kline, Stefan Gruber

all their savings on the apartment. Under such an urban context, a commoning and affordable approach to home ownership and renting is a very important strategy that takes Chinese family life and culture into account. This project proposes using government financial support towards a cooperative commoning structure that improves people’s living conditions as renters and owners, with the potential opportunity for the thousands of half-constructed “rotten-tail apartments” to become habitable.

Saloni Agarwal, MUD 2023

Tempos of Udaipur: An Exploration for New Resilient Opportunities

Advisors:

Jonathan Kline, Stefan Gruber

To thrive, a growing city must provide its citizens with a public transit network that is efficient and resilient. In July 2021, Udaipur, India, launched its first formal public transit system, the City Bus, to serve its growing population of 600,000 people. However, the new system has created a conflict with the existing semi-formal transit system of the city, the Tempos, which has negatively impacted the livelihoods of Tempo drivers by taking away their passengers. This conflict highlights the need to balance topdown and bottom-up approaches to public transit infrastructures in the Global South context. The aim

of this study is to find innovative ways to protect the livelihoods of Tempo drivers while improving the city’s urban mobility. This thesis suggests finding new opportunity areas for Tempos to operate within the city’s milieu rather than competing with the bus system. By altering the role and structure of the current union, these Tempos can now become a shared resource for the drivers while improving the service cover of the city. This approach can financially support the drivers by mitigating the pressures of Tempo ownership.

Yi Zhou, MUD 2023

Whole Life Community: Rethinking Aging in San Francisco’s Chinatown

Advisors: Jonathan Kline, Stefan Gruber

This project is centered around affordable housing conditions in San Francisco’s Chinatown, where early immigrants spend most of their lives in high-density singleroom occupancy hotel rooms (SROs).

While the rest of the country changes and neighboring areas gentrify, Chinatown remains unchanged, offering a simple and predictable way of life, albeit with less-than-ideal living conditions. My design aims to transform Chinatown into a complete community by integrating new structures that optimize space and time for affordable housing and public spaces. The goal is to improve living conditions for immigrants and preserve long-term affordability and immigrant culture by supporting intergenerational activities. The reconstruction of Chinatown involves changes at both the macro-institutional and macro-spatial levels. The institutional level involves the implementation of a “timebank,” which connects people of different generations in activities that promote social action, knowledge sharing and time-based services. At the micro level, a pilot SRO housing is redesigned to incentivize retrofits for affordable housing, better accommodate different household types and provide access to shared facilities and social infrastructure in outdoor spaces for people of all ages to enjoy.

Yongwen Dai, MUD 2023

Formalize the Informality: Bringing Back the Three River Night Market

Advisors:

Jonathan Kline, Stefan Gruber

In China, the informal economy plays a significant role due to its low budget, flexible time schedule and low education requirements, complementing the formal economy and providing social vitality to daily life. Unfortunately, the Three River Night Market in Nanjing, one of the most popular night markets, faces closure due to complaints from nearby residents and safety issues. However, topdown traditional approaches to formalization risk homogenization and loss of social vitality. To preserve the night market’s identity and vitality, the concept of “commonning” is used as a design intervention. This involves sharing business streets with restaurant owners, self-organizing, and archiving interest among multiple parties. At the same time, each individual is encouraged to devote their own efforts to protect the market environment and make it more sustainable. By taking a bottom-up perspective, this approach avoids the downsides of traditional formalization methods and offers a promising solution for urban design projects seeking to preserve the informal economy’s vibrancy and authenticity.

Architecture–Engineering–Construction Management Synthesis and Ph.D.

The Architecture–Engineering–Construction Management (AECM) Synthesis course is designed to apply the diverse knowledge and skills that AECM students have acquired during the program to a critical public-interest issue related to the built environment. The projects in fall 2022 built upon the research on deconstruction carried out by the 2021 class and investigated the potential for circular construction in the city of Pittsburgh more broadly (find the 2022 AECM Synthesis Final Report at soa.cmu.edu/msaecm). During the first few weeks, students learn about the global, regional and local impacts of construction debris as well as a wide array of existing mitigation efforts through readings and discussions with experts near and far. We then discuss basic research skills and methods. From this knowledge, students formulate a coordinated research project working in teams. Findings are presented to a panel of stakeholders and distilled into a collective report.

Aiswarya Singh, Bhavika Koya and Serah Kallerackal, MSAECM 2023

Policy Options

for Implementing a Circular Economy in Pittsburgh’s Construction Industry

Advisor: Joshua Lee

Construction is a resource-intensive industry where a circular economy (CE) is essential to minimize global impacts and conserve natural resources. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, in 2018 the U.S. produced 600 million tons of construction and demolition debris, which is more than twice as much produced in terms of municipal solid waste. CE is an emerging concept that promotes long-term sustainability by creating material loops that circulate along critical supply chains. Circular building design involves strategies such as design for disassembly to allow future repair, remanufacturing, reuse of building components, building adaptive reuse, deconstructing and salvaged material usage in new construction. However, uncertainties caused by fluctuating raw material prices, scarcity of materials, increasing demand, consumers’ expectations, lack of proper waste infrastructure and improper recycling technologies and practices all lead to complexities

in the construction industry. This study supports the transition to a circular economy by generating a policy-supported framework that construction industry stakeholders in Pittsburgh can adopt. Our findings are based on a review of the existing literature, interviews with industry professionals who are leading small-scale circular economy efforts in Pittsburgh and international case studies and policy reviews. The interviews with local industry professionals help us recognize the lack of CE catalysts and initiatives integrated at a municipality scale that can incentivize stakeholders to design, implement and apply CE principles. Case studies are used to explore how policies and pilot projects are incentivized in countries in Europe. The results from our research helps identify the similarities and differences between industries in the U.S. and other countries to arrive at CE policy recommendations.

Advisor: Joshua Lee Anlin Li, Jasmin Chiang and Weiqing Wang, MSAECM 2023

Life Cycle Assessment of Deconstruction of an Educational Facility: Environmental Charter School in Pittsburgh

Demolition entails knocking down buildings with heavy equipment, whereas deconstruction involves systematic removal of reusable material. However, because of a lack of comparison data for the demolition and deconstruction process, stakeholders often wonder whether the benefits of deconstruction are enough to justify the extra time and cost. This paper aims to identify the gap between demolition and deconstruction through building life-cycle analysis (LCA) and a comprehensive literature review. LCA can measure the environmental and economic impact of different building waste-management scenarios. Most LCA scenario simulations use a whole building assessment, which often leads to an

impression of a binary decision option of choosing either deconstruction or demolition. This may result in the stakeholder’s reluctance to integrate deconstruction into their practices.

This paper uses the Environmental Charter School in Pittsburgh as a case-study to explore selective deconstruction opportunities via material optimization. The study sets up three end-of-life scenarios for the school to break down the gap between demolition and deconstruction. This analysis intends to identify the reduction potential for the deconstruction of different building assemblies and provide stakeholders with feasible deconstruction alternatives for informed decisions.

Advisor: Joshua Lee

Potential Deconstruction Strategies Using Building Information Modelling at Carnegie Mellon University to Achieve Circular Economy

Quantifying construction and demolition waste and analyzing material reusability are critical for achieving a circular economy. While organizations have developed numerous frameworks for implementing a circular economy, there are limited studies analyzing the practical execution of this thinking, particularly in the higher education sector. Educational institutions strive towards developing a campus that is enduring and responsive to the dynamic future. These institutions are critical aids in supporting sustainable development through teaching, research and social outreach activities. Therefore, responsible resource consumption and controlled waste generation are essential to meeting goals of sustainability. This paper presents deconstruction strategies that Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) can implement, with the aid of technology, to execute a circular economy in practice. First, background analysis and semi-structured interviews are conducted to determine CMU’s ongoing demolition and deconstruction practices and the limitations faced by the University’s management and stakeholders in responding to these circular economy goals. This is followed by identifying a building slated to be demolished in the near future on campus and using Building Information Modeling as a tool to accurately quantify building materials. We further determine the feasibility of reusability of these materials to propose strategies for adopting a circular economic approach. Finally, an assessment of the outcomes identifies future research needs toward the implementation of a circular economy at CMU.

Johns Thomas Vellikara, Megan Campbell, Poojita Kodali and Vaibhavi Shah, MSAECM 2023

Riveted, Bolted or Welded? A Reuse Potential Comparison of Steel Connections in the City of Steel

Pittsburgh, also commonly referred to as the “Steel City” due to its rich history in the steel manufacturing industry, now has many abandoned, low-rise, exposed steel mill buildings that are being demolished. Fortunately, most of the steel from these buildings is being recycled, but recycling steel is a highly energyintensive process and hence not the best option. Instead, adaptive reuse of these steel structures may save considerable energy as well as increase jobs in the steel construction industry. As designers, it is essential that design decisions that affect deconstruction and reuse potential of old or new steel structures are carefully considered. Through our

Advisor:

Joshua Lee

research we therefore analyze which steel connection type — bolted, welded or riveted — has benefits over the others in terms of cost and time, construction and deconstruction, and the maximum material salvage potential.The research is phased in three parts: case study of a reused steel mill in Pittsburgh (Mill-19); estimation of the cost, time and material salvaged for construction and deconstruction of welded, bolted and riveted steel connections using a prototype model and RSMeans; and a visual simulation study on a prototype model using Revit and Navisworks to outline the time taken for each connection type.

Barriers Faced by Stakeholders of Institutional Projects While Adopting Circularity Principles for Construction Projects in Pittsburgh

Over time, numerous strategies have been introduced that have the potential to fulfill the circular economy (CE) requirements in the construction industry. However, they have not been adopted widely due to a myriad of reasons such as the lack of familiarity, awareness, tools and technology. Moreover, the management of a building from its conception to its demolition involves a wide range of stakeholders with different skills and stakes. The complex nature of relationships between stakeholders, and the inherent lack of quantified data about the barriers facing the implementation of circularity, emphasize the need for further research to identify the reasons behind the lack of its adoption.

This research aims to identify these barriers and understand the impacts in relation to architects, contractors and owner’s representatives that work on institutional projects in Pittsburgh. The intent was to develop a weighted list of barriers that could be prioritized, highlight the gaps and provide possible solutions to promote CE adoption in construction. We review 10 papers that identified 30 commonly cited barriers across six categories: Economic, Social, Environmental, Technical, Organizational and Political. Interviews with owners, architects and contractors for projects within the Pittsburgh region help identify the impacts of each of these categories and barriers.

Kushagra Varma, PhD-AECM

A 4-D Interactive Online Tool Visualizing Urban Building Environmental Assessment

With an Integrated Retrofit Recommendation Generator

Advisory Committee: Erica Cochran Hameen (Chair), Vivian Loftness, Kristen Kurland, Peter Scupelli, Ellyn A. Lester

This dissertation involves development of a 4-D urban building performance data visualization and benchmarking tool to share benchmarking data. The research work includes analyzing urban buildings benchmarking data, developing algorithms to visualize the information on a web-based platform, developing an intelligent retrofit recommendation generator, and providing energy reduction and decarbonization pathways for the buildings participating in Pittsburgh’s energy benchmarking ordinance.

Lipika Swarup, PhD-AECM 2023

Combined Effects of Project Priority and Efficiency Factors on Project Outcomes in a Group of Multiple Projects

This dissertation followed a multiple methods approach to explore the relationship between implementational project priority, application of project efficiency factors and project outcomes within the same Group of Multiple Projects (GrMP). The investigation was divided into two distinct components, each with its own independent research question. The first component addressed the terms and definitions used to address the various structural and hierarchical levels of project arrangement within a portfolio. The second component built upon the nomenclature recommendations from the first component and explored the combined influence of implementational project priority and efficiency factors on project outcomes within the same Group of Multiple Projects.

Based on the findings, this dissertation recommends that to ensure project success, organizations and projects managers need to be strategic about project prioritization because when combined with efficiency factors — scope development, team chemistry, level of team characteristics and owner’s clarity of goals — project prioritization can influence project outcomes (cost and schedule).

Advisory Committee: Erica Cochran Hameen (Chair), Matthew Mehalik, Peerasit Patanakul

Sanaz Saadatifar, PhD-AECM

Occupant-Centric Digital Twin: An Interactive, Real-Time Display, Influencing Human Perception Factor in Thermal Satisfaction Decisions

Advisory Committee:

Azadeh Sawyer (Chair), Daragh Byrne, Pingbo Tang

In open and shared workplaces without occupant control, such as co-working spaces or educational studios, thermal preferences vary widely among occupants. It has become increasingly challenging to balance optimum, efficient temperature setpoints with occupant’s comfort. A solution is needed for a better understanding of variations in indoor climate and building occupants’ decision-making and preferences. This research explores how an occupant-centric digital twin (OCDT) display might address this by mapping indoor microclimates through a grid of Internet of Things temperature sensors in real-time. This project proposes to conduct a pilot study where a largescreen display is used to present and visualize this data in an open workplace to occupants. Occupants could interact with the OCDT display to familiarize themselves with the temperature differentials within the space and how it's altered throughout a specific time. The goal is to improve awareness and add agency for occupants to identify zones that meet their individual thermal preferences. This approach requires no intervention from facility managers to be effective — it is entirely about the agency of individuals to choose their seat — to augment, rather than needing to integrate, existing organizational strategies. The sociotechnical effect of OCDT on occupants’ interactions with each other, as well as with their built environment, is analyzed as part of this research. The OCDT approach paves the way for a future where occupants of open workspaces can make informed decisions about where to work and how to find thermal comfort through those choices.

Building Performance & Diagnostics

The Master of Science in Building Performance & Diagnostics (MSBPD) is a two-year program intended for practitioners, researchers and educators in architecture and the building industry who wish to be leaders in the integration of advanced building and urban technologies for environmental sustainability, human health and productivity, and organizational change. This year’s thesis topics contributed to two very different SoA initiatives: ongoing design/engineering research with the General Services Administration for the White House Clean Air in Buildings pledge; and ongoing design/ policy research with the National Academy of Sciences committee for Accelerating Decarbonization in the U.S. through investments in the built environment.

Ph.D. in Building Performance & Diagnostics

Established in 1976 by Emeritus Professor Volker Hartkopf, the Ph.D. in Building Performance & Diagnostics (PhD-BPD) is the oldest doctoral degree in building science in the U.S. With dissertations focused on innovations in high performance buildings and infrastructures, building performance simulation, building data analytics, building policy and economics, and indoor environmental quality, PhD-BPD graduates are driven to advance a shared quality of life and a sustainable future through leadership in academia, government, research, industry and practice.

Juye Kim, MSBPD 2023

Maintaining and Improving HVAC Air Handling Units for Indoor Air Quality

Advisor: Vivian Loftness

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, indoor air pollution is typically two to five times higher than outside levels. Improving HVAC AHU hardware systems and their operation in existing commercial buildings can measurably improve indoor air quality for occupant health and productivity. This thesis illustrates and quantifies the hardware conditions and actions that are critically needed for indoor air quality in commercial buildings as well as innovations that can contribute to healthier work environments.

Luna Kim, MSBPD 2023

Prioritizing Automated Fault Detection and Diagnosis for Improving Ventilation

Advisory Committee: Erica Cochran

Hameen (Chair), Vivian Loftness, Kristen Kurland, Peter Scupelli, Ellyn A. Lester

Automated fault detection and diagnostics (AFDD) alerts are integral to most building automation systems, though alerts are typically focused on energy, thermal comfort and equipment protection. This thesis hypothesizes that commonly reported faults can be prioritized to alert building management to concerns that impact indoor air quality (IAQ) and human health. Accelerating AFDD can help facility managers detect IAQ faults early and accurately to impro ve ventilation effectiveness in large commercial buildings.

Tianqi (Ricky) Liu, MSBPD 2023

A Critical Review of IAQ Advanced Control Strategies for Multizone VAV Air Handling and Terminal Units

Advisor: Vivian Loftness

The effectiveness of advanced control strategies for multi-zone variable air volume (VAV) air handling units and VAV terminals relative to indoor air quality (IAQ) is not well researched. An extensive literature review of relevant regulations, simulations and field studies supports the evaluation of a range of control strategies including rulebased controls, occupant-centric controls, demand controls, model predictive controls and advanced adaptive control algorithms. The thesis concludes with the potential to integrate advanced controls with building automation systems (BAS) and sensing technologies for improved IAQ.

Yunhao Hu, MSBPD 2023

Advancing IAQ Dashboards for Occupants and Facility Managers

Advisor: Vivian Loftness

Indoor air quality (IAQ) sensor suites are exploding in U.S. homes and workplaces, each with selected measures, thresholds and dashboards. A comparative analysis of sensor quality and performance and user interface analysis of dashboard designs supports the selection of strategic IAQ sensor suites and user accessible dashboards. Advances in distributed IAQ monitoring with occupant and facility manager dashboards will provide real time information and catalyze near term to support human health at home and in the workplace.

Jeffrey Na, MSBPD 2023

Low-Carbon Living: Assessing the Tradeoffs between Operational and Embodied Carbon

Advisor:

Vivian Loftness

A new generation of sustainable multifamily housing is critically needed to address both U.S. housing shortages and the potential benefit to lessening the contributions of housing to total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Three development scenarios for low carbon multifamily housing are investigated — deep retrofits, zero new, and adaptive reuse — through a comparative database of case studies of completed projects. The suite of design actions and the operational energy, costs and carbon consequences are calculated and compared. The addition of lifecycle assessment simulations of embodied energy and carbon generates a more progressive model of the three multifamily scenarios, to illustrate and prioritize the investments most critically needed for a sustainable future.

Jiyuan Sui, MSBPD 2023

The Solar PV Potential of Urban Rooftops and Parking Lots

Advisor: Vivian Loftness

Rapidly increasing sources of renewable energy through photovoltaic (PV) installations on urban roofs and parking lots can address a variety of environmental challenges. This thesis proposes a detailed methodology to quantify the environmental and energy benefits of staged PV across rooftops and parking lots in urban areas for public, utility, and private investments in cities such as Pittsburgh. The benefits range from an increased renewable energy portfolio and carbon emission reduction to greater resiliency. The methodology contributes to a dashboard to help visualize the prioritized PV locations and benefits for policymakers, building owners and community leaders.

Mohammad Reza Takallouie,

MSBPD 2023

A Taxonomy of Retrofit Actions for Existing Commercial Buildings and

their Impacts

Addressing excessive energy demands in buildings, and their relationship to global 2030 carbon goals for mitigating climate change and environmental impacts, requires a large-scale transition to deep energy retrofits in commercial buildings. While the literature suggests 25%-45% energy savings can be achieved in office building retrofits, a more robust and

Advisor: Vivian Loftness

quantified set of retrofit measures is needed. With a database of over sixty 2030-district buildings in Pittsburgh, the statistical analysis of specific investments with multiyear energy signatures contributes to a prioritized set of actions that pave the way for a faster transition to low to zero-carbon buildings in the U.S.

Guanzhou Ji, PhD-BPD

Indoor Photometry and Appearance Reconstruction Under Natural Illumination

Committee: Azadeh Sawyer (Co-Chair), Srinivasa Narasimhan (Co-Chair), Susan Finger

Accurate light estimation for indoor scenes is fundamental for lighting analysis and space design. For photometry, high dynamic range (HDR) photography is a common means to capture scenes and map luminance from the real world. However, conventional photography with photometric calibration is time consuming, and photographs captured through general perspectives cannot represent 3-D scenes with detailed indoor geometries. Inverse rendering can conveniently predict the details of indoor geometry, material property and illumination conditions from given images. This research bridges inverse rendering with indoor photometry and presents a computational workflow for reconstructing an indoor appearance flexibly

under natural illumination. The primary hypothesis is that physics-based rendering with calibrated HDR photographs can generate realistic scenes at different times and under various sky conditions. Through computational photography, geometry-based modeling and physics-based rendering, the proposed workflow will construct 3-D space through a single indoor panorama and render the scene with varying environment maps. Ultimately, the design application will automatically provide a large number of indoor layout alternatives and visualize indoor appearance under various spatial and environmental parameters. The outcome will provide editable lighting estimations for lighting research, architectural design and real estate development.

Surekha Tetali, PhD-BPD 2023

Surface Urban Heat Island: A Comparative Study between India and the United States

Committee: Nina Baird (Chair), Volker Hartkopf, Kelly Klima

Global temperatures have risen by 0.18 degrees Celsius in a decade and could rise further due to increasing anthropogenic activity in urban areas, which may host 68% of the world's population by 2050. The urban heat island (UHI), higher urban temperatures compared to rural surroundings, is one of the most widely researched phenomena to study the impact of urbanization on climate. Yet, limited research exists across rapidly urbanizing countries including India, which could be the biggest contributor to urban population growth in the following decades.

This research is a comparative examination of UHI and its association with the urban built environment in India and the U.S. It conducts a quantitative

analysis of the land surface temperatures (LST) and the surface urban heat island (SUHI) magnitude (ΔT) across 42 cities in India and 32 cities in the U.S. using remote sensing data.

Such large-scale multi-city analysis facilitates statistical analysis of the observed LST and ΔT.

Although the results indicate green vegetation as a potential UHI mitigation strategy, its effectiveness needs evaluation in conjunction with limitations on water availability and overall urban densities. The study also emphasizes the need for more localized SUHI research methods and measures that can specifically analyze the impact of the urban built environment on urban LSTs.

Committee: Vivian Loftness (Chair), Erica Cochran, Kristen Kurland, Matthew M. Mehalik Suzy

Adopting City Smart Surfaces is Critical to Mitigate Climate Change, Improve Human Health and Social Equity

Because of rapid urban development, much of the soil on Earth has been sealed by pavement. On average, almost 70% of U.S. cities’ land cover is impervious. As a result, communities are increasingly facing extreme urban heat and flooding problems, which significantly affect human health. Smart decisions about streets, sidewalks, parking lots and roofs, which are closely related to the surfaces’ reflectivity and permeability, are critical for more sustainable community development. Typical urban surfaces are dark, impervious and inert, while the climate is dynamic. The dark surfaces have low solar reflectivity resulting in measurable increases in city temperatures. The impervious surfaces, with low permeability, lead to higher stormwater runoff, which causes human health issues. However, current data on city surface performance is not easily accessible and comparable. Most research has focused on either one

type of surface or on either urban heat or flooding.

To fill this gap, this project develops a smart surface taxonomy with 50 types of surfaces, ranging from traditional black impervious to light color or green surfaces with various levels of permeability. In addition, the adoption rate of smart surfaces by policymakers is still concerning due to economically driven decision-making mechanisms, without an overall understanding of surface impacts on community sustainability, health and equity. Therefore, this project develops an evidencebased decision-making dashboard to evaluate integrated benefits — incorporating community surface performance and equity indexes — to help policymakers make informed decisions on community surface choices that will mitigate climate change while improving human health and social equity.

AI-Powered Building Energy Benchmarking Classification and Forecasting

Committee: Azadeh Sawyer (Co-Chair), Vivian Loftness (Co-Chair), Pingbo Tang, Matt Gormley

Data-driven building energy benchmarking is one of the most efficient ways to save energy, reduce carbon emissions and improve energy management. Yet, for the majority of areas in the United States, data limitations, especially for the monthly and end-use loads, are a major challenge. Also, the benchmarking classifications are typically conducted by primary uses or climates. However, multiple building attributes have an impact on energy consumption, leading to identical building types that may have significantly distinct energy use patterns. Multiple sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) models, including classic machine learning, ensemble learning and deep learning models have been discussed in existing studies, revealing varied performance levels. Because of “black-box” issues for advanced models, studies have not provided a comprehensive post-prediction analysis for the models, limiting insights into building types, climate zones and energy related to the performance of model predictions.

To fill in the gaps addressed above, this study proposes an AI-driven, generalizable building energy and carbon emissions benchmarking approach that is applicable to any contiguous U.S. city in three layers, including total annual, end-use load and monthly levels. To improve the model performance, building energy benchmarking classification methods are also addressed by intelligent clustering algorithms that challenge classic building classification models. Additionally, this study proposes a model performance evaluation with post-prediction approach to gain insights into the prediction performance for multiple AI models. The actual and predicted values are classified into well-estimated, underestimated and overestimated groups by a statistical acceptance interval. This method assesses prediction performance associated with energy, building types and climate zones, providing a reference for the future studies regarding model enhancement and benchmarking development.

Wei Liang, PhD-BPD

An Automatic Mobile Sensing Platform for Indoor Environmental Quality Assessments

Committee: Erica Cochran

Hameen (Chair), Vivian Loftness, Pingbo Tang, Ji Zhang

Since the start of the pandemic, the amount of time that individuals spend indoors has increased to approximately 95%, emphasizing the need for indoor environments that promote health and productivity. Despite the critical importance of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) for occupant well-being, comfort, and performance, many public buildings, particularly schools, fail to meet the minimum IEQ standards stipulated in building codes.

Addressing this issue requires measuring, monitoring and evaluating current IEQ conditions through objective and subjective assessments. Traditional methodologies, however, present several limitations, including time-consuming processes, limited spatial representation and insufficient occupant engagement.

This dissertation proposes an innovative automated mobile sensing platform designed to overcome these challenges by facilitating simultaneous, continuous and autonomous evaluation of IEQ conditions. The platform incorporates advanced technologies, such as thermal infrared cameras, RGB and depth sensors, and

specialized IEQ sensors for monitoring thermal comfort, indoor air quality, lighting levels and acoustics. Integrated with simultaneous localization and mapping and utilizing Gaussian process modeling with progressively observed measurements, the platform delivers high-resolution spatiotemporal monitoring of IEQ physical attributes that overcomes traditional stationary sensor networks’ limitations. Furthermore, the proposed platform incorporates a framework designed to assess mean radiant temperature, a parameter that has proven challenging to measure using conventional methodologies. Additionally, a social robot is integrated into the platform to conduct qualitative post-occupancy evaluations and collect satisfaction feedback from building occupants, enhancing engagement and accuracy.

By improving existing IEQ conditions, the proposed mobile sensing platform aims to enhance occupant comfort, health and performance ultimately enabling stakeholders to make informed decisions that reduce energy costs and contribute to a safer, healthier and more comfortable indoor environment.

Computational Design

The SoA’s Computational Design (CD) program investigates new design opportunities and critical perspectives at the nexus of design and computation. A post-disciplinary research program offering master of science (MSCD) and doctoral (PhD-CD) degrees, CD mobilizes CMU’s computational strengths to develop new technical and critical perspectives on computing as it relates to architecture, design and the built environment. Ranging from the applied to the speculative — and from the poetic to the critical — the work of the program explores subjects including artificial intelligence, architectural robotics, digital fabrication, computational geometry, responsive environments, augmented, virtual, and mixed reality and shape grammars, as well as embodied and tangible forms of interaction and expression. Guided by an interdisciplinary group of core faculty and external advisors, students develop a thesis through the reflective development of experimental design systems, algorithms, computational artifacts and/or environments, or by crafting novel critical and historical perspectives interrogating technological imaginaries of design.

Committee: Tom Corbett, Sarah Fox, Mayank Goel, Sinan Goral, Ken Holstein, Alexandra Ion, Eunsu Kang, David Lindlbauer, Golan Levin, Jingyang Liu, Nikolas Martelaro, Chris McComb, Dominik Moritz, Paul Pangaro, Barnabas Poczos, Jinmo Rhee, Daniel Rosenberg Muñoz, Kenji Shimada, Lining Yao Collaborators: Emek Erdolu, Stella Shen

Boyang Lin, MSCD 2023

Virtual Environments and Real Places: An Exploration of Key Elements in Placemaking Implementations

Advisors: Daragh Byrne, Daniel Cardoso Llach

Virtual place-making is a process of introducing virtual elements into physical environments to expand their possibilities and create new meaning. With the emergence of new technologies, like game engines, augmented reality and virtual reality technology, we are now exposed to virtual spaces more than ever before. Most people cannot get involved in the process of virtual place-making because of the lack of design skills and experience. My research identifies the gaps and divides between trained designers and untrained people, and uses

immersive environments as a new platform to solve the problem. By introducing photographic-modeling models, the immersive environment has a reflection of the physical environment. Users can create their digital scenes in a more intuitive and understandable way based on the physical environment, allowing them to impact the virtual place-making process. The pipeline will offer new opportunities for more people, especially untrained users, to create their own virtual place-making.

Bradley Williams, MSCD 2023

Building Information

Twinning: Investigating the Software Architecture of a Construction Digital Twin

Advisors: Daniel Cardoso

Llach, Jinmo Rhee

The architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry predominantly utilizes building information modeling (BIM) for managing building projects. However, integrating real-time sensor data to enable increasingly desired digital twin capabilities in traditional monolithic BIM software is challenging. This thesis explores these limitations and proposes a novel microservicesbased approach to seamlessly incorporate sensor data into BIM platforms. By developing an advanced data processing service for light detection and ranging (LiDAR) scans, the study demonstrates the advantages of microservices over monolithic architectures, advantages that include efficient communication, diverse data format accommodation and improved scalability. The findings highlight the benefits of a microservice architecture for better dependency management and increased flexibility. This research advocates for a more distributed, task-oriented BIM ecosystem, encouraging a more inclusive and collaborative process in line with the increasingly distributed nature of the AEC industry and contemporary software development practices.

Chengzhi Zhang, MSCD 2023

Generative Image AI for Design

Advisors: Daragh Byrne, Nikolas Martelaro, Paul Pangaro

Diffusion-model-based text-to-image artificial intelligence (AI) tools have sparked heated discussion in the art community but are yet to be widely applied in design processes. Design requirements are more specific, which AI tools currently fail to meet with their less predictable outcomes. However, from pilot studies, we learn that designers find text-to-image a good channel for inspiration search in the early stage of design. Using a design sketch as the input could greatly reduce the uncertainty of the outcome. Moreover, the fast representation and high fidelity characteristic of diffusion models may help bridge early-stage design communication. Based on these

pilot study findings, I conduct three studies: in study 1, I explore text-to-image platforms for supporting design processes; in study 2, I characterize imageAI-design-sketch-collaborative workflow; and in study 3, I portray diffusion-model-supported design communication and envision a new platform for design communication support. My research characterizes how designers use diffusion models in design, the potential affordance of diffusion models in design and, further, how diffusion models can support design communication. My study aims to inform the next step of diffusion-based, designsupport-system designs and development.

Chloe Hong, MSCD 2023

3-D Design Through Interactive Training of a Generative Reinforcement Learning Agent

Advisors: Daniel Cardoso Llach, Chris McComb

Design exploration is an iterative process that involves evaluation and creation of an artifact that can also be put in terms of exploring the design space. Generative design systems up to this point have sought to facilitate this design exploration process but are often feed-forward interactions between the designer and computational generator that require predetermined constraints. This thesis introduces an interactive, generative design framework driven by reinforcement learning where the agent learns from trial and error within a feedback loop. The objectives of the thesis are: 1) to formulate a reinforcementlearning agent that can procedurally build 3-D forms given ambiguous and evolving constraints; and 2) to propose an interactive generative design framework that allows the simultaneous articulation of design criteria and artifacts essential to early design development. As a result, this thesis seeks to make contributions by introducing a new way of designing through interaction with a learningbased agent and by highlighting design tasks with ambiguous goals and evolving criteria in the context of learning-based methods.

Fanjie Jin, MSCD 2023

An AR-Enabled IoT Framework for Energy Visualization/ Management in Residential Space

Advisors: Daragh Byrne, Daniel Rosenberg Muñoz

This thesis advocates for the utilization of augmented reality (AR) as a critical instrument in crafting user experiences/interfaces tailored to the specific interaction demands of the Internet of Things (IoT). I recognize three key architectural elements required to support sustainability in a residential space: 1) control mechanism optimization; 2) visibility of energy level data; and 3) recommendations for proactive practices. I illustrate the possible scenarios of engaging these aspects seamlessly with the AR-enabled IoT interactive experiences. As AR offers an opportunity to enhance our interaction with data and engagements with IoT devices and systems, I explore both in situ spatial mapping and the process of leveraging digital twin models as methods to achieve the three aforementioned goals. This thesis proposes a speculative system that demonstrates possible directions to empower occupants to make informed decisions and adopt energy-efficient practices using AR-enabled IoT frameworks.

Haoyu Liu, MSCD 2023

Towards Contextualized Synthetic Dataset for the Construction Site

Advisors: Daniel Cardoso

Llach, Ardavan Bidgoli

The absence of datasets is one reason why the construction industry has lagged behind in the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. The danger on construction sites, along with the costly and labor-intensive labeling process, make collecting construction datasets difficult, if at all possible. To overcome these issues, this research explores synthetic data generation and intends to validate its benefits compared to real datasets. This study specifically uses the issue of brick recycling from construction waste on-site as it well represents

the construction context’s messy nature. This research utilizes Unity Perception to build the scene of synthetic data generation to simulate the construction context. A series of experiments are proposed with different realistic levels, generating thousands of images for the brick recycling scenario at a considerably lesser cost than the real dataset. To validate the benefits of the synthetic data-set in terms of performance, real datasets are collected. A benchmarking test is conducted to analyze the performance benefit of synthetic datasets.

Hongyu Mao, MSCD 2023

SpecSync: A Framework to Train and Calibrate Wearable Devices for Hand Pose Using CameraMounted Glasses

Advisors: Eddy Man Kim, Mayank Goel, Jingyang Liu

Recent years have seen an explosion of research in wrist-worn devices to predict and estimate either hand gesture or hand pose through indirect sensing methods. Despite achieving relatively high accuracy, device calibration across different users and sessions remains a challenge due to variations in device placement, band tightness and sensor variation. To address this issue, I propose SpecSync, a framework for calibrating and training wrist-worn devices for hand pose estimation using camera-mounted glasses. The captured video stream generates 3-D hand key points for device calibration when the device is first

used or when accuracy decreases. This peripheral calibration enables the device to act as a standalone hand-pose-estimation device with improved stability when the glasses are not in use. I validate the system using the EIT wristband, which is validated for gesture recognition but suffers from issues such as physiological changes, movement artifacts, environment interference and placement sensitivity. The results show that this approach holds promise for overcoming device calibration challenges across users and sessions, enhancing the usability and effectiveness of wrist-worn devices.

Howard (Ziyu) Han, MSCD 2023

Designing for Accessible Sidewalk Robots: A Holistic Approach

Using Interviews, Experiments, and Simulation

Advisors: Daragh Byrne, Sarah Fox, Nikolas Materlaro

Sidewalk robots are becoming increasingly common. Delivery robots, for example, are being deployed worldwide, claiming to provide a more sustainable and economic last-mile delivery service. However, the utilization of sidewalks as a means of operation by these robots poses a challenge for those who share the sidewalk, despite not being the intended users. Among these individuals are vulnerable road users, such as people with motor disabilities, who already face numerous physical obstacles while navigating on the sidewalk. Therefore, there is a pressing need to investigate how various design factors of sidewalk robots impact the daily navigation of people with motor disabilities, which can subsequently inform designers on how to design socially-acceptable and safer interactions between these individuals and sidewalk robots. Work-in-progress presents an

interactive virtual simulation tool utilizing “Wizardof-Oz” methods to simulate human-robot interaction (HRI) between sidewalk users and delivery robots in street settings. My preliminary studies demonstrate the potential of our tool in supporting design discussions through two experiments: one showing videos in interviews and the other offering virtual reality experiences. I argue that with the growing presence of public robots, virtual simulation tools will be essential for informing and supplementing real-world tests by supporting designers, researchers and practitioners in various activities, including scenario prototyping and co-design workshops. The preliminary findings can benefit future virtual reality HRI tools developments, ultimately fostering safer and more appropriate public robots.

Jiaying Wei, MSCD 2023

Responsive Robotic Assembly With Heterogeneous Raw Wood

Advisors: Joshua Bard, Daniel Cardoso Llach

With the development of robotics and computation technologies, architecture studies are actively adopting robotics into complicated roles within construction and fabrication in addition to design. This project considers how sensor-based autonomous systems can come into play in robotic fabrication instances that include complex relationships between materials and collaborators. If robot systems are given the ability to adapt, how will they reshape the ways of thinking and making in architectural fabrication? To explore how we can integrate responsive design and operating systems into the robotic fabrication process, I propose a real-time, responsive robotic assembly framework with a ROSGH-based bi-directional system. This framework would orchestrate sensor-based material inputs, geometrical analysis and dynamic path planning with a parametric design pipeline as a synthesized infrastructure to enable robotic automation with customizable forms by using heterogeneous raw branches. On a broader scope, I would like to rethink how this system can facilitate mass-customizable modular construction on a larger scale.

Jieyu Zhou, MSCD 2023

Co-Creative Community Installation

Advisors: Eddy Man Kim, Ken Holstein, Nikolas Martelaro

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been used widely for government decision-making processes. In Pittsburgh, public algorithms are increasingly implemented in various fields that shape major aspects of people’s lives including child welfare, housing and crisis prevention. However, community members’ understanding of AI-based decision-making tools remains ambiguous. In this paper, I employ co-creative design workshops with community members to learn what aspect of public algorithms they are interested in and to envision how to efficiently inform the community about public algorithms. I then discuss potential disadvantages and challenges of public algorithms. Finally, a potential solution, Tangible Poster, is introduced to collect community members’ opinions.

Junjie Xu, MSCD 2023

Datasets for Architectural Design: A Comprehensive Review of Existing Plan-Based Datasets and Their Implementations

Advisors: Daniel Cardoso Llach, Eddy Man Kim, Jinmo Rhee

This thesis research reviews existing tools and datasets used in deep learning models for architecture, with a focus on plan datasets. The first section discusses various generative models used in architecture research, such as pix2pix, GANs and vector-based approaches. The article then surveys five main dataset platforms to find plan datasets and analyzes the data types of 119 plan datasets from the PaperWithCode platform. Among those datasets, the article provides a detailed review of 12 selected plan datasets in terms of their year, author, size and curation process. The curation process of datasets is highlighted as an important aspect to standardize private architectural datasets for open-source research in the future. The article aims to provide a comprehensive review of plan datasets in architecture to facilitate further research in this field.

Linxiaoyi Wan, MSCD 2023

Towards Adaptive Additive Manufacturing With Image-Based Monitoring for Binder Jet 3-D Printing

Advisors: Joshua Bard, Daniel Cardoso Llach, Kenji Shimada

The primary objective of this research is to investigate the potential of image-based monitoring techniques in powderbased binder jetting processes for in situ monitoring of the printing process. By employing image-based monitoring and developing functionally graded materials (FGMs), it will be possible to improve the quality and performance of 3-D printed structures. Additionally, addressing the limitations of the working envelope in additive manufacturing systems for architectural construction could pave the way for future exploration of mobile 3-D printing, allowing for greater flexibility and scalability in construction projects.

Mitchell Foo, MSCD 2023

Designing Agents for Co-Creation in Virtual Reality With Deep Reinforcement Learning

Advisors: Daniel Cardoso Llach, Thomas Corbett

Virtual environments have become a key tool as a simulation platform for several deep learning applications. But beyond being just a tool, virtual environments are open-ended spaces for human creativity, supporting unconstrained design explorations, immersive virtual reality experiences and social interactions. Given that humans and deep learning models are both occupying virtual environments, can these environments act as a common ground for deep learning inference and human interaction?

This thesis implements a prototype that explores the development and evaluative process of a reinforcement learning agent capable of performing a creative design task through the parameterization and participation of a human co-creator. Within a shared virtual reality design environment, a human and an agent collaborate to realize the design of an objective 3-D model. They embody the same avatar, allowing for humandemonstrated data to augment agent training, producing agent variants that are examined in context to the human-agent co-creation process.

Tianqi Chu, MSCD 2023

Design With Skeuomorphism or Not: An Investigation of Immersive Experience Based on the Escape Room Game Within the VR Framework

Advisor: Eddy Man Kim

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a noticeable shift towards telecommuting and online entertainment, which has created novel prospects for future employment and recreation. Furthermore, with the continual advancement of artificial intelligence (AI), it is expected that a significant number of models can be easily generated in the near future. In this context, the realization of a meta-universe that offers extraordinary immersive experiences may become a tangible possibility. This paper aims to investigate whether virtual reality (VR) games are more suitable for “simulating reality” or “deviating from reality” by focusing on VR Escape Room, a typical example of an immersive experience. Through multiple rounds of experiment and analysis, this study compares the effects of “Skeuomorphism” and “Beyond Skeuomorphism” in the game.

Terrence Ou, MSCD 2023

Mobile Robot-Assisted Material Handling in Prefabricated Housing Factories

Advisor: Daniel Cardoso Llach

The prefabricated housing industry in the U.S. aims to relieve the shortage of affordable housing by manufacturing housing components off-site and assembling them on-site to increase project time efficiency and reduce the total cost. However, the factories I visited in the Northeast U.S. still have not automated their manufacturing process to some degree, so there are still chances to explore automation opportunities in such processes. Based on the fact that these factories’ products are affordability-oriented, this thesis explores an applicable — both financially and practically — way of introducing mobile robots to these factories to increase manufacturing efficiency by assisting material handling in the manufacturing process. The thesis starts with studies of the prefabricated housing factory and task-oriented mobile robot, then integrates findings from both domains to propose automation solutions for selected tasks. Concepts are verified through virtual or physical simulations, before a discussion of the research outcomes, potential flaws and future steps.

Tomas Cabezon Pedroso, MSCD 2023

Decrypting the Black Box: A Designer's Journey Into the Infinite Possibilities of ML in Design

Advisors: Daragh Byrne, Jinmo Rhee, Dominik Moritz

One of the most significant and revolutionary methods in modern computer science is machine learning (ML). It entails the unsupervised statistical inference of models from data. In design applications, these models hold great promise for creating and synthesizing new and sometimes innovative design alternatives. ML enables creative practitioners — designers, artists and architects — to produce novel results based on sample data. Machine learning is a

powerful tool for solving complex problems, but it can also be difficult to understand and use effectively. This thesis is the author’s personal journey into the infinite possibilities of generative systems in ML of volumetric forms. Through a series of three experiments, the author investigates the potential of the latent space learned by ML models for design exploration.

Yang Bai, MSCD 2023

Location-Based Hybrid Urban Environment for Intangible Community Heritage Protection

Advisor: Daniel Cardoso Llach

Making invisible elements that contribute to the construction of a community’s memory and identity accessible, even to the community members themselves, presents a challenge to heritage conservation efforts. Digital and mixed settings have the potential to assist in combining the tangible and intangible features of historic structures and objects, according to recent work in the field of digital heritage. This article examines how intangible characteristics of a location, such as historically and culturally significant events, may be made visible and put in dialogue with a physical space, as well as with human activities, in an augmented reality environment. The research site is located in the Lower

Hill District around Freedom Corner in Pittsburgh, which is a monument and symbol of community discussion, unity and civic engagement in the city. The article describes the creation of a location-based augmented reality application that overlays historical and cultural background information at Pittsburgh’s Freedom Corner and its surrounding historical area, taking a broad view on community heritage as a spectrum of perspectives and activities that can be generated and operated by communities themselves. It provides a real-world illustration of how interactive augmented reality might assist the public in building understanding.

Yinuo Han, MSCD 2023

Building a Bidirectional Bridge Between the Digital and Physical Worlds

Advisors: Eddy Man Kim, Alexandra Ion, David Lindlbauer

Humans today are dual-citizens, inhabiting both the digital and physical worlds. Each offers us unique advantages — the digital world offers us advantages such as unlimited access to information and expansion of human capabilities, while the physical world has long been providing us structural affordances, functional mechanisms, rich sensations and much more. Currently, there exists a gap between the two. We constantly find ourselves having to frequently switch contexts to interact with one or the other. Within this thesis, I propose building bi-directional interactions between the two worlds so that we can leverage advantages of both worlds simultaneously. Leveraging computational techniques and inspirations from design, I demonstrate this vision with an interactive system and a device that each seamlessly brings advantages of one world into the other.

Yuchen (Joshua) Cao, MSCD 2023

3-D Art Research With Radiance Field and Style Transfer

Advisors: Daniel Cardoso Llach, Ardavan Bidgoli

This thesis takes neural radiance fields (NeRF) as a backbone, exploring and experimenting with different methods to make 3-D style transfer possible, by combining 2-D style transfer techniques together with photo-realistic 3-D scenes from NeRF. Further, this thesis provides a comparison of different approaches absent in most research papers. It then explores the applications that can utilize such techniques within architecture, design and art creation in a fashion of 3-D-aware style control and transfer. To explore this topic, the generation of the datasets for the network is discussed, and different ways of combining NeRF and style transfer are implemented and analyzed, including latent space embedding of various features and concatenation of two networks. Finally, experiments are conducted to use these networks to generate 3-D art pieces.

Yuechen Wang, MSCD 2023

VisionARy: An Open Source 3-D Environment

Segmentation Toolkit for Augmented Reality

Advisors: Eddy Man Kim, Daragh Byrne

Yumeng Zhuang, MSCD 2023

Drifting Through Design Research: An Autobiographical Rethinking of Constructing a Thesis

Advisors: Daragh Byrne, Lining Yao, Sinan Goral

This research aims to make 3-D semantic segmentation technologies for indoor data accessible to augmented reality (AR) developers and researchers, focusing on improving developer experience (DevEx). By adapting raw spatial mesh data and connecting the AR device to a computer, this project develops an open-source toolkit, VisionARy, that provides accessible 3-D segmentation for AR applications. The toolkit has a modular structure for various developer needs and includes comprehensive documentation and tutorials. I demonstrate VisionARy’s capabilities through AR applications interacting with spatial mesh data and clear, detailed documentation. This research reflects on the development process with VisionARy, acknowledges limitations and potential for future refinement and expansion, contributing to the accessibility of AR for developers, researchers and DevEx research.

Told from my autobiographical perspective of making this thesis, this thesis is grounded in the concept of drifting, or changes made in the design research process, and walks readers through my journey of developing and framing interactive air pouches. Under careful documentation, the journey is scattered with mind maps and non-linear paths toward key inspirations, related literature background, documentation of the construction, casual and formal reflections, interactions with people who supported me, and self-evaluations. Interweaving different tones to tell the story, I provide a holistic view of my experience to learn to conduct design research. Through a detailed evaluation and conversations with students adopting design research methods for their theses, I propose that this alternative way to document design research could reveal the oftenhidden drifts in design research and bring readers closer to how knowledge is produced in reality.

Zishen Wen, MSCD 2023

Recognizable Point-Cloud: An End-To-End Point-Cloud Processing, Visualization and User-Interaction Design

Point clouds have been widely used in various industries, such as autonomous driving, monitoring and surveying. However, the visualization methods developed for these fields are limited compared to the rapidly evolving techniques for point cloud processing. Most of these visualization approaches are primarily focused on technical considerations, such as memory usage, computation latency and visualization accuracy, rather than user experience. The aim of this thesis is to design a new framework for point cloud visualization that incorporates state-of-the-art techniques and then to evaluate its effectiveness through user recognition testing. The work involves the following steps: 1) conducting a literature review and comparing different baseline models for learning-based point cloud techniques, including detection and upsampling; 2) constructing a pipeline to train models and generate multiple point cloud visualization options; 3) developing a user interface with a set of questions on object, semantic, and spatial recognition; and 4) conducting user research to assess the visualization options. This study provides a comprehensive review of point cloud upsampling and detection methods, and presents a novel framework for enhancing point cloud visualization through the incorporation of advanced techniques.

Advisors: Daniel Cardoso

Llach, Eddy Man Kim

Ardavan Bidgoli, PhD-CD 2022

A Collaborative Framework for Machine Learning-Based Toolmaking for Creative Practice

Committee: Daniel Cardoso Llach (Chair), Eunsu Kang, Golan Levin, Barnabas Poczos

The latest boom of machine learning (ML) in the early 2010s has raised a new wave of interest among creative practitioners to explore the intersection of art and artificial intelligence (AI), specifically generative machine learning. A growing number of artists, designers and architects appropriated these algorithms to make new tools for their creative practices. This dissertation introduces and documents a collaborative framework to make machine learning-based tools for creative practices. The framework embraces the idiosyncratic nuances and elements of the physical context of the creative practice. It takes a new point of view on data and data curation as the primary method of interacting

with ML algorithms. The framework achieves this goal by utilizing small user-generated datasets, which are biased toward the creative practitioners’ personal preferences, subjective measures and elements of the physical context of their practices. Through collaboration with machine learning expert toolmakers, the framework makes ML algorithms more accessible to these creative practitioners. It highlights the affordances of ML algorithms, specifically conditional variational autoencoders (C-VAE), which can be efficiently trained and overfit on small datasets to produce outcomes that are closely tied to the creative practitioners and their context.

Jingyang (Leo) Liu, PhD-CD Space as Interface: A Spatial Interface for Human-Robot Interaction in RoboticSupported Construction

Committee: Daniel Cardoso Llach (Chair), Joshua Bard, Mayank Goel

Jinmo Rhee, PhD-CD

A

Computational Method for the Identification and Comparative Analysis of Urban Form Types: A Case Study of Rust

Belt Cities

Committee: Daniel CardosoLlach (Chair), Ramesh Krishnamurti, Bhiksha Raj Ramakrishnan

In architectural studies, space — more than a volume or container — can organize resources, confer identities and establish socio-cultural protocols between inhabitants. Meanwhile, spatial information such as distance, orientation and space layout may orchestrate the interaction between humans and machines in a shared space. The emergence of spatial computing technologies, such as augmented reality and mixed reality (AR/MR), brings new possibilities for reconnecting the digital world with the physical space through digitization, registration and spatial interaction. Situated in this context, my research aims to explore the mutual constitution between physical space and spatial computing. With a specific focus on the robotic-supported construction scenario, I investigate the role of physical space in humanrobot interaction (HRI) by asking three primary questions:

1) how might we use physical space for contextualizing virtual information to make it easier to be understood and engaged with; 2) how might we leverage the relationship between the physical environments and the well-entrenched body skills for intuitive programming; and 3) how can physical space serve as a shared spatial reference frame for both face-to-face and remote collaboration.

This dissertation develops and evaluates a new computational method for constructing and analyzing large urban datasets, enabling new insights into a city’s spatial, urban-economic, land use, and demographic dimensions. The method is predicated on an alternative way of representing cities that takes urban spaces — rather than buildings or blocks — as a city’s constitutive unit. In contrast to conventional data methods for urban form analysis, this method preserves the morphological features of urban spaces at different scales in order to capture their spatial characteristics. A deep neural network model trained on the dataset will cluster form data by feature, yielding morphologically distinct urban types. By examining characteristics of each urban type, one can visually and numerically address configurational characteristics of the urban space. When types are induced based on multiple cities, unique and common types can be identified by comparing the morphology features of individual urban spaces. Analyses of morphological traits derive from an inductive investigation of changes, trends and structures of constituents for differing city situations, namely, emergence, growth, shrinkage, declination and dissipation. Individual urban space-centered analysis enables the identification of unique and common urban types and their characteristics, providing spatial insights into restructuring strategies of city space via urban economy, land use, and demography analysis.

Pedro Luis Alves Veloso, PhD-CD 2023

An Academy of Spatial Agents: Training an Ecology of Computational Agents for Spatial Synthesis With Fine-Grained Interaction

Committee: Ramesh Krishnamurti, Gianni di Caro, Reinhard Koenig

Motivated by situated cognition in architectural design, this research investigates a computational approach for spatial synthesis that supports designers inside the generative loop with fine-grained interaction. After reviewing and creating a taxonomy of classic paradigms of generative modeling, I present a research guideline for interactive spatial synthesis. This guideline considers control of problem parameters, realtime interaction, step-by-step and fine-granular construction of spatial representations, event-driven computing, reduced assumption about control strategies, and simultaneously addressing multiple spatial goals.

To test the feasibility of this research guideline, I investigate multi-agent spatial synthesis (MASS), which comprehends a collection of discrete and autonomous entities (referred to as “spatial agents”) that interact in a shared environment. By distributing the computation, MASS benefits from robustness and scalability and can enable designers to engage in interactive simulations to explore spatial patterns in large-state spaces under uncertainty. Besides, similarly to agent-based models, MASS can potentially model the dynamics of complex systems and display qualities such as emergence and complexity. The success of the design artifact and the implementation of interactive simulation workflows are proven by the feasibility of the proposed approach to design spatial agents for interactive spatial synthesis. This project opens doors to different lines of research, such as agent-based architectural morphology, spatial synthesis of complex spaces based on ecologies of agents, and mainly, the evaluation of situational and collaborative design behavior with architects.

Sustainable Design

Centered on architecture’s response to climate change, the Master of Science in Sustainable Design (MSSD) is a post-professional, researchbased graduate program focused on expanding innovative design methodologies that position the built environment as a vehicle of environmental stewardship. Situated at the intersection of technology, environmental science, advanced manufacturing, computational design and analysis, the MSSD program leads students to discover new socio-ecological approaches to regenerative, evidence-based design frameworks that operate across scales, while focusing on circular economies, energy systems and more equitable material system assemblies embedded within ecologies of livable landscapes.

Advisors: Dana Cupkova (Chair), Sinan Goral, Azadeh Sawyer and Kushagra Varma

Clarice Meffert, MSSD 2023

Architectural Psychology of Stress: Analyzing the Impact of Material, Formal and Aesthetic Features on Stress Reduction Using Biophilic Patterns

Co-Advisor: David Creswell

Although we live in a modern environment, our brains remain primitive — still attuned to our ancestral landscapes. Therefore, special design considerations must be made in environmental construction to avoid unintentionally creating stressful surroundings. Interior finish materials can affect all sensory modalities and impact human health, making environmental materiality design crucial. This research indicates that using biophilic materials, textures and patterns in architecture can prevent and reduce stress. Moreover, the materiality of architectural environments may interact with mindfulness meditation to improve stress reduction benefits. Additionally, mindfulness meditation can alter environmental perception, demonstrating a potential reciprocal relationship between internal mindstate and environmental materiality.

Greg Budhijanto, MSSD 2023

Robotics and Automation for Sustainable Construction Practices: Exploring the Benefits of Drone-Assisted Spray Coating Applications for Worker Safety

Co-Advisor: Joshua Bard

Despite the growing need for new buildings and infrastructure due to the global population increase, the construction industry has been slow in adopting new technology and practices that can improve speed, efficiency, health and safety among laborers. This thesis explores the implementation of an existing robotic platform, spray coating drones, for a hazardous task in construction that presents chemical, musculoskeletal and height risks to workers, namely the application of spray polyurethane foam (SPF). The proof of concept uses 3-D modeling and computational methods to simulate the benefits of lower toxicity and time effectiveness relative to different drone path-finding scenarios. This approach can be extended to other areas of spray applications and inform interactions between robots and humans for other potential tasks, with the aim of advancing more sustainable construction practices.

Monalisa Malani, MSSD 2023

Pixels to Pavement: Analyzing City Sidewalks Using Deep Learning and VisionBased Framework for Data-Driven Solutions in Urban Planning

Co-Advisors: Claudio Silva, Suzy Li

City sidewalks have social and environmental impacts, but data collection is difficult, leading to a lack of information on their condition and distribution. This research proposes an automated methodology using deep learning, computer vision and geospatial processes to classify sidewalk surface data from street-level imagery. The study will correlate sidewalk data with environmental and safety factors and create an interactive mapping tool and open dataset. The research aims to provide urban analysts and city planners with scalable and generalizable methods to gather city surface data, promoting data-informed planning and sustainable development strategies.

Nikita Khatwani and Sachin Dabas, MSSD 2023

Is Your Apartment Sustainable? : An Analytical Toolset to Evaluate the Health of Apartments and Increase Sustainable Building Practices in Rental Markets

Co-Advisor: Vivian Loftness

We propose an application to enable renters to make informed decisions on apartment rentals based on building performance metrics, thereby increasing demand for better-performing buildings and putting pressure on the industry to adopt more sustainable building practices over time. The tool provides curated metrics based on inputs from both renters and developers, and analyzes the data to identify benefit-based explanations for energy efficiency, occupant health and environmental impact. The methodology involves selecting relevant metrics, identifying sources of information and conducting cumulative user testing with the goal of promoting more comprehensive accountability for sustainable and healthy living environments.

Ninad Bandewar, MSSD 2023

Examining the Collective Impact of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on Retrofits of Single-Family Homes

Sanjana Nagaraj, MSSD 2023

The Blue-Green Sponge Toolkit: Mitigating Flash Floods in Bengaluru

Co-Advisor: Suzy Li

Buildings in the U.S. are responsible for 40% of greenhouse gas emissions, with a significant portion of that coming from single-family homes. The study found that retrofits focused on improving the building envelope, rather than heating and cooling systems, were the most effective in reducing carbon emissions. However, the effectiveness of each retrofit varied depending on the carbon intensity of the electricity grid. For example, in regions with a high percentage of renewable energy sources, electrification was much more viable/effective in reducing carbon emissions when compared to regions that relied heavily on fossil fuels for electricity generation. This study highlights the importance of considering the carbon intensity of the electricity grid when prioritizing retrofits and provides a framework for policymakers and building owners to make informed decisions about energy efficiency upgrades that consider the carbon footprint of buildings.

The rapid urbanization of Indian cities has resulted in environmental issues such as landscape fragmentation, impervious surfaces and water scarcity. Bengaluru has faced similar problems leading to urban flooding during monsoon seasons. This study proposes a low impact development (LID) system, including bioswales, green roofs, bioretention tanks and rain gardens, with a toolkit to educate people about strategies to mitigate flooding. The study identifies flood-prone regions in Bengaluru using ArcGis and stormwater management model software and applies LID strategies to find optimized solutions based on considerations such as efficiency and resource availability. The study aims to address the challenges of applying LID strategies in cities like Bengaluru with existing infrastructure and insufficient land availability.

Sayali Lamne, MSSD 2023

Building as a Battery: Communal Solutions for Urban Energy Systems

Co-Advisor: Vivian Loftness

Xin Zhou, MSSD 2023

Designing the Invisible: Adaptive Design Framework for Experiencing Qualitative Daylight Analysis Using Virtual Reality

Power outages in the U.S. due to natural and manmade disasters highlight the need to enhance building resilience. Building-scale solar panels face challenges due to diurnal cycles, leading to a “duck curve” and “camel curve.” This study performs a meta-analysis of policies, strategies and technologies for building energy storage systems (BESS) and develops a scalable module that can make buildings self-sufficient and resilient. The study aims to save the utility grid from distributed energy resource fluctuations and promote renewable energy adoption for community-based solutions with a focus on equitable social sustainability. The study proposes integrating photovoltaics, energy storage, and demand control systems to convert buildings into batteries.

Daylighting design must account for both the quantity and perceptual quality of natural light. However, traditional daylight evaluation methods tend to focus on either quantitative daylight metrics or qualitative daylight from renderings. This study explores how virtual reality (VR) can visualize both the quantity and quality of daylight to improve high-performance building design. It proposes an evaluative VR framework that enables designers to study daylight quantity, quality, and energy performance simultaneously. By using real-time photorealistic renderings, runtime daylight, and energy simulations in virtual reality, a comprehensive assessment of both quantitative and qualitative aspects of daylight and subsequent energy performance can be made. This can help designers understand the combined effects of daylight on occupants' perceptions of space and identify effective and feasible design interventions for a sustainable, comfortable and visually appealing built environment.

Yi Zhou,

Reimagining Urban Morphology for Equitable Mobility: Adapting to Collective Multipurpose Autonomous Vehicle Systems for Accessible and Inclusive Transportation Systems

Zhourui Li,

Reinforcement Learning Model of Irregular Shading Control for Optimal Daylight and Glare Analysis

Co-Advisor: Joshua Bard

This research proposes that a strategic localized implementation of AV systems, along with their integration into a multipurpose shared mobility network, will enhance urban inclusivity and contribute to a more equitable and livable city. This will be achieved through scenario-based urban interventions using the AV mobility toolkit in conjunction with large-scale GIS mapping, enabling a comparison of qualitative impact with quantitative urban effects of local transportation.

Daylight has a significant impact on the health and productivity of occupants in building environments. However, traditional daylight analysis methods have difficulty optimizing dynamic, irregularly shaped shading devices, which are increasingly common in high-rise buildings. This study proposes a framework for a reinforcement-learning-based, self-learning algorithm that can efficiently control irregular shading devices to optimize for specific glare reduction. The machine learning algorithm autonomously learns optimal shading angles by considering various components and angles to achieve the desired indoor visual environment quality.

MSSD 2023

MSSD 2023

COURSE DESCRIP TIONS

1st Year Fall

48-100

ARCHITECTURE DESIGN

STUDIO: POIESIS STUDIO I

Instructor: Eddy Man Kim

This studio investigates the role and process of architectural design as three critical acts: to see, to empathize and to deliver.

48-104

SHOP SKILLS

Instructor: Jon Holmes

This course introduces basic material assembly methods and the use of workshop machinery, hand tools and power tools, preparing students to participate in a wide range of subsequent building and fabrication projects.

48-025

FIRST YEAR SEMINAR: ARCHITECTURE EDITION I

Instructor: Heather Workinger

Midgley

The main objective of this first-year seminar course is how students learn, and how they develop and make decisions as they transition into architecture education.

62-125

DRAWING I

Instructor: Doug Cooper

This is an introductory course in free-hand architectural drawing. Its central learning objective is building a capacity for visualizing three-dimensional space through freehand drawing.

62-122

DIGITAL MEDIA I

Instructor: Matthew Huber

This is the first in a two-course sequence that introduces digital drawing and image

production as both generative and communicative processes.

62-104

DESIGN ETHICS & SOCIAL JUSTICE IN ARCHITECTURE

Instructors: Valentina Vavasis, Kai Gutschow

This course is aimed at first year architecture students as an introduction to social justice and design ethics. Throughout the course, we discuss how architecture is embedded in these issues and how architects might address these issues in current and future practice, both as citizens and as designers.

1st Year Spring

48-026

FIRST-YEAR SEMINAR:

ARCHITECTURE EDITION II

Instructor: Heather Workinger

Midgley

The second part of this first-year seminar encourages students to pursue their interests inside and outside of CMU and the SoA by introducing a range of opportunities, including study abroad experiences, internships, academic minors/additional majors, and research roles.

48-105

ARCHITECTURE DESIGN STUDIO: POIESIS STUDIO II

Instructor: Tommy CheeMou Yang

As the second studio within the Poiesis Sequence, this studio nurtures a way of making and thinking in design to cultivate the practice of architecture as an act of creative citizenship.

62-126

DRAWING II

Instructor: Doug Cooper

The central learning objective of this course is building a capacity for visualizing three-dimensional space through freehand drawing. It has two secondary objectives: using line, tone and color to represent architectural space and developing architectural proposals.

62-123

DIGITAL MEDIA II: CONTEMPORARY TOPICS

Instructor: Matthew Huber

This is the second course in a two-course sequence that introduces students to a broad range of architectural drawing techniques and practices that document, communicate and generate design possibilities.

48-240

HISTORY OF WORLD ARCHITECTURE I

Instructor: Diane Shaw

This course cuts a broad swath through time, geography and cultures, surveying critical episodes in the built environment of Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and the Americas from ancient times through the 19th century.

2nd Year Fall

48-200

ARCHITECTURE DESIGN STUDIO: POIESIS STUDIO III

Instructor: Laura Garófalo

This studio explores morphology in relation to patterns of climate, programmatic organization and sociocultural and ecological context.

48-215

MATERIALS & ASSEMBLIES

Instructor: Gerard Damiani

This course introduces and examines the fundamentals between design intent and construction materials, the science of materials (performance) and their assemblies.

48-116

BUILDING PERFORMANCE FUNDAMENTALS

Instructor: Nathan Sawyer

This course introduces fundamental concepts of building physics. Knowledge and skills from this course can be applied to studio projects and beyond, improving building design and performance through standard methods of evaluation and simulation tools.

62-225

GENERATIVE MODELING

Instructor: Joshua Bard

This course introduces students to the fundamentals of generative modeling using computer aided design as practiced in the field of architecture.

2nd Year Spring

48-205

SECOND YEAR OPTIONS STUDIO: MOBILE HOME

Instructor: Jared Abraham

This studio aims to entirely reimagine the mobile home; to challenge its cultural stigma; and to propose new and innovative thinking on home design, home delivery, mobility, community and the ever-evolving definition of the American Dream.

48-205

SECOND YEAR OPTIONS STUDIO: UNTANGLING THE THREADS

Instructor: Stefani Danes

This course explores the premise that the quality of our process defines the quality of our project. The studio project is an International Fabric Arts Design Center dedicated to the creation, study and exhibition of contemporary works in cloth and fiber.

48-205

SECOND YEAR OPTIONS STUDIO: INTERFACE ARCHITECTURE — ARCHITECTURE INTERFACE

Instructor: Eddy Man Kim

Working with a real client, this studio explores issues in practice by operating as a professional agency producing content, design and delivery of a public exhibition in support of bird-safe architectural design.

48-205

DESIGN BUILD OPTIONS STUDIO

Instructor: Steve Lee

This studio is part of a year-long, interdisciplinary, design-build project to improve quality of life through design intervention(s) on campus.

48-205

SECOND YEAR OPTIONS STUDIO: THE ANCESTRAL HOME — PAST-PRESENT-FUTURE

Instructor: Jackie Joseph Paul McFarland

This studio explores the idea of the ancestral home through an AfroFuture perspective, by reimagining what an ancestral home would/could be 100 years into a future where governments have been decentralized and technology is unreliable.

48-234

INTRODUCTION TO STRUCTURES

Instructor: Ted Segal

This course introduces structural systems and the materials and elements that make up those systems.

48-241/48-641

HISTORY OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE

Instructor: Kai Gutschow

This course investigates the global history of modern architecture and theory across the 20th century. It asks critical questions about the canon; the changing nature of history and theory; the biases embedded in terms like “modernism,” “progress” and “nonWestern”; and the deep legacies of colonialism, globalization, extractivism and capitalism in which modern architecture so actively participated.

62-275

FUNDAMENTALS OF COMPUTATIONAL DESIGN

Instructor: Eddy Man Kim

This course takes computers outside the box and outlines a journey of discovery revealing computation as the connective tissue encompassing multiple facets of architectural practice and experience.

3rd Year Fall

48-300

ARCHITECTURE DESIGN STUDIO: PRAXIS STUDIO I

Coordinator: Heather Bizon

This course proposes architectural design and speculation based on the past and future connections between sites, cultures, traditions, and norms in Pittsburgh.

48-315

ENVIRONMENT I: CLIMATE AND ENERGY IN ARCHITECTURE

Instructor: Vivian Loftness

This course introduces architectural design responses for energy conservation and natural conditioning, human comfort and the site-specific dynamics of climate.

48-250

URBANISM AND THE SOCIAL PRODUCTION OF SPACE

Instructor: Stefan Gruber

This course introduces students to urbanism and explores architecture as situated and relational practice subject to broader social, political, economic, ecological and cultural forces.

3rd Year Spring

48-305

ARCHITECTURE DESIGN STUDIO: PRAXIS STUDIO II

Coordinator: Jeremy Ficca

This studio introduces integrated architectural design as the synthesis of disparate elements, demands and desires. It situates architecture as a technological, cultural and environmental process that is inherently contingent and entangled, yet tethered to a historical project of autonomy.

48-380/48-658

REAL ESTATE FOR ARCHITECTS

Instructor: Tamara Dudukovich

This course explores economic, structural and political forces that drive real estate development decisions. Students gain insight into relationships among architects, developers and communities.

4th & 5th Years Fall

48-432

ENVIRONMENT II: DESIGN INTEGRATION OF ACTIVE BUILDING SYSTEMS

Instructor: Nina Baird

This course focuses on active systems in commercial buildings and strategies for their successful integration with passive components.

48-525

THESIS SEMINAR

Instructor: Francesca Torello

This seminar prepares students planning to work on a thesis project in the B.Arch or M.Arch programs. The seminar helps students refine the scope of their thesis argument, define appropriate research methods, and sharpen communication about thesis work in all of its phases.

48-400

ARCHITECTURE DESIGN STUDIO: PRAXIS STUDIO III

Instructors: Gerard Damiani, Hal Hayes, Steve Lee, Jill Swenson

This studio is focused on Building Integration, where architectural designs demonstrate the integration of building envelope systems and assemblies, structural systems, environmental control systems, life safety systems and the measurable outcomes of building performance.

4th & 5th Years Spring

48-383/48-648

ETHICS AND DECISION MAKING IN ARCHITECTURE

Instructor: Valentina Vavasis

This course investigates ethics for architecture and the built environment. Students learn about ethics as a discipline, how to identify an ethical issue and how one might work through an ethical problem.

48-381/48-649

ISSUES OF PRACTICE

Instructor: Stuart Coppedge

This course explores the interdependence of contracts, drawings, specifications and correspondence and introduces the concept of Standard of Care. It introduces the economic, cultural and political contexts in which architecture is created.

48-497/48-644

PRE-THESIS

Instructor: Mary-Lou Arscott

This course is designed for B.Arch and M.Arch students a year before their final spring semester. The course develops an understanding of research methods and explores the formation of ideas for architecture thesis projects.

Advanced

Synthesis

Option Studios

(ASOS) Fall

48-500/48-650

COMMONING THE CITY

Instructor: Stefan Gruber

Commoning the City is a yearlong, research-based design studio on social justice and communityled urban transformations. Here, students explore design as an agent of change and how to support citizens in claiming their right to the city.

48-500/48-650

CONSTRUCTION_ENGENDERED

Instructor: Mary-Lou Arscott

This studio takes conventional stereotypical construction scenarios and designs a progressive series of upsets to them, using and creating disruptive contexts.

48-500/48-650

MATERIALITY AND AESTHETICS IN THE MARGINALIZED COMMUNITY

Instructor: William Bates

This studio examines the limited privileges and rights of marginalized communities to occupy and own shelter and the impacts on their quality of life as well as broader societal implications.

48-500/48-650

BESIDE* GLITTER: SPACES OF QUEER SOLIDARITY AND LOVE

Instructor: Theo Issaias

This studio turns to queer practices that have carved possibility not where repression has inscribed it. Students explore stories, archives and everyday

rituals that challenge the normative and normalizing habits of architecture.

48-500/48-650

DEGREE ZERO: UNEARTHING STONE MATERIALITY

Instructor: Jeremy Ficca

This studio explores the contemporary potential of stone as a primary building material. It researches the evolution of the material’s use, and the current circumstances of its global extraction and processing, to understand how this plentiful natural resource may open new types of architectural expression, while coming to terms with its environmental and human impact.

48-500/48-650

XL — M — XS: A FARMER’S MARKET BUILDING AT HAZELWOOD GREEN

Instructor: Steve Lee

This is the first semester of a yearlong design/build studio for a farmer’s market building at Hazelwood Green. This studio considers broader community and urban questions but is laser focused on the issues of building integration.

48-500/48-650

FRAMING MAXO: SPATIAL NARRATIVES OF SOCIAL JUSTICE

Instructor: Christine Mondor

This studio examines the legacy of the social justice advocacy of artist Maxo Vanka through the design of a visitors’ center campus to complement the artist’s murals in Millvale, Pennsylvania.

Advanced

Synthesis Option Studios (ASOS) Spring

48-510

OBSOLESCENCE: EXPLORING PRAXIS, MATERIAL CULTURES, AND LABOR IN SOUTH ASIA

Instructor: Sarosh Anklesaria

This studio considers aging

Modernisms of the Global South, particularly in Western India, as a site for intervention and study.

48-510 EMPATHY, ARCHITECTURE AND THE ANTHROPOCENE: DESIGNING SPACES THAT CULTIVATE EMPATHY BETWEEN HUMANS AND THE NONHUMAN OTHER

Instructor: Priyanka Bista

This studio rethinks the traditional design process that takes a checklist approach to work with species and finds ways to integrate species requirements from the initial stages to detailing.

48-510 PAST FUTURES: THE AMERICAN RUST BELT: ARCHITECTURE, ENVIRONMENT AND AESTHETICS THROUGH SPECULATIVE FICTIONS

Instructor: Heather Bizon

This studio asks: How will the aesthetics of the background reality in the Rust Belt be altered in the next two decades? How do the variables in the past affect future conditions: social, political and ecological? How do these conditions affect typology, scale and tectonics? We consider these relationships as potential moments for discovery and innovation.

48-510

IMAGE DEEP: /reIMAGINE — EXPLORING DESIGN PROMPTS

IN AI: VARIATIONS ON SOCIAL HOUSING AND MATERIAL ECOLOGIES IN THE ERA OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Instructor: Dana Cupkova

This studio aimed to integrate generative AI into the design process and explore the shift from narrative-based approaches to instant image generation. It focused on co-authorship, collective identity within social housing, and sustainable material ecologies, all in response to pressing climate change challenges.

48-510

EPHEMERAL_ENDURING: PERFORMANCE ARCHITECTURE

FOR A NEW PERMANENT AND SEASONAL THEATER FOR THE FESTIVAL D’AVIGNON

Instructor: Hal Hayes

This studio allows students to collaborate with School of Drama and Master of Arts Management (MAM) students to study and design a new seasonal and permanent theater for the Festival d’Avignon.

48-510

DOMESTICATING BIGNESS: SPECULATING ON A FUTURE FOR ECOLOGICAL SOCIAL HOUSING INFRASTRUCTURES

Instructor: Zaid Kashef Alghata

This studio researches typically non-architecturally designed structures and social housing projects to design a multiuse infrastructural typology that produces an alternative understanding of domestic spaces, organizations and scales, speculating on new ecological living forms.

48-510

XS: DESIGN/ BUILD STUDIO

Instructor: Steve Lee

This studio is part of a year-long, interdisciplinary, design-build project to provide a diverse group of students with the opportunity to work with their eyes, hands and brains to transform an idea from a virtual world into the physical world.

48-510

INDEPENDENT THESIS / COLLECTIVE STUDIO: INQUIRIES, OBSERVATIONS

AND PROVOCATIONS THROUGH ARCHITECTURE

Instructors: Sarah Rafson, Laura Garófalo

Marking the transition between academic and professional practices, the thesis project is an exciting opportunity for each student to define their unique positionality and modes of practice relative to the discipline of architecture. Together, the studio creates a public exhibition and symposium to discuss the ideas and projects students propose.

Graduate Courses Fall

48-774

MAAD PRO-SEMINAR I

Instructor: Kai Gutschow

This course explores the material and digital cultures of architecture to introduce contemporary topics of architectural design, research and practice.

48-785

MAAD RESEARCH BY DESIGN PROJECT

Instructors: Jeremy Ficca, Joshua Bard

48-772

MAAD ADVANCED SYNTHESIS OPTIONS STUDIO I

Instructor: Jeremy Ficca

This studio explores the contemporary potential of stone as a primary building material. It researches the evolution of the material’s use, and the current circumstances of its global extraction and processing, to understand how this plentiful natural resource may open new types of architectural expression, while coming to terms with its environmental and human impact.

48-630

M.ARCH STUDIO: PRAXIS I

Instructors: Sarosh Anklesaria, Jonathan Kline

This studio considers architecture as a broad framework for worldmaking across political, social and ecological contexts. It unpacks architecture’s entanglement with historical worldviews of extraction and capital to locate praxis as a mode of architectural agency and design ethics.

48-634

ARCHITECTURAL THEORY

AND CONTEMPORARY ISSUES

Instructor: Kai Gutschow

This graduate seminar explores the most important theories, issues and ideas being discussed in architecture today.

48-635

ENVIRONMENT I: CLIMATE AND ENERGY IN ARCHITECTURE

Instructor: Vivian Loftness

This course introduces architectural design responses for energy conservation and natural conditioning, human comfort and the site-specific dynamics of climate.

48-655

ENVIRONMENT II: DESIGN INTEGRATION OF ACTIVE BUILDING SYSTEMS

Instructor: Nina Baird

This course focuses on active systems in commercial buildings and strategies for their successful integration with passive components.

48-525

THESIS SEMINAR

Instructor: Francesca Torello

This seminar prepares students planning to work on a thesis project in the B.Arch or M.Arch programs. The seminar helps students refine the scope of their thesis arguments, define appropriate research methods, and sharpen communication about thesis work in all of its phases.

48-705

URBAN DESIGN STUDIO I: URBAN PLACES

Instructor: Stefani Danes

As the first semester of the design studio sequence in the Master of Urban Design program, this studio introduces students to the fundamentals of urban design with a particular focus on the nature and making of urban places within an ecological systems thinking framework.

48-707

MUD GRADUATE SEMINAR I

Instructor: Paul Ostergaard

This seminar introduces students to the practice of urban design. It examines six elements of practice: multi-disciplinary teams, public participation, engagement of major stakeholders, context and heritage, design communication and implementation tools.

48-753

INTRODUCTION TO URBAN DESIGN MEDIA

Instructor: Jared Abraham

This course introduces students to media and representation in urban design, a cultural practice in which the built environment is composed of ecological, social and political issues and interrelationships.

48-742

GRADUATE SEMINAR III: PLANNING AND PUBLIC POLICY FOR THE FUTURE OF URBANISM

Instructor: Ray Gastil

This seminar focuses on the connections between policy/ planning and the design of regions, cities and neighborhoods down to the scale of the individual project.

48-740

URBAN DESIGN THEORY AND METHODS

Instructor: Jonathan Kline

This course explores core urban design methods and theories organized into three themes intended to give students a foundational understanding of urban design, examine key critiques of urbanization and explore emerging modes of design agency.

48-718

MUD THESIS: COMMONING THE CITY

Instructor: Stefan Gruber

Commoning the City is a yearlong, research-based design studio on social justice and communityled urban transformations. Here, students explore design as an agent of change and how to support citizens in claiming their rights to the city.

48-733

ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE SIMULATIONS (EPS)

Instructor: Niloofar Nikookar

This course outlines a series of environmental design principles with emphases on evidence-based design approaches and reviews of building case studies.

48-731

MSSD SYNTHESIS PREP

Instructor: Azadeh Sawyer

Design-research thesis projects are situated at the intersection of design, material lifecycle and computation, addressing multicultural aspects of ecological thinking, while enabling actionable expertise in sustainable design methodologies. This course ensures a delineated, focused scope, with refined timeline and deliverables for the fall synthesis project effort.

48-768

INDOOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY (IEQ): ENERGY, HEALTH AND PRODUCTIVITY

Instructors: Erica Cochran

Hameen, Azadeh Sawyer

This course is an introduction to the importance of the indoor environment and human health and productivity. Students gain a deeper understanding of the correlations between IEQ and energy consumption, health, productivity and equitable design.

48-765

AECM SYNTHESIS PROJECT

Instructor: Joshua Lee

This course applies the diverse knowledge and skills that AECM students have acquired during the program to a critical public interest issue related to the built

environment. Students build upon the previous year’s research on deconstruction and investigate the potential for circular construction in the city of Pittsburgh more broadly.

48-767

TRANSDISCIPLINARY THINKING

Instructor: Steve Quick

This is a compendium of architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) practices, methods and theories with an emphasis on how the AEC professions can more effectively work together by understanding each other’s roles, responsibilities and professional perspectives.

48-798

HVAC & POWER SUPPLY FOR LOW CARBON BUILDINGS

Instructor: Nina Baird

This graduate course focuses on heating, cooling, ventilation and power supply systems for new and future commercial buildings. It provides an introduction to HVAC and power supply needs and to system choices likely to produce comfortable and healthful buildings that help us move toward a zero-carbon future.

48-729

SUSTAINABILITY, HEALTH AND PRODUCTIVITY TO ACCELERATE A QUALITY BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Instructor: Vivian Loftness

This course explores the relationship of quality buildings, building systems, infrastructures and land uses to productivity, health, wellbeing and a sustainable environment.

48-725

GRADUATE REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT

Instructor: Valentina Vavasis

This course teaches the fundamentals of real estate development in the U.S. Students learn about the real estate development process and the social, economic and regulatory context in which land use and development take place.

48-727

INQUIRY INTO COMPUTATIONAL DESIGN

Instructor: Daniel Cardoso Llach

This graduate-level course examines the emergence of computation as a pivotal concept in contemporary architecture and design through a selection of design theories and practices responding to the so-called “computer revolution.”

48-724

SCRIPTING AND PARAMETRIC DESIGN

Instructor: Jinmo Rhee

This course introduces students to basic scripting in a geometrical modeling environment with a focus on algorithms related to form-making in order to reinforce and extend basic concepts of parametric modeling.

48-568

ADVANCED CAD, BIM AND 3-D VISUALIZATION

Instructor: Kristen Kurland

This course introduces students to 3-D software tools, including AutoCAD 3D, Revit Architecture and 3D Studio MAX.

48-555/48-755

INTRODUCTION TO ARCHITECTURAL ROBOTICS

Instructor: Joshua Bard

This course provides a practical, hands-on introduction to the application of industrial robotics in architectural and related construction domains.

48-675

DESIGNING FOR THE INTERNET OF THINGS

Instructor: Daragh Byrne

This course charts the emergence of the “connected world” to explore possibilities for future products and connected spaces with the Internet of Things (IoT). This introductory, hands-on course invites students to create connected products without any knowledge of programming, electronics or systems.

48-676

CONNECTED COMMUNITIES: TECHNOLOGY, PUBLICS, POLITICS AND PARTICIPATION

Instructor: Daragh Byrne

This seminar examines how smart and connected technologies can be designed for neighborhoods, the considerations involved with their design and what effects such technologies create for communities.

48-716

MSCD PRE-THESIS II

Instructor: Daniel Cardoso Llach

With the notion of “critical technical practice” as a touchstone, this graduate-level seminar draws from design, media and science and technology studies to cultivate an awareness of the discursive and political dimensions of technology in design and to guide participants in the formulation of a graduate thesis.

Graduate Courses

Spring

48-711

PARADIGMS OF RESEARCH IN ARCHITECTURE

Instructor: Joshua Lee

This course provides an introduction to a wide range of research strategies including experimental, simulation, quantitative, qualitative, correlational, interpretivehistorical, logical argumentation, case study and mixed methods that can be used successfully across a wide spectrum of knowledge production.

48-640

M.ARCH STUDIO: PRAXIS II

Instructors: Azadeh Sawyer, Matthew Huber, Jeffrey Davis Architecture transforms and shapes relations among individuals, communities, objects and environments. This course continues to understand architecture as a modulator of complex cultural and historical flows but aims to do so by intensively exploring, evaluating and expanding the role that tectonic cultures and their associated modes of architectural expression play in shaping our world.

48-647

MATERIALITY + CONSTRUCTION SYSTEMS

Instructor: Jeremy Ficca

This course introduces students to contemporary methods of construction and draws attention to the materialization of architectural intent. It foregrounds the historical, technological and conceptual basis of construction

systems to understand building as process and cultural artifact.

48-638 STRUCTURES

Instructor: Jeffie Chang

This course examines structural types, structural behavior, material behavior and construction constraints that underlie our design of buildings, emphasizing the need for a designer to envision a complete 3-D structure.

48-648/48-383

ETHICS AND DECISION MAKING IN ARCHITECTURE

Instructor: Valentina Vavasis

This course investigates ethics for architecture and the built environment. Students learn about ethics as a discipline, how to identify an ethical issue and how one might work through an ethical problem.

48-641/48-241

HISTORY OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE

Instructor: Kai Gutschow

This course investigates the global history of modern architecture and theory across the 20th century. It asks critical questions about the canon; the changing nature of history and theory; the biases embedded in terms like “modernism,” “progress” and “non-Western”; and the deep legacies of colonialism, globalization, extractivism and capitalism in which modern architecture so actively participated.

48-644/48-497

M.ARCH PRE-THESIS

Instructor: Mary-Lou Arscott

This course is designed for B.Arch and M.Arch students a year before

their final spring semester. The course develops an understanding of research methods and explores the formation of ideas for architecture thesis projects.

48-658/48-380

REAL ESTATE FOR ARCHITECTS

Instructor: Tamara Dudukovich

This course explores economic, structural and political forces that drive real estate development decisions.

48-649/48-381 ISSUES OF PRACTICE

Instructor: Stuart Coppedge

This course explores the interdependence of contracts, drawings, specifications and correspondence and introduces the concept of Standard of Care. It introduces the economic, cultural and political contexts in which architecture is created.

48-706

URBAN DESIGN STUDIO II: URBAN SYSTEMS

Instructor: Nida Rehman

This studio expands on MUD students’ understanding of neighborhood-scale urban design through the examination of urban systems and systemic processes, focusing on the infrastructures of toxicity, and modes of local action against them.

48-773

URBAN DESIGN MEDIA: EMERGING MEDIA

Instructor: Suzy Li

In this course students collect U.S. or global data and apply ArcGIS skills to map urban systems and use spatial data science to make inferences.

48-713

MUD URBAN ECOLOGY

Instructor: Christine Mondor

This class examines the shifting regimes of urban ecology and equips students with skills and core concepts that enable them to lead and contribute to transition through design.

48-708

MUD THESIS STUDIO: COMMONING THE CITY

Instructor: Jonathan Kline

Commoning the City is a yearlong research-based design thesis studio focused on social justice and community-led urban transformations, positioning design as an agent of change that can support citizens claiming their right to the city.

48-677

URBAN LAND INSTITUTE (ULI) HINES COMPETITION

Instructor: Valentina Vavasis

This course is for graduate students participating in the prestigious national Urban Land Institute (ULI) Hines Student Competition, an intensive real estate and urban design competition that took place

January 9-23, 2023. The purpose of the competition and companion course is for cross-disciplinary teams of graduate students to work collaboratively to create a complex urban design and real estate proposal for a real site in North America.

48-722/48-524

BUILDING PERFORMANCE MODELING

Instructor: Wei Liang

This course focuses on conceptual foundations and practical applications of advanced and

integrated whole-building energy simulation programs with emphasis on the architectural building envelope systems; mechanical electrical building systems and controls; and on-site renewable energy systems.

48-732

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN SYNTHESIS

Instructor: Dana Cupkova

Situated at the intersection of technology, environmental science, advanced manufacturing, computational design, and analysis, the MSSD synthesis course guides students through an independent thesis development; focused on discovering new socioecological approaches within regenerative, evidence-based design frameworks that operate across scales.

48-692

SHAPING DAYLIGHT THROUGH SIMULATION AND VIRTUAL REALITY

Instructor: Azadeh Sawyer

In this course students explore the quantities and qualities of light. They study how to design with and for light while understanding the paradox of lighting design—that it is both science and art.

48-569/48-781

GIS/CAFM-SPATIAL ANALYSIS IN INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING

Instructor: Kristen Kurland

This course teaches important GIS concepts. Software tutorials and technical sessions cover leading GIS software from Esri Inc. Applications covered in the course include ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Map Viewer, ArcGIS Story Maps and Dashboards and CAFM/ IWMS software.

48-721

BUILDING CONTROLS AND DIAGNOSTICS

Instructor: Tiancheng Zhao

This course introduces students to collecting and processing data acquired from building systems and evaluating their performance.

48-795

LEED, GREEN DESIGN AND BUILDING RATINGS

Instructor: Nina Baird

This graduate-level mini-course uses global building rating systems to gain perspective about sustainable design around the world. The course is organized within the framework of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating systems.

48-795

LEED, GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE AND COMMUNITY RATING IN GLOBAL CONTEXT

Instructor: Nina Baird

This graduate level mini-course compares global community and infrastructure rating systems to gain perspective about sustainable infrastructure development and community design. The course uses two rating systems — the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)

Cities & Communities rating system and the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI) Envision rating system.

48-756

PROJECT PLANNING AND REPORTING

Instructors: Najeeb Hameen, Gerrod Winston

The goal of this course is to expose students to advanced project scheduling methods and familiarize students with primary reporting practices as performed in the construction industry, such as change management, resource charts and project status reports.

48-759

VALUE-BASED DESIGN INTRODUCTION

Instructor: William Bates

This course begins with an in-depth exploration of the fundamentals of project values, incentives and motivations and the diverse and sometimes conflicting perspectives of a project’s stakeholders. It is built around the evaluation of Value Based Design (VBD) in three case study projects.

48-715

MSCD PRE-THESIS I

Instructors: Daragh Byrne, Emek Erdolu

This seminar introduces graduate students in Computational Design to the rudiments of graduate level academic research, and offers a space to discuss inchoate research methods, questions and projects in the field.

48-769

MSBPD THESIS/PROJECT

Instructor: Vivian Loftness

This course engages students in a year-long research project within the areas of high performance building systems and systems integration, indoor environmental quality and design for sustainability and climate.

Design Fundamentals

Courses Fall

48-356

COLOR DRAWING

Instructor: Doug Cooper

This course provides practice in the use of color to depict architectural surroundings. Following preliminary exercises using pastels, watercolor is used for most of the course.

48-689

DESIGN SKILLS WORKSHOP

Instructors: Eddy Man Kim, Matthew Huber

This course for incoming SoA graduate students establishes a baseline of technical skills appropriate to the expectations of the design culture at SoA.

48-734

IDEATE: POSSIBILISTIC DESIGN

Instructor: Sinan Goral

This project-based design seminar concentrates on how critical design theory and powerful storytelling might pave the way for a more responsible, equitable and exciting future.

48-421/48-621

BEYOND THE BUILDING’S FOOTPRINT

Instructor: Zaid Kashef Alghata

This project-based seminar explores the use of machine learning and other software to create a speculative future for Braddock, Pennsylvania.

Design Fundamentals Courses Spring

48-355

PERSPECTIVE

Instructor: Doug Cooper

This freehand drawing course considers perspective from three understandings of perceptual psychology. It considers perspective as discovered truth, absolute truth of the visual field and an imposed schema.

48-328/48-737

DETAILING ARCHITECTURE

Instructor: Gerard Damiani

This course examines the role of architectural detail in the formation/thematic development of a work of architecture and how the detail reinforces the theoretical position of the architect.

48-545/48-745

DESIGN FABRICATION

Instructor: Joshua Bard

This project-based seminar explores the application of Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) in architecture. The course focuses on transdimensional fabrication, a manufacturing framework that forefronts design thinking across space and time.

48-524

BUILDING PERFORMANCE MODELING

Instructor: Wei Liang

This course focuses on conceptual foundations and practical applications of advanced and integrated whole-building energy simulation programs with emphasis on architectural building envelope systems; mechanical

electrical building systems and controls; and on-site renewable energy systems.

48-467

DESIGN-BUILD ELECTIVE

Instructor: Steve Lee

This studio is part of a year-long, interdisciplinary, design-build project to provide a diverse group of students with the opportunity to work with their eyes, hands and brains to transform an idea from a virtual world into the physical world.

48-516

CARNIVAL GATEWAY SPECIAL PROJECT

Instructor: Vicky Achnani

In this course students fabricate and construct the Carnival Entryway Pavilion for the 2023 CMU Spring Carnival taking place April 13-15.

48-517

CARNIVAL GATEWAY SPECIAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Instructor: Vicky Achnani

This course is for the team responsible for the design and project management of the Carnival Entryway Pavilion for the 2023 CMU Spring Carnival.

48-485

DESIGN AND DOCUMENTATION IN REVIT

Instructor: Nathan Sawyer

This course guides students through the process of designing in Revit, from the schematic, conceptual design phase to the construction document phase.

48-543

COLOR CONSTRUCTS

Instructor: Laura Garófalo

In this course students study and experiment with the relationships and perception of space and form through two- and threedimensional optical experiments using color.

Design Ethics Courses Fall

48-371

CITY & SUBURB: HOUSING IN AMERICA AFTER 1850

Instructor: Diane Shaw

This architectural history course examines the development of American house and housing choices circa 1850-2000. This course is not a history of famous houses or styles, but a history of housing types and settings and their historical context.

48-560/48-750 HISTORIES OF URBAN DESIGN

Instructor: Diane Shaw

In this course students examine various histories of the design and redesign of cities and the reasons for those interventions. They explore the relationship between form and culture by considering the political, cultural, social, economic and aesthetic forces that have shaped the public realm of urban and suburban spaces.

48-699

DESIGN ETHICS, ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM, INJUSTICE & UNFREEDOM: LESSONS FOR ARCHITECTS AND DESIGNERS

Instructor: Nida Rehman

In this seminar students examine the histories and definitions

of environmental racism, environmental injustice/justice and environmental unfreedoms to critically assess architecture’s role as a mechanism of environmental inequities and injustices and learn from social movements for radical and hopeful change.

48-367

MATERIAL HISTORIES

Instructor: Francesca Torello

In this seminar students look at the history of the architecture of the last two centuries by following the thread of the history of materials. The class discusses the ways in which buildings of the past and the practice of architecture were affected by which materials were available, how they were produced and the craft required to work them.

48-313/48-613

THE CITY UNSETTLED: AN ECOLOGICAL ETHNOGRAPHICAL APPROACH IN SITUATING ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM

Instructor: Tommy CheeMou Yang

This design-research seminar tells stories by exploring comics, mapping, intensive actor-network drawings, documentary work, visual journalism, graphic memoir, interviews and investigation.

48-554/48-701

MAKING UP NATURE: FROM THE PICTURESQUE TO THE HYPER-NATURAL

Instructor: Laura Garófalo

This seminar questions how we perceive, represent and reconstruct our world in relation to evolving concepts of “nature” and their manifestation in architecture, art and landscape.

48-409/48-709

HISTORY AND FUTURE OF INTERACTION DESIGN

Instructor: Paul Pangaro

This course blends readings, lectures, discussions and prototyping as a means for students to experience the history of Interaction Design (IxD) firsthand. To explore IxD’s future, students are invited to invent it — to prototype their individual future vision of interactive experiences.

Design Ethics

Courses Spring

48-712/90-805

GRADUATE SEMINAR 2: ISSUES OF GLOBAL URBANIZATION

Instructor: Stefan Gruber

This seminar is an investigation into the future of cities focusing on three existential challenges: the escalating environmental crisis, growing social inequity and technological dislocation.

48-373

ISTANBUL/CONSTANTINOPLE: AN URBAN HISTORY

Instructor: Francesca Torello

This class introduces urban history and its methods, with a focus on key moments of Istanbul’s history. It delves deeply into the city’s powerful and at times competing historical narratives.

48-440

HISTORY OF AMERICAN REGIONS & REGIONALISM: AN ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY OF PEOPLE, PLACE AND PERIOD

Instructor: Diane Shaw

This course examines the ways in which the interactions of people, place and period have created

distinctive regional patterns. It primarily focuses on the periods before the 20th century, when the forces of vernacular traditions were strongest, but also makes forays into more recent trends of regionalism as an aesthetic choice, a theoretical stance and an intentional place-making device.

48-442

HISTORY OF ASIAN ARCHITECTURE

Instructor: Xin Chen

Students develop critical thinking skills in architectural analysis through an engaging hands-on learning experience by making connections and parallels among buildings from different cultures and between historical and modern eras. The course also motivates next-generation architects to include an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspective in their own works of design.

48-314A/48-614A

THOMAS FACULTY ELECTIVE: INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND BIODIVERSITY

Instructor: Priyanka Bista

This seminar emerges from the instructor's work co-founding the “Vertical University” project in Nepal. Through the course readings, students unpack colonial narratives and start to understand indigenous knowledge systems and perhaps new forms of conservation practices.

48-314B/48-614B

VISITING FACULTY ELECTIVE: AFROFUTURISM AND THE SPECULATIVE

Instructor: Jackie Joseph Paul McFarland

This seminar explores how Afrofuturism allows one to shift

perspectives out of a Eurocentric, white, patriarchal, heteronormative perspective to give agency to those who see and experience the world through different eyes. This seminar explores different ways the Black imagination has been used to create a world where African Americans render themselves visible in the past, present and future.

48-314C/48-614C

THOMAS FACULTY ELECTIVE: RECLAIMING HYDROCULTURE

Instructor: Zaid Kashef Alghata

This seminar investigates how transient civilizations transformed their way of living and building, made significant technological advances in water infrastructure and left monumental public projects behind. The seminar aims to further understand the close relationship between architecture and the water systems it plugs into.

62-525/62-725

URBAN NATURE, ARCHITECTURE AND THE MODERN SOUTH ASIAN CITY

Instructor: Nida Rehman

Representations of cities in the so-called Global South often present a lagging modernity amidst unrelenting urbanization, fractured infrastructures, social inequities and climate catastrophe. In this seminar, we critically question such discourses, examining the historic and ongoing processes of colonial and capitalist enclosure, extraction and exploitation that have shaped urban environments in South Asia from the mid-19th century onwards.

48-368

REDISCOVERING ANTIQUITY

Instructor: Francesca Torello

This course follows the intertwined histories of architecture and archaeology from the mid-18th to early-20th century, critically engaging with the outsized influence of classical antiquity on architectural theory and practice, and antiquity’s role of authority in the Western artistic and cultural debate.

Design Research Courses Fall

48-620

GRADUATE SEMINAR: SITUATING RESEARCH

Instructor: Nida Rehman

This course introduces incoming graduate students to a range of research approaches through introductions to and conversations with SoA faculty, Ph.D. researchers and other invited guests.

48-531/48-771

FABRICATING CUSTOMIZATION: PROTOTYPE

Instructor: Jeremy Ficca

This course foregrounds the topic of architectural component customization to understand its manifestations within contemporary practice while introducing students to a host of prototyping and design for manufacturing methodologies.

48-749

SPECIAL TOPICS IN COMPUTATIONAL DESIGN: RETHINKING AUTOMATION IN ARCHITECTURE

Instructor: Daniel Cardoso Llach

This project-based course explores the confluence of robotics and artificial intelligence methods, and its potential applications to design, architecture and construction.

48-763

PROTEAN SYSTEMS: SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS FOR UNCERTAIN FUTURES

Instructor: Joshua Lee

The inability of our buildings and cities to adapt to shifting circumstances has led to an enormous amount of waste. This course explores the various types and scales of change and reviews various concepts through a wide array of built precedents and products that have attempted to respond to these forces over time.

Design Research Courses Spring

48-752

ZERO ENERGY HOUSING

Instructor: Nina Baird

This graduate-level course explores the requirements and strategies for achieving successful net-zero multifamily housing. Through lectures, research, discussion and a final applied project, the class considers the design approaches, codes, policy, technology and energy infrastructure that support net-zero or carbon neutral performance.

62-408/62-708

THEATER ARCHITECTURE I

Instructors: Hal Hayes, Dick Block

This mini-course explores the critical elements of theater architecture design, typology and occupancy. A diverse student cohort drawn from the School of Architecture, School of Drama and Master of Arts Management works with an actual client, the Festival d’Avignon, and Theater consultants Jean Guy Lecat and Len Auerbach to plan and program the project design challenge, which is the subject of the corequisite architecture studio (48405/505/750).

62-418/62-718

THEATER ARCHITECTURE II

Instructors: Hal Hayes, Dick Block

This mini-course brings together a diverse student cohort from the School of Architecture, School of Drama and Master of Arts Management (MAM). Students work with the programming and planning guidelines developed in the prerequisite course Theater Architecture | (62-408/708) to further define the building design (SoA students), performing arts programming (MAM students) and production systems (Drama students) for the subject theater project.

48-528/48-758

IDEATE: RESPONSIVE MOBILE ENVIRONMENTS

Instructor: Daragh Byrne

As part of this project-based course, students get hands-on with emerging technologies, concepts and applications in the Internet of Things through a critical lens.

62-706

GENERATIVE SYSTEMS FOR DESIGN

Instructor: Jinmo Rhee

This course fosters students’ capacity to formulate design problems computationally, with an emphasis on the synthesis of design alternatives. This course provides an overview of topics related to generative systems, with historical notes and technical specifications. Throughout the semester, students address different design problems with different generative techniques.

48-486/48-686

SYSTEMS, CYBERNETICS, CONVERSATION

Instructor: Paul Pangaro

Cybernetics can be understood as the study of “systems with purpose” — whether machines or living things — including their unpredictable interactions. Central to cybernetics is conversation as a mechanism of design, inclusivity, participation, innovation and the impetus to action.

48-557

FORMLESS AS AN OPERATION

Instructor: Heather Bizon

This class investigates the means and methods of representation relative to the formless and the built environment. Participants in the seminar develop an archive, original visualizations that utilize multiple media and platforms and, ultimately, a final project for an exhibition.

48-317

THE CHAIR

Instructor: Vicky Achnani

This class uses the process of making a chair as grounds for learning and experimentation. Through prototyping, working directly with materials and production, students develop an understanding of joinery/material behavior and properties in relation to form.

48-425

EX-CHANGE: EXHIBITION & PUBLICATION IN PRACTICE

Instructor: Sarah Rafson

For students interested in exploring exhibition design, curating or publishing as part of their practice, this course offers hands-on experience through the process of planning and curating the 2023 EX-CHANGE exhibition and this publication you are reading now.

48-749

SPECIAL TOPICS IN COMPUTATIONAL DESIGN:

COLLABORATIONS FOR WICKED CHALLENGES

Instructor: Paul Pangaro

This course designs a global public colloquium to be hosted at CMU in fall 2023. The unique genesis of the colloquium develops from the concerns, worldview and values of grad students and rising faculty, who are then paired with local and international practitioners in systems, cybernetics and wicked design challenges. The resultant public conversations become the basis for ongoing design and co-creation, documented and widely shared to benefit future researchers.

F A LL 2022 A WARDS

The Fall 2022 SoA Awards provided nearly $60,000 of funding support to undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty. Awards supported projects, internships, travel and research, and recognized student work in sustainable design. We congratulate the winners on their tremendous accomplishments and thank all who participated. We appreciate the generous support of our donors for making these awards available.

Fall 2022 SoA Awards Committee: Meredith Marsh (Chair), Joshua Bard, Christi Danner, Omar Khan, Steve Lee

PROJECT & INTERNSHIP SUPPORT BURDETT

ASSISTANTSHIP

B.ARCH & M.ARCH STUDENT AWARD

WINNERS

Vanshika Bhaiya, B.Arch ’25 & Neha Chopra, B.Arch ’25

PROPOSAL

Identifying Flood Resistant Construction Techniques and Material Application in Southeast Asian Vernacular Architecture

AWARD $4,000

JURY COMMENT

The project focuses on indigenous methods in southeast Asia for producing flood resistant architecture. The jury found the subject timely with the recent catastrophic floods experienced in Pakistan and India. We also found the research well focused, combining literature review, travel and prototyping as vehicles to better understand and improve on local techniques. The project will also provide important knowledge and become the basis for thesis work to follow.

WINNER

Gabrielle Benson, B.Arch ‘24

PROPOSAL

Knotted: Textile Transformations from Surface to Mass

AWARD $2,500

JURY COMMENT This proposal explores the use of non-traditional media and forms for building materials for semi-permanent occupancies. The jury found that to be of particular interest given the focus on innovative use of digital media to explore the potential of handcrafted materials

OPEN TO ALL SOA STUDENTS PURSUING THEIR FIRST PROFESSIONAL DEGREE IN ARCHITECTURE, THIS AWARD IS INTENDED TO SUPPORT PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES THAT WILL ENHANCE THE WINNING STUDENTS’ FUTURE WORK.

FALL 2022 JURY: HAL HAYES (CHAIR), OMAR KHAN, EDDY MAN KIM, VALENTINA VAVASIS

to integrate with building elements and occupancies at scale. Explorations in both analog handmade form and digital 3-D scanning and printing are of particular promise and interest.

WINNER

Yonghao Zhang, B.Arch ‘24

PROPOSAL Speculation as Critique –Pittsburgh Mines

AWARD $1,500

JURY COMMENT This proposal explores the medium of the graphic literature format as used in comics as a vehicle for architectural critique and for disseminating architectural information to the public in an accessible form. The jury found that this medium combined with the focus area of sustainable development and redevelopment in areas of Pittsburgh susceptible to mine subsidence to be of benefit to the student's learning and professional growth, as well as beneficial to the local community.

WINNER

Priyanka Thakur, M.Arch ‘24

PROPOSAL

Learning from the Architecture of the Forest Towards Symbiosis

AWARD $2,500

JURY COMMENT This thoughtful proposal reflects the student's passion for respecting and learning from indigenous building methods and materials. The

jury found this project has the potential to not only educate the student, but the architecture community at large, on traditional Amazonian building methods that work with local biomes in a non-destructive, symbiotic way. The jury also appreciates that the proposal understands the need to contextualize the study subjects in the local culture, ecology, history and engineering knowledge.

WINNER

Ajay Chovatia, M.Arch ‘24

PROPOSAL Affordable Housing: A Visual Handbook of Incremental Housing

AWARD $1,500

JURY COMMENT This project seeks to explore new prototypes of affordable housing that embrace flexibility lacking in current practice and development in India. The jury found that the proposal effectively builds on design research work that the student has previously engaged in and is worthy of more in depth study that the award can support. The jury also found that the possibility of creating a handbook, particularly in consultation with India's Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, promises meaningful engagement with the officials who guide this work.

ALWIN CASSENS, JR. MEMORIAL FUND IN ARCHITECTURE STUDENT AWARD

THIS AWARD PROVIDES FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO STUDENTS TO ATTEND CONFERENCES OR OTHER EVENTS IN SUPPORT OF THEIR ACADEMIC PURSUITS IN THE AREA OF PUBLIC INTEREST DESIGN.

FALL 2022 JURY: MARY-LOU ARSCOTT (CHAIR), JOSHUA BARD, KAI GUTSCHOW, ERICA COCHRAN HAMEEN

MEASURING & MONITORING SERVICES, INC. INTERNSHIP FUND UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT AWARD

THIS AWARD PROVIDES FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS FOR A SUMMER INTERNSHIP OR RELATED PROGRAM UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF ESTABLISHED PROFESSIONALS DURING THE SUMMER PRECEDING THEIR FINAL YEAR OF STUDY.

FALL 2022 JURY: ERICA COCHRAN HAMEEN (CHAIR), WILLIAM BATES, STUART COPPEDGE, OMAR KHAN

WINNER

Susie Kim, B.Arch ‘23

PROPOSAL

Attending 2022 Biennale of FRAC: “Infinite Freedom, A World for a Feminist Democracy”

AWARD

$2,200

JURY COMMENT The ambition to visit a feminist art and architecture biennale is related to a set of serious societal concerns. The student’s professional trajectory is described as moving towards urbanism and public interest design. The value of seeing the wide range of work from a group of 40 women architects and artists, including Tatiana Bilbao, Saba Inab and Alice Diop within the context of the City of Orléans will be a valuable learning experience.

WINNER

Morgan Newman, PhD in Architecture ‘26

PROPOSAL

Presenting paper “Shaded Sites of Conflict: Wooded Areas as sites of both freedom and violence for African-Americans” at the CROSSROADS Conference February 17-18, 2023 at the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture

AWARD $2,200

JURY COMMENT This is a solid proposal to support travel to a conference with an accepted paper. The subject of the conference, “Histories of the Built Environment in the Americas and the Global South,” has a strong public interest design connection. The work is subtle, sensitive and deals with contradictions of violence and shelter. The creative scholarship is reminiscent of the work of Saadya Hartman and of the artist Carrie Mae Weems. This promises to be a fascinating piece.

WINNER

Anthony Wu, B.Arch ‘24

INTERNSHIP Product Design Intern in the Design Development Program at J.P Morgan Chase, New York City

AWARD $3,200

JURY COMMENT Anthony will work with UX researchers and lead designers with the Design Development Program at J.P Morgan Chase this summer. The jury selected Anthony because of his desire to gain a deeper understanding of “user needs and behaviors, and usability testing” to identify the workability of various solutions for different users. Anthony hopes to incorporate accessibility and inclusive design practices as part of the research endeavor.

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN AWARD

RALPH H. BURT JR. AND ALVA L. HILL SCHOLARSHIP

B.ARCH AND M.ARCH STUDENT AWARD

WINNER

Rebecca Cunningham, B.Arch ‘24

TITLE

Haptic Materials: Upham’s Corner Library

AWARD $2,200

JURY COMMENT Rebecca's project on Upham's Corner Library rigorously interrogated questions of sustainability, equity and tactility by approaching architecture through the lens of materiality. The jury was impressed by the quality of the drawings and the level of execution that the project accomplished. Rebecca's work demonstrated a commitment to academic excellence and sustainable design practices.

THIS AWARD PROVIDES FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO STUDENTS WHOSE WORK FOCUSES ON SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENTS, PERFORMANCE-BASED DESIGN AND SYSTEMS INTEGRATION THROUGHOUT THE DESIGN PROCESS. THE 2022-23 THEME IS MATERIALITY.

FALL 2022

B.ARCH JURY: EDDY MAN KIM (CHAIR), ZAID KASHEF ALGHATA, NINA BAIRD, JEREMY FICCA

FALL 2022

M.ARCH JURY: SAROSH ANKLESARIA (CHAIR), PRIYANKA BISTA, MATTHEW HUBER, JONATHAN KLINE

WINNER

Priyanka Thakur, M.Arch ‘24

TITLE

Poetics of Bamboo: Exhibition Pavilion

AWARD $2,200

JURY COMMENT

The project entangles the poetics and politics of material thinking through a fully realized bamboo pavilion that demonstrates ideas for low carbon, biobased construction in a developing world context. The project combines various types of bamboo sections to offer a sophisticated, performative use of the material while addressing questions of sustainability specific to climate, labor, material waste, assembly and disassembly.

TRAVEL AWARDS GINDROZ PRIZE FOR SUMMER TRAVEL AND STUDY IN EUROPE STUDENT AWARD

THIS AWARD WAS ESTABLISHED TO ENRICH LIVES AND ENHANCE EDUCATION THROUGH TRAVEL AND THE STUDY OF TRADITIONAL ARCHITECTURE, URBANISM AND MUSIC IN EUROPE.

FALL 2022 JURY: OMAR KHAN (HEAD, SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE), JONATHAN BAILEY HOLLAND (HEAD, SCHOOL OF MUSIC)

WINNER

Graham Murtha, B.Arch '25

PROPOSAL

Studies of stone architecture in Ireland, Scotland and England

AWARD $6,000

JURY COMMENT This is a meticulously programmed travel proposal that traverses through Ireland, Scotland and England looking at stone buildings. The focus on material allows Graham to transcend time and allows for a variety of building types, ancient and contemporary, to be studied. Also, his exquisite sketching and watercolor skills will bring new expression to representing these buildings.

TRAVEL AWARDS

LUTHER S. LASHMIT AND LOUIS F. VALENTOUR TRAVELING SCHOLARSHIPS B.ARCH STUDENT AWARDS

WINNER

Brian Hartman, B.Arch ‘24

TITLE

Procession and Materiality: Extension of the City through a Curation of Experience

AWARD $6,000

JURY COMMENT Brian presented an exciting proposition to deeply investigate housing and neighborhoods in different regions of Spain. His proposal resonated with the jury in the depth of inquiry, associated residencies and architecture studio visits and his engagement with one of our visiting lecturers, Debra Mesa, Ensemble Studio as a participating advisor to his travel proposal as well as a post-travel production proposal to exhibit his summer research.

WINNER

Kit Tang, B.Arch ‘24

TITLE

Constituency Materiality Memory

AWARD $6,000

JURY COMMENT Kit's travel proposal investigating the constituencies and typology of Spain provided a provocative inquiry into the layers of cultural mixing in a complex region. His travel itinerary coupled with portfolio pieces demonstrated a sustained interest in culture and materiality.

THESE AWARDS SUPPORT INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL AND RESEARCH UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF A FACULTY ADVISOR.

FALL 2022 JURY: JEREMY FICCA (CHAIR), HEATHER BIZON, GERARD DAMIANI, TOMMY CHEEMOU YANG

WINNER

Colin Walters, B.Arch ‘24

TITLE

Material Convergence: Library at Upham’s Corner

AWARD $6,000

JURY COMMENT Colin proposed a summer travel program investigating the adaptive reuse of post-industrial cities in England and France to support his thesis and apply this knowledge to Pittsburgh’s industrial landscape. The jury found Colin's proposal thoughtful in his choice of applicable sites of inquiry, representing a range of scales, to investigate the questions of postindustrial reuse.

HONORABLE MENTION

Shray Tripathi, B.Arch ’24

TITLE

Rhythmic Figures: NOMAS

Pavilion & Dorchester Public Library

AWARD $1,500

JURY COMMENT Shray proposed a study of Berlin’s temporal dimension and traces of deconstruction, reconstruction and transformation. The proposal aims to unpack important questions about the heritage, identity and marginal spaces of a heterogenous metropolis.

JURY OVERALL COMMENT

The jury was particularly impressed with how the selected entries outlined clear objectives for travel and how that experience will impact the recipients’ academic development to follow. From a proposal to study how vernacular histories and constructions cascade into typological change, to industry and its edge on contemporary cities, the proposals showcased an interest in propelling knowledge in urban and architectural morphologies.

RESEARCH AWARDS

FERGUSON

JACOBS PRIZE IN ARCHITECTURE FACULTY AWARD

THIS AWARD WAS ESTABLISHED TO PROMOTE CONTINUITY OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION IN CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE. IT ENCOURAGES DESIGN EXCELLENCE BASED ON LONG-STANDING DESIGN PRINCIPLES THAT PROMOTE BEAUTY AND HARMONY IN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT.

FALL 2022 JURY: KAI GUTSCHOW (CHAIR), OMAR KHAN, DIANE SHAW

WINNERS

Sarosh Anklesaria & Vicky Achnani

PROPOSAL

Classical Monoliths: Formal and Ecological Translations in South Asian Architecture

AWARD $6,500

JURY COMMENT

The jury was impressed by Sarosh and Vicky’s expanding ideas about the classical tradition in South Asia. The project focuses on various types of monolith temples, including examples that are both above and below ground, and looks at them through a series of classes as well as research analysis, and eventually exhibitions and publications. The project looks at a series of registers: a formal register looking at organization and ornament, and for contemporary practice the ecological register looking at ideas about extraction and construction materials.

RESEARCH AWARDS

ISABEL SOPHIA LICEAGA

DISCRETIONARY FUND FACULTY AWARD

THIS AWARD WAS ESTABLISHED TO SUPPORT FACULTY-LED PROJECTS THAT CRITICALLY ENGAGE STUDENTS AND ADVANCE THE MISSION AND REPUTATION OF THE SCHOOL.

FALL 2022 JURY: MARY-LOU ARSCOTT (CHAIR), JOSH BARD, KAI GUTSCHOW, ERICA COCHRAN HAMEEN, OMAR KHAN

WINNER

Tommy CheeMou Yang

TITLEPROPOSAL

Compoundologies: Urban Playbook for Radical Typo-Morphological Transformations

AWARD $3,000

JURY COMMENT This is a long running research project in Thailand which attempts to intervene in an engaged and delicate way with conflicted cultural conditions. The project builds on the school's focus on reinventing pedagogy and experimenting with architectural representational techniques and seeks to share with the community through an eventual exhibition.

A WARDS SP R IN G 2023

The Spring 2023 SoA Awards provided over $47,000 of funding support to undergraduate and graduate students. Awards recognized student work in public interest design, design and representation, sustainability and real estate, and recognized professional promise. Following the ceremony, a reception presented by EPIC Metals was held in the College of Fine Arts’ Great Hall. During the ceremony, we also recognized the winner of the Construction Management Association of America Three Rivers chapter’s 2022 Presidential Scholarship. The chapter's president, Sarah Dunn and board member Dave Onorato joined us to present the $1,000 award to Snehal Avhad, MSAECM ’23. We congratulate the winners on their tremendous accomplishments, and thank all who participated. We appreciate the generous support of our donors for making these awards available.

Spring 2023 SoA Awards Committee:

Meredith Marsh (Chair), Joshua Bard, Christi Danner, Omar Khan

DESIGN AWARD

EPIC METALS COMPETITION

THIRD-YEAR B.ARCH STUDENT AWARD

FIRST PLACE

Graham Murtha, B.Arch ’25 & Jackie Yu, B.Arch ’25

TITLE

Step Binding

AWARD $1,800

JURY COMMENT Here we have a “modular” project (in both assigned task and resultant design), which manages to avoid banality in form and appearance by incorporating EPIC’s “Archdeck-A” for one of its key organizing and structural components. A thoughtful arrangement of roof elements serves to both facilitate exterior rainwater management as well as contribute to a lively and distinctive interior environment. This holistic scheme earns further distinction by convincingly employing adaptive reuse of the very containers used to transport the structure to the project’s location; exploring a possible site arrangement of these features adds another level of engagement to the project’s use-potential and ultimate physical expression.

THE EPIC METALS CORPORATION SPONSORS THE EPIC METALS COMPETITION FOR THIRD-YEAR BACHELOR OF ARCHITECTURE (B.ARCH) STUDENTS IN THE PRAXIS II STUDIO TO DESIGN AN INNOVATIVE PROJECT INCORPORATING METAL DECK SYSTEMS. STUDENTS COMPETE FOR UP TO THREE PRIZES — FIRST, SECOND, AND THIRD PLACE. THE FIRST-PLACE TEAM MAY BE INVITED TO TOUR EPIC METALS’ MANUFACTURING PLANT IN RANKIN, PA. THE PROJECT BRIEF FOR THE 18TH ANNUAL COMPETITION IN 2023 WAS THE PACKAGED LIBRARY: A TEMPORARY, DISASTER RELIEF LIBRARY AND COMMUNITY HUB.

SPRING 2023 JURY: MICHAEL SCHUYLER, AIA (MANAGER OF ESTIMATING, EPIC METALS CORPORATION); SOA PRAXIS II STUDIO FACULTY JEREMY FICCA, GERARD DAMIANI, VICKY ACHNANI, KATIE LAFOREST

SECOND PLACE

Michael Bi, B.Arch ’25 & Jason Shao, B.Arch ’25

TITLE

Disaster Relief Library

AWARD $1,400

JURY COMMENT This design demonstrates careful planning in realizing its various programmatic requirements as a compact, yet technically sophisticated, temporary structure. This is a strong example of clear construction logic leading to clear spatial organization. The project deserves high marks for an overall pleasing design aesthetic, as well as intuitive assembly dynamics and thoughtful, consistent use of EPIC’s “Toris (A)” floor and roof decking panels.

THIRD PLACE

I Lok U, B.Arch ’25 & Norman Situ, B.Arch ’25

TITLE

Hawkers Library

AWARD $1,000

JURY COMMENT

The design demonstrates skillful use of long-span acoustical EPIC roof decking to create roof forms that effectively engage a strategy to

enhance the design with natural light. In addition, a useful exterior space is incorporated into the design — a prominent feature of this space is the clever use of moveable EPIC Metals’ “Sun Screen” panels to modulate direct sunlight while adding visual interest to the facade. The theme/project positioning of the hawker stall was a very nice direct use of one’s own observations of the built environment and demonstrates a broader cultural awareness.

HONORABLE MENTION

Brody Ploeger, B.Arch ’25 & Ashley Su, B.Arch ’25

TITLE

GCL: Global Community Library

AWARD $600

JURY COMMENT It was unanimous amongst all jurors that this design is very skillfully executed. A pleasing, straightforward composition almost deceptively makes simple that which is actually an accomplished holistic integration demonstrating big picture, modular logic and a unified purpose/program, as well as convincing detail components. One of the more evocative visual representations.

PUBLIC INTEREST DESIGN AWARD

GEORGE W. ANDERSON, JR. AWARD

GRADUATE STUDENT AWARD

THIS AWARD RECOGNIZES GRADUATE STUDENTS WHO DEMONSTRATE THROUGH THEIR WORK AN EXCEPTIONAL LEVEL OF ATTENTION TO DETAIL OR DEDICATION TO BENEFICIALLY IMPACTING THE COMMUNITY. AWARD FINALISTS PRESENT A PECHAKUCHA PRESENTATION TO FELLOW STUDENTS AND FACULTY.

SPRING 2023 JURY: JOSHUA BARD (CHAIR), STEFAN GRUBER, JOSHUA LEE, VIVIAN LOFTNESS

FIRST PLACE

Suzy Li, PhD-BPD candidate

TITLE

Adopting Smart Community Surfaces is Critical to Climate Change, Human Health, and Social Equity

AWARD $2,500

JURY COMMENT Suzy’s project develops a taxonomy of urban surfaces that will reduce urban heat and urban flooding and address long standing inequities in cities. It supports city decision-making with GIS interfaces to reveal inequities and opportunities, and quantifies the human and environmental benefits of new approaches to urban surfaces. The jury especially appreciated the quality of Suzy’s public presentation — beautifully illustrated and very compelling.

RUNNER-UP

Ariba Asad, MUD ’23

TITLE

Choreographing an Informed Return: From Rehabilitation to Recovery

AWARD $1,500

JURY COMMENT The jury noted that Ariba’s project creates proposals for empowering refugee women to measurably improve the physical conditions for living in flood-prone Pakistan, with compelling and visually wonderful solutions. The work is robustly researched and the conceptual-design manual is culturally appropriate and costreasonable.

RUNNERS-UP

Rachel Ruscigno, M.Arch ’24 & Autumn Dsouza, M.Arch ’24

TITLE

Regenerative Assemblages: A Soil Remediation Network

AWARD $1,500

JURY COMMENT The jury noted that Rachel and Autumn’s project transforms a community through environmental innovation, developing a cottage industry of soil remediation to elevate brownfields into productive greenfields and empower low-income neighborhoods as leaders. The work is thoroughly designed and creatively illustrated. It's also refreshing to see a phased timeline of 45 years(!) for a studio project.

RUNNERS-UP

Aditi Shreedhar, MUD ’24 & Aniket Surve, MUD ’24

TITLE

FOOD for THOUGHT: A Community Service Hub for South Oakland

AWARD $1,500

JURY COMMENT Aditi and Aniket’s project transforms an underutilized field in South Oakland into a community catalyst for food production, environmental learning and play. The work illustrates a high level of attention to detail through site analysis, precedents, community financing and a 20 year development timeline.

PUBLIC INTEREST DESIGN AWARD DAVID LEWIS COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT DESIGN SCHOLARSHIP STUDENT AWARD

THIS AWARD PROVIDES FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO STUDENTS WHO DEMONSTRATE A COMMITMENT TO WORKING WITHIN DIVERSE COMMUNITIES THROUGH PARTICIPATORY

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN PROCESSES AND WHO DEMONSTRATE COMMITMENTS TO SOCIAL JUSTICE AND COMMUNITY SERVICE.

SPRING 2023 JURY: STEFAN GRUBER (CHAIR), SAROSH ANKLESARIA, STEFANI

DANES, JACKIE JOSEPH PAUL MCFARLAND, CHRISTINE MONDOR, AN LEWIS

WINNER

Priyanka Thakur, M.Arch ’24

TITLE

Engaging Voices

AWARD $2,500

JURY COMMENT The jury recognized Priyanka’s sustained commitment to the co-design and hands-on construction of school and library projects in marginalized tribal communities. The jury was impressed by the combination of simplicity and beauty that arises from Priyanka’s work with these communities. The jury hopes the scholarship will encourage Priyanka to continue seeking a sense of place and building community through architecture where resources do not abound.

SUSTAINABILITY AWARD

PAYETTE PRIZE IN BUILDING SCIENCE FOURTH-YEAR B.ARCH STUDENT AWARD

THIS AWARD RECOGNIZES THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF A FOURTH YEAR STUDENT IN THE BACHELOR OF ARCHITECTURE PROGRAM WHO HAS ACHIEVED EXCEPTIONAL PERFORMANCE BY INTEGRATING THE FUNDAMENTALS OF BUILDING SCIENCE IN THEIR DESIGN WORK.

SPRING 2023 JURY: OMAR KHAN (CHAIR), NINA BAIRD, VIVIAN LOFTNESS, AZADEH SAWYER

WINNER

Colin Walters, B.Arch ’24

AWARD $4,500

JURY COMMENT Colin Walters’ project Addition to City View Apartments in the Lower Hill District of Pittsburgh, developed in collaboration with project members Brian Hartman and Kit Tang, most clearly demonstrates the use of building science explorations coupled with user experience of the spaces to achieve a design resolution. The concerns of both building performance and the aesthetic experience are well considered.

DESIGN & REPRESENTATION AWARD

JOHN KNOX SHEAR AWARD FOURTH-YEAR B.ARCH STUDENT AWARD

THIS AWARD IS THE HIGHEST HONOR GRANTED TO A FOURTH YEAR STUDENT IN THE BACHELOR OF ARCHITECTURE PROGRAM. THE AWARD RECOGNIZES EXCEPTIONAL DESIGN AND REPRESENTATION AS DEMONSTRATED THROUGH STUDIO WORK.

SPRING 2023 JURY: DANA CUPKOVA (CHAIR), ZAID KASHEF ALGHATA, GERARD DAMIANI, LAURA GARÓFALO, EDDY MAN KIM

WINNER

Yonghao Zhang, B.Arch ’24

AWARD $7,000

JURY COMMENT The work is beautifully presented and shows design excellence at its core. It incorporates architectural representation as foundational to the studio design process across scales.

WINNER

Sharon Fung, B.Arch ’24

AWARD $7,000

JURY COMMENT Sharon's work shows a mature balance of technical and spatial competency, and attention to detail through the design studio work she has produced.

PROFESSIONAL PROMISE AWARD

STEWART L. BROWN MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP

FOURTH-YEAR B.ARCH STUDENT AWARD

THIS AWARD RECOGNIZES PROFESSIONAL PROMISE IN TERMS OF ATTITUDES AND SCHOLASTIC ACHIEVEMENT. APPLICANTS SUBMIT A DESIGN PORTFOLIO AND A STATEMENT ARTICULATING THEIR INTEREST IN PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE. A JURY CONVENED BY THE PITTSBURGH AIA REVIEWS THE PORTFOLIOS, INTERVIEWS FINALISTS AND SELECTS THE AWARDEE.

SPRING 2023 JURY: PITTSBURGH AIA

CHAPTER LEADERSHIP: JOHN RYAN, PRESIDENT; BEA SPOLIDORO, IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT; SEAN SHEFFLER, 1ST VICE PRESIDENT

WINNER

Sharon Fung, B.Arch ’24

AWARD $10,000

JURY COMMENT Sharon is an impressive emerging professional. Her passion for architecture was evident through her portfolio, academic record, previous professional experience and commitment to service to both the community and the profession, and even more during the (early morning!) interview. The interview, in particular, confirmed the jurors’ sentiment that she is the best candidate for the 2023 Award. Her infectious energy and drive is a strong reminder for established architects that we must create Architecture with a capital A every day. Architects, as Sharon suggests, should mentor, guide and inspire the communities around them. At the same time, architects should welcome community feedback and embrace the journey, welcoming design iterations until the right solution is achieved.

REAL ESTATE AWARD DELLER PRIZE

IN SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE AND REAL ESTATE

FOURTH-YEAR B.ARCH STUDENT AWARD

THIS AWARD ENCOURAGES FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS IN THE B.ARCH PROGRAM TO PURSUE NON-TRADITIONAL CAREER PATHS, SPECIFICALLY TO GROW THEIR SKILLS IN THE SPECIALTY OF DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND SUSTAINABILITY UNDER THE UMBRELLA OF THE REAL ESTATE BUSINESS.

SPRING 2023 JURY: OMAR KHAN (CHAIR), TAMARA DUDUKOVICH, HAL HAYES, VALENTINA VAVASIS

WINNER

Gabrielle Benson, B.Arch ’24

AWARD $2,250

JURY COMMENT Gabrielle Benson demonstrates a strong commitment to sustainable design that includes pursuing a minor in Environmental and Sustainability Studies offered by the Dietrich College. Her project submission, an extension wing to City View Apartments in the Lower Hill District of Pittsburgh, done in collaboration with Sharon Fung and Sarah Kwok for the Praxis III studio, shows good integration of real estate concepts, sustainability and structural design.

WINNER

Anishwar Tirupathur, B.Arch ’24

AWARD $2,250

JURY COMMENT Anishwar Tirupathur’s project for a farmer’s market for Hazelwood Green, developed in collaboration with project members Athan Chang and Emma Nilson, takes the position that a strong community focused project is an important ingredient for developing a sustainable design. The project also utilizes low-carbon materials and minimal surface gridshell to develop an exciting large-span structure. AWARDS

TRAVEL AWARDS

MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE (M.ARCH) TRAVEL AWARDS

THE M.ARCH PROGRAM GRANTS TRAVEL AWARDS EACH SPRING TO SELECTED STUDENTS WHO HAVE SUBMITTED A TRAVEL PROPOSAL AND PROJECT PLAN. THE 2023 RECIPIENTS ARE LISTED BELOW.

Emma Cafiero, Germany (Berlin): Defining and Developing Cities of Asylum to Inform Social Change

Ajay Chovatia, France (Paris, St. Nazaire, Trignac, Bordeaux): “Never Demolish, Always Transform”: Studying the Housing Projects of Lacaton and Vassal

Colin Cusimano, Italy (Bologna, Pesaro, Urbino): Place, Everyday Life, and Architecture’s Agency: Drawing the Social Space of Giancarlo de Carlo

Rovina George, Japan (Tokyo, Osaka, Kochi): Crafting Architecture: Tracing encounters between tradition and modernity in Japanese Timber Construction

Joshua Jordan, United Kingdom (London): Public Housing In London

Priyanka Thakur, Colombia (various sites): Learning from Bamboo tectonics developed by Architect Simon Velez in the context of Colombia

Shayla Thomas, Spain (Barcelona): International Housing Festival (ISHF)

Thomas Vite, Switzerland (Zurich, Basel): Investigating Materiality and Meaning Through the Works of Herzog and de Meuron

2023 SOA GRADUATION AWARDS

THE WINNERS OF THE 2023 SOA GRADUATION AWARDS WERE ANNOUNCED DURING THE DIPLOMA CEREMONY ON MAY 12, 2023. THESE ANNUAL AWARDS RECOGNIZE THE OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENTS OF GRADUATING STUDENTS.

ALPHA RHO CHI MEDAL

THIS AWARD RECOGNIZES GRADUATING ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS FOR THEIR LEADERSHIP AND SERVICE AND WHAT THEY OFFER THE FUTURE OF THE PROFESSION. ONE GRADUATE FROM EITHER THE B.ARCH PROGRAM OR THE M.ARCH PROGRAM IS ELIGIBLE TO RECEIVE THIS AWARD EACH YEAR.

WINNER

Lydia Randall, B.Arch ’23

AIA MEDAL FOR ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

THE ARCHITECTS FOUNDATION, THE PHILANTHROPIC PARTNER OF AIA, AWARDS THE AIA MEDAL FOR ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE (FORMERLY THE HENRY ADAMS AIA MEDAL) TO THE TOP-RANKING GRADUATE IN EACH ARCHITECTURE PROGRAM ACCREDITED BY THE NATIONAL ARCHITECTURAL ACCREDITING BOARD (NAAB). GRADUATING STUDENTS IN THE B.ARCH PROGRAM AND THE M.ARCH PROGRAM ARE ELIGIBLE FOR THIS AWARD. THE SCHOOL SELECTS THE CANDIDATES BASED ON THE GUIDELINES PROVIDED BY THE AIA NATIONAL ORGANIZATION.

WINNER

Nicholas Coppula, B.Arch ’23

WINNER

Madeline Cotton, B.Arch ’23

WINNER

Xinyi Wang, M.Arch ’23

ALUMNI DESIGN AWARD

THIS AWARD IS THE HIGHEST HONOR GRANTED BY THE FACULTY OF THE SOA TO A GRADUATING STUDENT IN THE B.ARCH PROGRAM. THE AWARD RECOGNIZES EXCEPTIONAL DESIGN AND REPRESENTATION AS DEMONSTRATED THROUGH STUDIO WORK WITHIN THE LAST TWO YEARS OF THE B.ARCH PROGRAM.

SPRING 2023 JURY: KAI GUTSCHOW (CHAIR), MARY-LOU ARSCOTT (EX-OFFICIO), HEATHER BIZON, DOUG COOPER, FRANCESCA TORELLO, TOMMY CHEEMOU YANG

WINNER

Xiaoyu Kang, B.Arch ’23

TITLE

Almono Greens Complex: Redefining Urban Farming; Hazelwood, Pittsburgh, PA, 2021

INSTRUCTOR Jeremy Ficca

COLLABORATOR Xu Xu

AWARD $5,000

WINNER

Carson Michaelis, B.Arch ’23

TITLE

Past Futures: Ohio River Valley; 2022

INSTRUCTOR Heather Bizon

COLLABORATOR Nicholas Coppula

AWARD $5,000

WINNER

Xu Xu, B.Arch ’23

TITLE

Construction Engendered; Pittsburgh, PA; 2022

INSTRUCTOR Mary-Lou Arscott

AWARD $5,000

STUDENT ORGANIZA -TIONS

This past year, CMU’s AIAS grew in numerous ways beyond the school. Many students from lower and upper years got involved in portfolio reviews, interacted at sessions with guest speakers from local firms and attended both the National AIAS Grassroots convention prior to the start of the school year and the Northeast Quad conference near the end! We were so excited to grow our popular mentor/mentee pairing program and host social events where architecture students across all years of the undergraduate and graduate programs could chat and connect! Looking into the new year, we are growing our board to allow for new pathways and possibilities for students to get involved with AIAS!

—Julia Kasper, incoming AIAS CMU President

The American Institute of Architecture Students

The Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) chapter of the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) creates a connection between students and the professional and academic world of architecture by offering members a diverse set of events and experiences including firm visits, local and national networking opportunities, community service build initiatives and exposure to cutting edge developments within the field of architecture.

PRESIDENT: Jordan Luther (M.Arch ’23)

VICE PRESIDENT: Eesha Nagpal (B.Arch ‘25)

OUTREACH PROGRAMMING COORDINATOR: Kaitlyn Hom (B.Arch ‘25) PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

COORDINATOR: David Warfel (B.Arch ‘25)

TREASURER: Jeffrey Li (B.Arch ‘25) PUBLIC

RELATIONS: Julia Kasper (B.Arch ‘26), Gloria Lee (B.Arch ‘25)

ADVISOR: Jenna Kappelt

Freedom By Design

Freedom by Design (FBD) is a community service program within AIAS that uses the talents of architecture students to radically impact the lives of people in their communities through modest design and construction solutions. The CMU chapter of AIAS has an FBD program that provides students with real-world experience through working with clients, learning from local licensed architects and contractors, and experiencing the practical impacts of architecture and design. Instead of designing for the community, we believe in designing with the community.

DIRECTOR: Colin Walters (B.Arch ’24) PROJECT

MANAGER: Charlie Hymowitz (B.Arch ’26)

DEVELOPMENT MANAGER: Delaney Rice (B.Arch ’26) PUBLIC RELATIONS CHAIRS: Patrick Zheng (B.Arch ’26), Jerry Xu (B.Arch ’26)

ADVISOR: Jenna Kappelt

Our chapter’s signature outreach program is the Weatherization Kit project, a box of items that helps Pittsburgh residents prepare their homes for winter. This fall semester, we distributed 75 kits to three community organizations in the Pittsburgh area: The Kingsley Association, Larimer Consensus Group, and Build a Bridge Foundation. We had a great time interacting with community members in each of these areas in Pittsburgh! In the spring semester, we partnered with Reading Ready Pittsburgh to create book shelters as part of their ‘Little Giveaway Libraries’ program. One library was installed at the end of the semester with a second library to follow at the beginning of the next academic year. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Reading Ready Pittsburgh by moving into larger build projects. Our board is extremely proud of the efforts of our org members this year as we expanded our impact from previous years and are continuing this momentum in the upcoming year!

—Colin Walters, 2022–23 FBD Director

National Organization of Minority Architecture Students

In alignment with the mission of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA), the CMU chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architecture Students (NOMAS) focuses on creating safe spaces for minority and underrepresented students in the SoA. The organization provides a community of purpose for students by championing diversity, advocating for an education that considers the socioeconomic consequences of design, and connecting students to minority professionals in the field. Connect with the Pittsburgh chapter of NOMA to learn about upcoming events, meetings, and workshops.

NOMAS Carnival Pavilion Students in the Carnival Entryway Pavilion Course, conducted by NOMAS and advised by instructor Vicky Achnani, spent the semester designing, fabricating, constructing and documenting the entryway structure for CMU’s Spring Carnival, which ran from April 13-16. This year, the entryway was constructed from salvaged bamboo. (Photos by Serena Sun)

PRESIDENT: Akanksha Tayal (B.Arch ’25) VICE PRESIDENT: Shray Tripathi (B.Arch ’24)

SECRETARY: Rebecca Cunningham (B.Arch ’24) TREASURER: Ternilla Robinson (B.Arch ’26) PUBLICIST: Anishwar Tirupathur (B.Arch ’24) ADVISORS: Jenna Kappelt, Erica Cochran Hameen

This year our organization experienced a lot of engagement from students of all levels in the School of Architecture. We were able to travel to Nashville for the National NOMA conference, where we networked, mingled and attended seminars by BIPOC individuals in the field. We are grateful to have had this exposure and hope to continue to attend in the future, as well as participate in the NOMAS competition, hosted by the conference. NOMAS CMU strives to be a safe space for students to get advice, rant and learn about the resources that are available for BIPOC students. We hope to create a comfortable environment where students can step away from the studio and engage with their like-minded peers. The intense involvement by students in the Carnival Pavilion design-build project truly showcased the importance of our organization and the impact that we can have on our campus and community. Our leadership is very excited for another year of accomplishments and community building!

—Akanksha Tayal, CMU NOMAS President

INTER·PUNCT

inter·punct is a platform for ideas, theory and discourse — sometimes about architecture and sometimes at its periphery. The group was founded by students at CMU in 2011 and has released six issues: para·meter (2013), inter·view (2016), now is time to panic (2021), we only dream the night before tomorrow (2021), just listen (2022) and demolition (2022). Through guest interviews, group discussions and writing, inter·punct looks critically to better understand the past and future.

PUBLISHER: Graana Khan (B.Arch ’24) CO-EDITORS: Khoi Do (B.Arch ’26), Selina Zhou (B.Arch ’26)

ADVISORS: Mary-Lou Arscott, Kai Gutschow

This past year has been full of great discussions about the ways we engage and deal with the built environment, and how we envision the future. Interpunct has always been a space for students to reflect on their own experiences with architecture through a critical lens. The time and climate for speaking on these issues has never been more important — from dealing with a post-Covid world to finding our own place in the architectural world. Aside from writing for the publications, we also experimented with other media, such as a quiltmaking workshop. Quilt making has historically been used as a form of protest, so we wanted to use this means of fabrication to bring in to question how we can approach the reconstruction of an equitable world. Additionally, interviewing and hosting discussions with guest lecturers from the SoA Public Programs has been an amazing opportunity to engage with professionals who are transforming the field through their own pursuits. Moving forward, we hope to continue to challenge the ways we think about architecture and to take charge of our capacity to make change.

—Graana Khan, inter•punct Publisher

Architectural Crafts Collective

The Architectural Crafts Collective (ACC) is an organization dedicated to enriching the academic journey of students by teaching traditional and contemporary crafts such as woodworking, ceramics, metalworking, glassblowing and more. Through workshops, clubsponsored lectures, field trips and collaboration, the organization educates members on methods and techniques related to craftsmanship.

CO-PRESIDENTS: Neha Chopra (B.Arch ’25), Hazel Froling (B.Arch ’26)

TREASURERS: Vanshika Bhaiya (B.Arch ’25), Shreeja Harisrikanth (B.Arch ’26)

PUBLICISTS: Khoi Do (B.Arch ’26), Ternilla Robinson (B.Arch ’26)

ADVISOR: Steven Sontag

Architecture Peer Mentors

Architecture Peer Mentors (APM) connects first-year students with upper-level students to encourage a community of mentorship, learning and interyear collaboration. Mentors assist students in their transition into the SoA, establishing an early, mutually beneficial relationship.

COORDINATORS: Kaitlyn Hom, I Lok U, Jeffrey Li, Susie Kim ADVISOR: Heather Workinger Midgley

During our first year as an organization, ACC held a variety of events, including workshops and a field trip. In the fall we held our first ever workshop, which taught students techniques associated with successful glue-ups and laminations. In the spring semester we kicked things off with a field trip to Frosty Hollow Lumber Yard where we got a full tour of the lumber milling facilities. Students were able to get a closer look at how hardwood is processed and enjoy the scenic area!

Following this, we held a workshop dedicated to learning the craft of spoon carving, in which students created a delicate utensil from a block of wood. Our final event of the semester was devoted to helping first- and second-year students create exceptional final models. Through conversations with upperclassmen and faculty, they were advised on technique, materiality and craftsmanship relating to their studio models. We are incredibly proud of the hard work and dedication of our board members and are appreciative of the efforts and encouragement of everyone else in ACC. We are excited to explore the many realms of craftsmanship and making in the upcoming school year!

—Hazel Froling, ACC Co-President

Undergraduate Architecture Student Advisory Council

The Undergraduate Architecture Student Advisory Council (SAC) provides a formal means of interaction between students, faculty and administration. The student representatives are responsible for communicating the efforts of the council to their colleagues, bringing to the council issues forwarded by fellow students, and contributing time, energy and ideas to improve both the SoA and CMU.

1ST-YEAR REPS: Nathan Cottrell, Lisa Chun, Ella Essang 2ND-YEAR REPS: Hazel Froling, Bina Guo, Patrick Zheng 3RD-YEAR REPS:

Andrea Wan, Eesha Nagpal, Grace Kolosek 4TH-YEAR REPS:

Sharon Fung, Colin Walters, Brian Hartman 5TH-YEAR REPS:

Jackson Lacey, Melinda Looney, Rachel Kim ADVISOR: Heather Workinger Midgley

Graduate Student Assembly Committee

The Graduate Student Assembly Committee (GSAC) is the student body that represents SoA graduate students. GSAC oversees the planning and funding of graduate social events and offers programs that benefit SoA graduate students. Representatives meet regularly with the GSAC advisor and school head over the course of the semester to address the concerns of graduate students and develop solutions. SoA graduate students are invited to speak with their representatives about the changes they would like to see in their programs or facilities. GSAC liaisons to the Carnegie Mellon Graduate Student Assembly (GSA) advocate on behalf of SoA to the greater GSA network, connecting students with opportunities and funding. Campus wide, GSA and departmental committees strive to improve academic support and collegiate activities for graduate students.

MAAD REP: Di Wu MSAECM REP: Kavin

Rao MSBPD REP: Yunhao Hu MSCD

REP: Yumeng Zhuang MSSD REP:

Sanjana Nagaraj PHD-ARCH REP:

Morgan Newman M.ARCH REP: Tabeer Tariq PHD-AECM REP: Nihar

Pathak PHD-BPD REP: Haipei Bie

PHD-CD REP: Emek Erdolu MUD REP:

Saloni Agarwal ADVISORS: Alison Petrucci, Joshua Bard

SARAH RAFSON, CURATOR OF PUBLIC PROGRAMS

2022-23 PUBLIC PROGRAMS COMMITTEE: JARED ABRAHAM, DANIEL CARDOSO LLACH, JEREMY FICCA, NAJEEB HAMEEN, CHRISTINE MONDOR, MARY-LOU ARSCOTT (EX OFFICIO)

PUBLIC P R OG R AMS

Our public programs series set the year’s rhythm through the theme Materiality: Aesthetics and Extractivism. It fostered dialogue among invited speakers, faculty, students and alumni to explore the changing meanings of materiality in contemporary architecture. It also helped us reflect on how our pedagogical challenges — addressing climate change, artificial intelligence and social justice — reframe our attitudes towards materiality.

While aesthetic and performative concerns remain paramount for architects’ material choices, environmental costs — including carbon emissions, toxic manufacturing and embodied energy — play a huge role in guiding these choices. Materials’ durational, poetic and affective qualities emerged as strong themes in the lectures of Ensamble Studio, Xu Tiantian, Daniel Libeskind, Brandon Clifford and Catie Newell. And through new technological performances, we saw innovation in conventional materials like fabric and wood in the work of Felecia Davis and Leslie Lok, respectively.

We also considered materials’ profound costs through discussions of labor and its historic abuse in the design and construction professions.

Natasha Iskander’s critique of the stadiums built for the World Cup in Qatar highlighted the extraction and exploitation of migratory labor across the world in massive construction projects; LaToya Ruby Frazier’s photographic work on Braddock, Pennsylvania, emphasized the ill effects of material toxicity on marginalized communities. These provided a necessary reframing of the work of architecture and its consequences for communities that are vital for its creation but in many cases are not its beneficiaries.

— OMAR KHAN

October 28, 2022

Public Health, Private Spaces: A Conversation about the Intimate Landscapes of Health

Part of Spaces of Containment & Care

A one-day symposium examining how intimate, domestic and interior spaces are (re)made and experienced in the context of the increasing individualization of public health and amidst the intersecting crises of racial capitalism, patriarchy, neoliberal privatization and environmental injustice. This conversation was part of Spaces of Containment and Care, a project directed by Nida Rehman and supported by the CMU Center for Arts in Society.

Speakers:

Danya Glabau (New York University)

Carolina Parreiras (Unicamp, Brazil)

Laura Mauldin (University of Connecticut)

David Gissen (Parsons School of Design)

Alexandra Finley (University of Pittsburgh)

Amelyn Ng (Rhode Island School of Design)

Joy Knoblauch (University of Michigan)

Terri Shields (Jada House, Pittsburgh)

Ted Kerr (The New School / What Would An HIV Doula Do?)

Discussants:

Aparna Parikh (Penn State)

Stephanie Larson (CMU)

Tommy Yang (CMU)

February 2023

Image Deep: /reImagine Lecture Series

A mini lecture series focused on the ethical and socio-technical frameworks of artificial intelligence in design organized and moderated by Dana Cupkova in conjunction with the advanced studio, IMAGE DEEP: / reImagine — “Variations on Social Housing and Material Ecologies in the Era of AI and Climate Change.” The lecture series was funded by the Steiner Speaker Series Grant with the generous support of The FrankRatchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry.

FEBRUARY 2, 2023

Ingrid Mayrhofer-Hufnagl (University of Insbruck), author of “Architecture, Futurability and the Untimely” (2022), “Overview of AI Methods in Design”

FEBRUARY 9, 2023

Andrew Kudless (University of Houston and Matsys Design), “Diffused Narratives”

FEBRUARY 16, 2023

Kyle Steinfeld (UC Berkeley), “On Socio-Technical History of TextTo-Image Generative Models”

FEBRUARY 23, 2023

Benjamin Ennemoser (Texas A&M), “On 3-D GAN”

AECM Lecture Series

SEPTEMBER 19, 2022

Stephen Kendall, Vice President, Council on Open Building, “Open Building Workshop: Understanding Capacity Analysis”

SEPTEMBER 27, 2022

Documentary by Sonja Lüthi and Marc Schwarz “De Drager: A film about Architect John Habraken” (2013, Schwarz Pictures)

OCTOBER 24, 2022

Guillermo Ortega, Principal Business Consultant of Construction, Autodesk

“Digital Process in Construction: The Road to a Digital Automated Future”

NOVEMBER 14, 2022

Ayse Polat, Regional VDC Manager, Turner Construction, “Advancing Virtual Design & Construction: Our Path to Digital Transformation”

NOVEMBER 21, 2022

Robert Wright, President, Three Rivers Chapter of Construction Management Association of America (CMAA), “Construction Management in Southwestern PA”

FEBRUARY 20, 2023

Bob Reppe, Assistant Vice President and University Architect, CMU Campus Design and Facility Development (CDFD), “Understanding Owner's Representative Role at CMU”

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

Clifford Rowe, Executive Chairman, PJ Dick, “Our Current and Future Work at PJ Dick”

MARCH 13, 2023

Damini Mathur, Project Manager, Jacobs, “AECM Alumni at Work: My Experience at Jacobs”

APRIL 3, 2023

John Burton, CEO, UrsaLeo, “Digital Twins, Metaverse, LIDAR, AR/VR, Omniverse”

Computational Design Lecture Series

OCTOBER 3, 2022

Felecia Davis, Associate Professor, Stuckeman Center; Director, SOFTLAB, “Seams: Crafting an Architecture,” copresented with the SoA Lecture Series

OCTOBER 11, 2022

Keisuke Toyoda, Project Professor, University of Tokyo, “Architecture and Information”

OCTOBER 14, 2022

The 2022 Computational Design Lecture Series brought together researchers from both academia and industry to critically explore our discipline’s material and conceptual reconfigurations in response to new technical capacities across interaction, fabrication and calculation. The series was curated and organized by Associate Professor Daniel Cardoso Llach with crucial design and coordination assistance by Stella Shen and Yang Bai, and valuable support from Public Programs Curator Sarah Rafson and Marketing and Communications Manager Meredith Marsh.

Varvara Gulajeva, Assistant Professor in Computational Media and Arts, Hong Kong University, “Artist Guided Neural Networks: Automated Creativity or Tools for Extending Minds?”

NOVEMBER 2, 2022

Darsuke Sakai, Co-founder of teamLab, Yixiao Fu, CodeLab alumna, Catalyst for teamLab, co-presented with the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, “Relationships Among People”

NOVEMBER 11, 2022

Jen Liu, CodeLab alumna, Ph.D. Student in Information Science, Cornell University, “Bayou

Infrastructures: Keeping the Internet On in Southeast Louisiana”

“Advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning (DL) present new frameworks for the future of the design discipline while simultaneously questioning the form of authorship and the use of architectural precedent. Enabling an instant resolution of a seemingly complete architectural proposal, AI generation of architectural images/sketches bypasses a traditional design process.

The language of architecture typically encompasses the spatial development of architectural forms based on architectural types, elements, programs and ideologies, drawing from precedents. However, in the context of AI, the use of architectural references, particularly in terms of their ethical implications, may be obscured. This lecture series, held in conjunction with the Image Deep studio, explored the consequences of transitioning from a narrative approach to instant image generation and examined how augmented AI processes impact design intent, socio-ecological frameworks, ideological implications and the spatialization workflow of architectural proposals.”

— DANA CUPKOVA

Before this semester, when connecting materiality to extractivism, I was only considering subtractive adjectives to define the built environment. Through the public programs, we studied various perspectives from practitioners as well as theoreticians. These helped me reconsider the ecological effects of architectural or infrastructural development, which are also additive in nature: we are leaving footprints in the environment with each endeavor. Those strata of history are important for us to assess our actions further down the road.

— Meghna Roy (MSSD ’24)

Upcoming 2023-24

Public Programs Series: Revolutions/Resolutions

What is architecture’s role in revolutionizing or repairing broken systems? Join us in conversations that call for both incremental and radical shifts within our discipline, profession and society.

Fall 2023: Revolutions

The fall highlights architects who, to borrow Toni Cade Bambara’s phrase, “make the revolution irresistible” — artists and thinkers who challenge us to envision a multitude of approaches to making and being.

Spring 2024: Resolutions

The spring emphasizes architects as mediators negotiating disparate modes of thought, creating common ground and mitigating harm. We discuss how our work addresses critical sites and debates in the world around us, and what it takes to articulate our values and stand by them.

A R CHITECTU R E EXPLO R ATIONS

The Center for Architecture Explorations (CAE) cultivates lifelong learning at the intersection of arts and technology. The CAE supports architecture education for all ages, creating dynamic architectural education pedagogy with an emphasis on building equity and diversity within the design professions.

About the Center

The mission of the CAE is: 1) to facilitate links between architecture organizations, K-12 educators and K-12 students, particularly in underserved neighborhoods; 2) to provide scalable training courses, workshops and mentorship opportunities for professionals and undergraduate/graduate students, better preparing them to teach in K-12 and higher education contexts as well as better communicate with the communities they serve as designers; and 3) to conduct research into STEM and design pedagogy, developing innovative educational materials and curricula.

The CAE oversees Pittsburgh's Architecture Learning Network (ALN), a collaboration among more than 10 non-profits in the region, and is advised by an education committee comprising architects, architecture students, parents, faculty and educators.

Programs, Courses & Workshops

K-12 YOUTH PROGRAMS

CAE youth programs are a collection of architecture-based extracurricular and academic enrichment programs for students in kindergarten through high school. Through our programs we aim to foster knowledge of and appreciation for the built environment, encourage creative expression and critical thought, and inspire civic responsibility. The CAE is an Allegheny Partners for Out-of-School Time (APOST) Quality Campaign Member and all youth programs are part of the ALN.

SATURDAY SEQUENCE

The K-12 Saturday Sequence emphasizes problem-solving skills central to the architectural design process and guides students through an architectural project. The multi-week program is held Saturday mornings on the CMU campus during the fall and spring semesters.

TOURS & WORKSHOPS

CAE tours and workshops are an opportunity to learn more about our programs, an architecture career or a specific-interest topic on Carnegie Mellon’s campus. Past tours have explored architecture and technology, green roofs and sustainability.

SUMMER CAMPS

During the summer, the CAE partners with fellow arts organizations to offer a variety of summer day camps. At the Carnegie Museum of Art, the museum becomes a classroom; at Assemble, students engage with art and technology through making; on the CMU campus students find a variety of special-topic courses; and additional courses are available through the many ALN partners throughout Western Pennsylvania.

SoA Service Learning

PROJECTS & COURSES

The SoA offers undergraduate and graduate students opportunities to work on projects that impact our communities. The SoA also works with CMU's Gelfand Center for Service Learning and Outreach to offer courses that support outreach, education and non-profit work after graduation.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS

The CAE offers professional development workshops for university students and building industry professionals. The workshops were developed and are implemented in partnership with CMU's Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation, APOST, and Pittsburgh's chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). The workshops have two goals: 1) providing architects with knowledge and skills to teach; and 2) providing knowledge and skills in emerging architectural technologies.

Act 153 Clearances & Classroom Management

Learning Styles & Active Learning

Collaboration & Conflict Resolution

Emerging Technologies: Drones & Point Cloud Scanning

Emerging Technologies: AR/VR

Emerging Technologies: Internet of Things

ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION RESEARCH

The CAE’s research interests include equity and diversity in architecture education and related professions, systems thinking and spatial intelligence, and design thinking and assessment.

Current Work

EQUITY & DIVERSITY

Professor Erica Cochran Hameen and CAE staff are currently pursuing funding to learn more about the attitudinal effects of matched/same gender or race building industry professional mentors on middle school students in STEM classes.

SPATIAL INTELLIGENCE

CAE staff are looking at ways to improve elementary students' spatial skills through a game about vertical estimation. How can making predictions and thinking critically about heights of trees, buildings and other objects help students have better judgment when designing spaces?

DESIGN THINKING & ASSESSMENT

With the surge of "makerspaces" in the United States, how are students connecting their learning experiences, documenting their work and receiving feedback? The CAE is exploring ways to support portfolio-making and the documentation and assessment process.

CAE Partners

Carnegie Museum of Art

ACE Mentor Program

Assemble

Architecture Learning Network

CAE Sponsors

The Sprout Fund

The Grable Foundation

Remake Learning

United Way

The Pittsburgh Foundation

U D R EAM

UDream is a zero-cost academic and workforce development program that admits an annual cohort of up to 15 candidates.

By eliminating cost as a barrier, UDream seeks to recruit individuals from underrepresented or under-resourced backgrounds. It provides a 22week post-graduate experience, including: a 6-week academic intensive module; two 1-week community engagement modules; and 14-week paid internship with Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, based organizations.

From 2009 to 2018, the UDream program increased the racial diversity within Pittsburgh’s architecture and urban design fields by over 400%. This first-ofits-kind career-pipeline program not only provided mentorship and opportunities for its participants, but it brought top talent to the region.

In June 2023, SoA welcomed its first cohort of UDreamers since the program paused in 2018.

The UDream program includes three phases: a sixweek academic intensive module on CMU’s campus, two one-week community engagement modules, and an employment module where participants match with regional architecture and construction firms, community nonprofits and civic development corporations. The entire 22 week program includes paid internships with a goal of permanent employment in Pittsburgh or graduate school at CMU or elsewhere at the end of the program.

Because the fall internship period overlaps with the graduate school application cycle, UDream participants receive support for their applications to programs including, but not limited to, the seven graduate programs at the SoA and the potential to apply for the GEM Fellowship Program. GEM fellows in the SoA enroll in the graduate school at zero cost to the student; tuition, application fees and stipend are covered.

During its first iteration, many UDream alumni remained residents of Pittsburgh after completing the program. In 2017, Safiya Hodari, alumna of UDream and CMU, became the first African American woman to be licensed as an architect in Pittsburgh.

The following 2023 employment partners will match with UDream participants for internships this fall: Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Burns Scalo Development, Desmone, GBBN Architects Inc., Gensler, IKM Architecture, LGA Partners, Strada Architecture LLC, mossArchitects, Perkins Eastman Architects P.C., Rothschild Doyno Collaborative, SmithGroup and Studio Volcy.

To learn more, visit soa.cmu.edu/udream.

UDREAM DID A PHENOMENAL JOB OF HELPING TO DIVERSIFY THE ARCHITECTURE FIELD HERE IN PITTSBURGH. IT'S NOT OFTEN THAT YOU HAVE PEOPLE THAT JUST RELOCATE WITHOUT HAVING ANY PRIOR EXPERIENCE IN A CITY TO JUST COME AND BE A PART OF THE DESIGN PROFESSION. UDREAM DID A REALLY GOOD JOB OF CONNECTING THE DOTS.

—Alicia Volcy, UDream graduate and Design & Development Consultant Owner at Studio Volcy

The Remaking Cities Institute provides a platform for building transformative community-university partnerships and leveraging design research to advance social, racial and environmental justice in the built environment. I’m looking forward to collaborating with many of my inspiring colleagues and students alongside community partners and bringing to bear transdisciplinary research resources of the university in tackling some of the most pressing urban challenges of our time.

S TEFAN GRUBER, INCOMING DIRECTOR OF T HE REMAKING CITIES INSTITUTE

Applied Architectural Robotics Collective

The Applied Architectural Robotics Collective (AARC) at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) investigates the application of industrial robots in building and construction.

Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics

The Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics (CBPD), in conjunction with its university-industry-government partnership, the Advanced Building Systems Integration Consortium (ABSIC), is engaged in groundbreaking work that investigates the impact of natural and advanced technologies on the physical, environmental and social quality in buildings and communities.

Established in 1988, ABSIC pursues research, demonstration, and development towards improving the quality and performance of commercial buildings and building systems. Over 50 building industries and 10 government agencies have joined with the CBPD over the past 30 years to advance building systems and systems integration for environmental sustainability, human health and productivity, and organizational flexibility and performance.

In addition to the Master of Science in Building Performance and Diagnostics (MSBPD) degree program, the CBPD launched the first Ph.D. in building science in the United States, the Ph.D. in Building Performance and Diagnostics (PhD-BPD), in 1975. In 1995, the Master of Science in Sustainable Design (MSSD) degree program was added to immerse practitioners in a sustainable, high-performance

design curriculum. In 2015, the Doctor of Design (DDes) (formerly Doctor of Professional Practice [DPP]) program was launched as an opportunity for mid-career professionals to pursue doctoral degrees in sustainability and highperformance built environments while continuing their careers.

CodeLab

CodeLab (Computational Design Lab) is a post-disciplinary research and learning laboratory exploring critical questions and creative opportunities at the nexus of design, computation and the built environment. Current work includes research into experimental design and fabrication systems, tangible interaction, spatial analytics, artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, data visualization, and architectural robotics, as well as historical and theoretical questions concerning technology in design. The laboratory is housed within the School of Architecture (SoA) at CMU.

Remaking Cities Institute

Established in 2006, the Remaking Cities Institute (RCI) is the School of Architecture’s research center for urbanism, participatory action and community design. Its mission is to catalyze spatial equity and resilience in the future of cities. The RCI provides a forum for discourse and collaboration, radical imagination, creative advocacy and place-based activism in response to the most urgent contemporary issues in urbanism. It contributes to the Pittsburgh region’s revitalization and advances community leadership in that process.

The SoA is pleased to announce Stefan Gruber as the new director

of the Remaking Cities Institute.

Stefan is an architect, urbanist and associate professor in the SoA where he directs the Master of Urban Design program. He succeeds Ray Gastil in this role, formally known as the David Lewis/ Heinz Endowments Directorship of Urban Design and Regional Engagement.

Stefan brings a bottom-up leadership perspective to the RCI through his work on commoning and participatory design. His teaching at the SoA includes Commoning the City, which explores transitions towards more just, regenerative and selfdetermined communities beyond the paradigms of the market or the state. The design-based research studio has led to the exhibition An Atlas of Commoning by ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) in collaboration with ARCH+ that is traveling internationally for ten years. Stefan also leads the Urban Collaboratory Studio that works with Pittsburgh communities on the tactical transformation of their neighborhoods through urban acupuncture.

Stefan is a registered architect who has practiced internationally and holds architecture degrees from the Technical University RWTH Aachen, Germany, and Columbia University’s GSAPP. Before joining CMU in 2016, Stefan was the professor for Geographies, Landscape and Cities and Associate Head of Architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Austria. He founded STUDIOGRUBER in 2006, whose work spans design-build, urbanism and curatorial research, and has earned numerous awards and recognitions.

AUGUST 2022

School of Architecture

(SoA) graduates David Kennedy (B.Arch ’09) and Alyssa Kuhns (B.Arch ’10) and Pedro Veloso (PhD-CD ’23) started their second year teaching as professors at the University of Arkansas.

SEPTEMBER 2022

Associate Professor Daniel Cardoso

Llach was appointed an editorial board member for the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture’s (ACSA) journal Technology | Architecture + Design.

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SEPTEMBER 2022

The College of Fine Arts (CFA) held an installation ceremony to officially welcome Mary Ellen Poole, Ph.D. as the new dean of the college, as well as to introduce and welcome three new heads to the CFA family including Omar Khan as the Head of the School of Architecture.

SEPTEMBER 2022

SoA students Serah Kallerackal (MSEM ’22) and Jasmin Chiang (MSAECM ’22) were members of an interdisciplinary team that won a $5,000 prize as runners-up in the technical demonstration category of the NYSERDA RTEM Hackathon. The Global Energy & Building Hackathon, hosted by Onboard Data, invites participants to propose exciting new ideas that can improve our world’s buildings for years to come. The Hackathon will share data from 200+ buildings to global participants. The finalist team from CMU presented their proposal at the Building Energy Exchange on a featuredriven development (FDD) analysis of HVAC systems in office buildings using Delta-T.

SEPTEMBER 2022

Paul Mellon Professor Vivian Loftness and PhD-BPD candidate Suzy Li — with a research team that included Siqing Ge (MSSD ’22, MUD ’22), Yi Zhou (MUD ’22, MSSD ’23), Jiyuan Sui (MSBPD ’23), Zehan Zhang (MSAECM ’22), and Juye Kim (MSBPD ’23) — published the “Smart Surfaces Guide” this past summer. The guidebook was featured in a Smart Surfaces Coalition press release and in an interview with Suzy Li.

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Student Jordan Luther (M.Arch ’23) was appointed chair of the American Institute of Architecture Students’ (AIAS) National Sustainable Futures Task Force. She serves as the president of the CMU chapter of the AIAS and was elected to the 2023-24 AIAS National Board of Directors, serving as the Northeast Quadrant Director.

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Associate Professor Stefan Gruber contributed to the 4th edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennale catalog, "The Available City,” edited by David Brown. Gruber's essay, "Urbanisms after Public and Private,” reflects on how the eroding and shifting relationship between the private and public spheres opens up opportunities for the civic commons to renegotiate our social contract and acts as an agent of change. Drawing on research from the Master of Urban Design studio Commoning the City, he advocates for public-commons partnerships as an alternative to public-private partnerships.

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SEPTEMBER 2022

Visiting Scholar Paul Pangaro and collaborator

T.J. McLeish received recognition for their replica of Gordon Pask’s seminal interactive work “Colloquy of Mobiles” in an article in the July/ August 2022 issue of Architectural Design. The article, by Neil Spiller, situates “Colloquy” in the history of “architectural intelligence,” categories of interactive media and debilitations of artificial intelligence (AI).

SEPTEMBER 2022

Special Faculty

Francesca Torello’s essay, "Unexpected Pedagogies: Henry Hornbostel in Italy, 1893,” was published by Bloomsbury as part of the volume “Italian Imprints on Twentieth Century Architecture.” Based on Hornbostel’s manuscript, travel journal and sketchbook, Torello’s writing explores his unconventional reactions to the classic Italian itinerary, his enthusiasm for buildings off the beaten track and his annotations of “ideas” to be used in “modern buildings” of his own design.

SEPTEMBER 2022

Assistant Professor Joshua Lee, research assistant Aishwarya Singh (MSAECM ’22) and Jordan Luther (M.Arch ’23) presented “Technology & Arts-Based Data Collection in an Immersive Exhibit” at the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) Conference in Pittsburgh. They presented along with collaborators Assistant Professor Bridget Kiger Lee from the University of Pittsburgh School of Education and Katie Todd, Director of Research at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh. The presentation focused on their ongoing research on “Gymlacium in the Stack,” a three-story artwork comprising rope woven around a steel frame located at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh.

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OCTOBER 2022

The first- and second-year studio space on the second floor of the CFA was dedicated as the Jill Watson studio in honor of the B.Arch graduate ’87 and SoA instructor who died tragically in the TWA Flight 800 plane crash in 1996. Jill’s mother, Janice, also announced the inauguration of the Jill Watson Visiting Professorship in fall 2023. The professorship will bring a notable architect and educator to spend a semester teaching at the school and bring a global perspective to students.

OCTOBER 2022

Curator of Public Programs

Sarah Rafson leads faculty and student workshops at Syracuse Architecture as part of a 3-day event, Printed and Digital Matters: Discussion on Architecture Publishing.

OCTOBER 2022

Bill Kovacs (B.Arch ’71, D ’06) was inducted into the Visual Effects Society Hall of Fame.

OCTOBER 2022

Eric Anderson (B.Arch ’80) was appointed department chair of the Architecture and Construction Management program at Farmingdale State College for a three-year term.

OCTOBER 2022

Several CMU SoA faculty and alumni won AIA Pittsburgh 2022 Design Pittsburgh awards: Assistant Professor Joshua Lee and alumna Leila Srinivasan (MSBPD ’20) of Protean Design Collaborative for “Liberian Self-Sustaining Orphan Village”; alumna Phyllis Kim (B.Arch ’13) of GBBN for "Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Library of Accessible Media for Pennsylvanians”; evolveEA, led by Special Faculty Christine Mondor, for "Susan Hirt Hagen Center for Community Outreach, Research, and Evaluation,” a project whose team included Adjunct Instructor Melanie Ngami, who was also awarded for "Society for Contemporary Craft”; Adjunct Instructor Nickie Cheung (B.Arch ’18) was part of the team for "Second Harvest Community Thrift Store”; and Brendan Bogolin (M.Arch ’22) won for “The Fern Hollow Junction.”

OCTOBER 2022

Special Faculty member

Christine Mondor’s firm evolveEA was awarded three PA American Planning Association Design Awards for work on three different projects: Riverlife's “Completing the Loop” plan; the “Allentown Vision 2030” plan”; and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission’s “SmartMoves Connections” plan. “Completing the Loop” was also awarded a 2022 National APA Sustainable Communities Design Award. Mondor and Adjunct Instructor Elijah Hughes worked on the projects along with SoA alumni Anna Rosenblum (B.Arch ’13, MSSD ’13), Ashley Cox (MUD ’16, UDream), David Ge (MUD ’19) and Srinjoy Hazra (MUD ’20), and former faculty member Nico Azel.

OCTOBER 2022

Ann Kalla Professor Tommy CheeMou Yang held the workshop “Materializing Urban Narratives: Guerilla Tactics in Storytelling Through Comic Making and Animation” as part of the Imagining America Gathering in New Orleans. The workshop used his research in Pittsburgh to explore approaches that contest academic and creative ways of making, writing and telling histories in cultural and creative practices. Additionally, his collaborative research on the HMoob Stories Project, supported by the National Endowment of the Humanities, Wisconsin Historical Society and Wisconsin Community Funds, was published at hmoobstoriesproject.com.

OCTOBER 2022

Assistant Professor Azadeh

Sawyer presented her work in virtual reality at the Global Clean Energy Forum with Reza Takallouie (MSBPD ’23) and Gavin Hurley (M.Arch ’23). Sawyer published — with Ph.D. in Building Performance & Diagnostics (PhD-BPD) student Guanzhou Ji — a conference paper, “Using Illuminance Ranges and Target Areas to Analyze Daylight in Multi-Dwelling Units,” in the 2022 Building Performance Analysis Conference and SimBuild co-organized by ASHRAE and IBPSA-USA. Ji also received a Student and Emerging Professionals Scholarship, funded by the U.S Department of Energy.

OCTOBER 2022

Associate Professor Dana Cupkova received a 2022-23 Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award hosted by the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, Slovakia, for a research project titled “Urban Ecologies of Concrete Architecture: Cultivating Futures of Material Reuse.” This project expands on a research framework awarded by the Manufacturing Futures Institute (MFI). Additionally, Cupkova's Advanced Synthesis Option studio “Lithopic House: Reconstituting Sick Soil in Post-Industrial Landscape” appeared in the 6th Tallinn Architecture Biennale. The CMU

SoA proposal included collaborative student work of Juhi Dhanesha (B.Arch ’22), Ryu Kondrup (B.Arch ’21), Han Meng (B.Arch ’22) and Yingying Yan (B.Arch ’22). ↑

Cupkova authored 4 publications at the 2022 Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture conference, Hybrid & Hyeceties, at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition, several SoA community members presented and co-authored publications at the conference: Special Faculty Matthew Huber (B.Arch ’11), Pragya Gupta (MSSD ’19), Colleen Duong (B.Arch ’21, MSSD ’22) and Han Meng (B.Arch ’22). The conference publication included design work by Meng, Duong, Gil Jang (B.Arch ’21), Ryu Kondrup (B.Arch ’21), Longney Luk (B.Arch ’21, MSSD ’22), Louis Suarez (B.Arch ’21, MSSD ’22), Juhi Dhanesha (B.Arch ’22) and Yingying Yan (B.Arch ’22).

OCTOBER 2022

Remaking Cities Institute (RCI) Director Ray Gastil updated the Shaler Township commissioners on “The Better Boulevard Traffic21 Smart Mobility Challenge” study, presenting with Robert Tamburo, Robotics Institute Senior Research Scientist, and Steve Quick, SoA Adjunct Faculty and RCI Research Fellow. CMU faculty, including Associate Studio Professor Jonathan Kline, have been working on this project with Saloni Agarwal (MUD ’23) and Ritika Narang (MUD ’23) and the Robotics Institute research team. The study analyzes existing conditions and makes preliminary recommendations for how Mount Royal Boulevard, a streetcar-suburbera Main Street, can become safer and more equitable with improved pedestrian, bike and transit opportunities.

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OCTOBER 2022

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NOVEMBER 2022

Assistant Professor Erica Cochran Hameen spoke at the United Nations COP27 Climate Change Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Her talk “How Can Psychology and Architecture Boost Youth Engagement in Climate Change?” focused on how we must include the perspectives of young people to achieve sustainable climate goals within a social justice framework. Additionally, it touched on how vital it is to incorporate psychological tools and architectural design for improving health, resilience and community engagement, maximizing youth impact and well-being.

Associate Professor Dana Cupkova curated the October 2022 issue of ARCH, a magazine focused on architectural culture in Slovakia. This issue focused on projects that engage socio-ecological discourse across scales, and features an article titled “From Landscape to Object and Back,” a conversation about Cupkova’s collaborative design and research work with theoretician Monika Mitasova.

NOVEMBER 2022

Associate Professor Joshua Bard and Special Faculty Francesca

Torello presented their collaborative work in a lecture and workshop at Columbia GSAPP as part of the Preservation Lecture Series. Recognizing latent virtuality as one of architecture's disciplinary strengths, Torello and Bard reclaimed augmented reality (AR) and the virtual realm as a purview of the architect. The lecture featured their projects “Plaster ReCast” and “Virtual Fresco,” two applications of AR technologies that stem from historical research. The workshop explored how AR and VR can reveal new characteristics of physical spaces and extend the gradient of possible responses to historic buildings.

NOVEMBER 2022

At the APA Pennsylvania Chapter 2022 Annual Conference, 2021 RCI Visiting Scholar Carolyn Ristau presented on two topics. “Residential Zoning by Race: Is there an Exclusionary Pattern in Pittsburgh's Zoning Districts?” covered her ongoing research funded by the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency’s 2022 Kathy A. Possinger Housing Policy Fellowship. Ristau's second presentation

“Zoning Bloopers and Curiosities: Insights Into Morals and Affordable Housing” was based on her vast collection of amusing and informative occurrences within Pittsburgh's public zoning records.

NOVEMBER 2022

Associate Professor Daniel Cardoso Llach guest edited the special issue of the Proceedings of the ACM Conference in Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (PACMCGIT). The issue compiles the results of the SIGGRAPH 2022 Art Papers program, which he chaired. He also delivered a plenary keynote at the Virtual City and Territory International Conference. Entitled “Unsettling Urban Intelligence,” the lecture discussed CodeLab’s recent work in computational urban studies. Cardoso Llach’s keynote lecture at the XXVI Iberoamerican Conference of Digital Graphics (SiGraDi), “Other Computations,” focused on recent research and editorial work examining computational design practices in architecture outside of the “global North.”

NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS

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DECEMBER 2022

An exhibition at The Frame Gallery showcased the work of “The City Unsettled: An Ecological Architecture and Urbanism,” a designresearch seminar taught by Ann Kalla Visiting Professor Tommy CheeMou Yang, and Introduction to Urban Design Media, a course taught by Associate Studio Professor Jared Abraham that tells stories by exploring comics, mapping, intensive actor-network drawings, documentary work, visual journalism, graphic memoir, interviews and investigation.

DECEMBER 2022

RCI Director Ray Gastil was the co-organizer and moderator of the virtual exchange with Ruhr and Pittsburgh leaders on transforming industrial regions. The exchange underscored the critical challenges for industrial regions at the cutting edge of tech industry and services that also have the legacy and ongoing work of massive infrastructure.

DECEMBER 2022

Bobuchi Ken-Opurum (PhD-AECM ’22) was named to Forbes’ list of “30 Under 30 - Energy.” She is the creator of Re-Housed, a decision-support toolkit for low-to-moderateincome self-builders in the tropical Global South. She developed Re-Housed for her dissertation. The kit combines tools, including design solutions, an algorithm that diagnoses vulnerabilities and a simplified guidebook, to inform non-expert builders on how to design, build or make improvements to their housing by increasing resilience against floods and heat stress. Ken-Opurum was also named to the Tartans on the Rise class of 2023.

DECEMBER 2022

PhD-BPD student Guanzhou

Ji was a panelist in a webinar organized by Project STASIO (STAndard SImulation Outputs) focusing on building performance simulation and data visualization. Project STASIO is one of the projects undertaken by the IBPSAUSA Architectural Simulations Subcommittee aiming to provide supporting content for the new ASHRAE Standard 209 – Energy Simulation Aided Design for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings.

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DECEMBER 2022

PhD-Arch student Morgan Newman was the 2021 Design and Wellness fellow for Perkins Eastman. Her research explored the value of walkability in low-income urban neighborhoods in Pittsburgh and culminated in a research paper published on Perkins Eastman's website.

DECEMBER 2022

Paul Mellon Professor

Vivian Loftness delivered the closing keynote on day one of USGBC Northern California's Second Annual Summit. Her presentation explored the relationship of biophilia, health and the future of workplace design. Loftness also taught a micro-course at CMUQatar entitled “Sustainable Architecture and Urbanism for the Gulf Region” with two weeks in residence in Doha to collaborate with professionals and students and gather data.

DECEMBER 2022

T. David Fitz-Gibbon Professor Sarosh Anklesaria was interviewed by the television news network Newsy for a segment on the recently completed Sandy Hook Memorial. Anklesaria offered his thoughts on the shifting role of memorials in the making of public space. The piece aired on Newsy's prime-time “In the Loop” during the segment focused on the ten year anniversary of the Sandy Hook tragedy.

JANUARY 2023

Special Faculty Francesca

Torello published the article “Plaster Casts, Augmented: Architecture in the Museum and the Impact of Digital Media” in RA Revista de Arquitectura. Torello’s essay discussed how digital media intervene in the already complex relationship that plaster casts of architecture have with their originals and shift our relationship with tenets of modern culture, from the concept of authenticity to the role of museums and the objects they contain in our society.

FEBRUARY 2023

Kushagra Varma, a PhDAECM candidate, P.J. Dick AECM Fellow, and 202223 Steinbrenner Institute Doctoral Fellow, competed in the 3MT Championship with his presentation “A 4-D Advanced Benchmarking Tool to Visualize Urban Building Environmental Performance With an Integrated Retrofit Recommendation Generator.”

FEBRUARY 2023

PhD-AECM candidate

Sanaz Saadatifar presented “Balancing Thermal Comfort With Energy Consumption in Building HVAC Management: Piloting a Combination of Digital Twins, Iot Sensors, and Real-Time Dashboards to Inform Occupant Decision Making” at ASHRAE's 2023 Winter Conference in Atlanta. Saadatifar co-authored the paper with Assistant Professor Azadeh

Sawyer, Associate Teaching Professor

Daragh Byrne and CEE student Yuming Zhang.

MARCH 2023

Stephen Michael Wilder (M.Arch ’04) spoke with Archinect about his path to becoming an architect and principal of New Jersey/New York-based Think Wilder Architecture

MARCH 2023 Adjunct Instructor

Melanie Ngami of GBBN Architects has been named to Pittsburgh Business Times’ 2023 class of 30 Under 30 honorees.

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MARCH 2023

Lucian and Rita Caste Assistant Professor

Nida Rehman received a 2022 SOM Foundation Research Prize to support the collaborative project “Taking Back the Air” with North Braddock Residents For Our Future and General Sisters.

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MARCH 2023

Joseph F. Thomas Visiting Professor

Zaid Kashef Alghata convened Architecture’s Ecological Restructuring, a symposium that featured six distinctive voices in architecture who challenge traditional disciplinary frameworks and build new forms of ecological thinking: Edward Eigen, Rania Ghosn, Margarita Jover, Sylvia Lavin, Fadi Masoud and Neyran Turan.

MARCH 2023

Aftyn Giles (B.Arch ’07) was promoted to Principal Planner for Pittsburgh’s Department of City Planning, Division of Sustainability & Resilience.

MARCH 2023

Maureen Guttman, FAIA (B.Arch ’81) and Andrea Love, AIA, LEED Fellow (B.Arch ’02) were elected to the American Institute of Architect’s (AIA) class of 2023 College of Fellows. The fellowship is one of the AIA’s highest honors, and it recognizes the exceptional work and contributions of AIA members who are elected through a rigorous process by a jury of their peers.

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MAY/JUNE 2023

Joseph F. Thomas

Visiting Professor

Priyanka Bista exhibits work from her Advanced Synthesis Option studio “Empathy, Architecture, and the Anthropocene” in the London Design Biennale’s Care Pavilion.

APRIL 2023

Kristen Kurland, Teaching Professor of Architecture, Information Systems, and Public Policy was elected to co-chair the Geographical and Geospatial Sciences Committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

APRIL 2023

Assistant Professor

Erica Cochran Hameen was interviewed for a Washington Post Live piece entitled “Top Public Officials and Experts on Building Sustainable Cities.”

APRIL 2023

Di Wu (MAAD ’23) presented a co-authored paper at the ACM CHI 2023 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Hamburg, Germany. Wu is a Graduate Researcher in the Morphing Matter Lab, HCII, CMU. His advisors were Associate Professor Jeremy Ficca and Assistant Professor Lining Yao (HCII).

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MAY/JUNE 2023

“Past Futures: The American Rustbelt,” an Advanced Synthesis Option studio taught by Special Faculty Heather Bizon, exhibited work at GBBN’s EDGE Gallery on Penn Avenue.

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MAY/JUNE 2023

With space generously donated by Walnut Capital, thesis students transformed the empty halls of the Pittsburgh Athletic Association into a gallery for the 2023 Thesis Show.

PEDAGOGIES

The School of Architecture (SoA) embarked on a strategic planning process, “Pedagogies 2020,” to review its mission, values, and programs, and to develop an actionable vision that can address some of the significant challenges facing architecture and the built environment in the 21st century.

The SoA has an established reputation in discourse on the productive role that technology plays in the art and design of architecture. Our pioneering work in sustainability, building science and computation has distinguished our school from our peers. Likewise, our seminal work in participatory and community-engaged design has laid the foundations for the values we ascribe to architecture: that, above all, it must be in the public interest and accessible to all. These legacies put the school in a unique position to address some of the daunting challenges we face as a society that require imagination, innovation and empathy.

“Pedagogy” is reductively understood as the methods of teaching; the techniques employed in lectures, seminars and studios to impart knowledge and skills to a student. In our formulation, we take the term “pedagogy” to mean the broader context within which learning takes place. This includes not only the methods of teaching,

but also its physical, political, social and cultural context. Pedagogies 2020 takes direction from J. Dewey’s understanding of pedagogy as a vehicle for self-realization as well as the work of critical pedagogy (P. Freire, E. Said, b. hooks), which established that education, research and creative practice are always in direct dialogue with society’s evolving concerns and prevailing paradigms.

Pedagogies 2020 was critical, speculative and provocative, grounded in science and evidence but also the projective capacity of the architectural imaginary. Our faculty, students and staff must represent the global society we aim to design for, and our educational and research facilities must be able to support the innovative design and research we plan to do. Most significantly, our pedagogy must address the imminent challenges facing society:

Climate change and its impending environmental and social problems, and how architecture can support living in the Anthropocene.

Artificial intelligence and its challenge to human agency, and what it means to live in a posthuman society.

Social justice and the need for greater equity and inclusion of race, gender and intersectionality in our politics and communities.

Fundamentals addresses the following questions:

What is the argument for architecture in the 21st century?

How does the school position and address the great challenges of our time?

What are the fundamental competencies that an architect must have to design in this context?

What tools, skills and intellectual traditions are vital for the architect?

What are the ethical challenges facing architecture?

Design Research addresses the following questions:

What is the future of architectural practice?

How can research support innovation in architecture?

What is the role of design in contributing to interdisciplinary research at CMU?

What is the role of interdisciplinary research within architectural design?

How can community partnerships and industry engagement open opportunities for collaborative research?

To address these challenges, Pedagogies 2020 was divided into three unique but interrelated pedagogies: Fundamentals, Design Research and Race & Inclusion. Each was tasked with using the fall 2020 semester for “stocktaking”: to engage faculty, staff and students in conversations and information gathering. In spring 2021, we translated these efforts into actionable items that will better align our mission, programs, personnel, facilities and resources to address the challenges we have laid out for ourselves.

Race & Inclusion addresses the following questions:

How are matters of race and inclusion woven into the world’s great challenges, and how can we best respond to them?

What is the argument for diversity, collective action, radical inclusiveness and community-building in today’s increasingly fragmented world?

What is the agency of the architect in shaping the built environment to serve everyone, including those without a voice?

How can ethics, justice, equity and values play a more dominant role in shaping architectural education to better prepare our students for the increasingly agonistic future?

What are unique strengths and challenges that are specific to our school with regard to race and inclusion?

How can we increase the representation and support of Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) and underrepresented minorities (URM) in our school and in the profession?

Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch)

Bachelor of Arts in Architecture (B.A.)

PROGRAMS

Undergraduate Degree Programs

The Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) School of Architecture (SoA) offers two baccalaureate degree programs: the Bachelor of Architecture and the Bachelor of Arts in Architecture. Both programs begin with the same studio-based curriculum in the first year before diverging in terms of opportunities and outcomes — the B.Arch requires 10 studios, while the B.A. only requires a minimum of four studios, which can be spread out over the four years of the program.

The B.Arch is a five-year, first-professional degree program accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) with a precisely defined set of Student Performance Criteria (SPC). This program is for students who are set upon pursuing careers as licensed architects, and it centers around a carefully structured set of professional and technical courses about building design and construction. Our students graduate with a professional degree that prepares them to excel in practice and also launches them into key specialties within the profession. Due to the technical nature of the B.Arch program, it is STEM-eligible, meaning that in addition to one year of Optional Practical Training (OPT), a student on an F1 visa may apply for a 24-month STEM OPT extension following graduation.

The B.A. is a four-year pre-professional degree program that encourages interdisciplinary exploration. B.A. students have the opportunity to double major, test the boundaries of the discipline and explore a variety of interests. If you are a student who embraces creativity and is curious about the world around you, the B.A. program could be a perfect fit. As a four-year degree program, the B.A. allows students to specialize in other fields in graduate school, including the 2-year professional M.Arch degree program (often called a 4+2 degree).

Master of Advanced Architectural Design (MAAD)

Jeremy Ficca, Track Chair

Graduate Programs

The Master of Advanced Architectural Design is a postgraduate, studio-based program that engages emerging methods of design and fabrication through architectural design to speculate upon future modes of architectural practice, enhanced construction methods and material culture within the built environment.

With a particular emphasis upon design, the four-semester program leverages the SoA and CMU’s core strengths in design fabrication, architectural robotics, computational design and ecological-thinking as vehicles for knowledge acquisition and speculation.

The program focuses on the creation of new insights and new knowledge through the design process, or “research by design.”

The program probes the technical and cultural opportunities and implications of a data-rich future in which design methodologies, construction processes and sustainable building life cycles are intrinsically interlaced.

The goal is to produce consciously speculative and experimental work deeply enmeshed with social and environmental concerns, with explicit ties to humanistic and cultural discourses, industry trends and contemporary practice. The faculty seek advanced-level projects that will position graduates as future thought leaders in architecture and allied fields relating to advanced fabrication, material performance, construction methodologies and/or academia.

Master of Architecture (M.Arch)

Sarosh Anklesaria, Track Chair

The Master of Architecture is a two-year, studio-based, professional degree program, accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB), to educate tomorrow’s leaders in architecture and related careers.

The M.Arch program at CMU educates students to become nextgeneration leaders in the praxis of architecture and its related careers through a collaborative, studio-based education that centers design, technology and research. The program addresses the grand challenges of our time through an understanding of design ethics at the intersections of social equity, technology and climate change. It trains students to demonstrate a solid intellectual base in design thinking by participating in advanced and emerging discourses in the discipline.

Master of Science and Ph.D. in Architecture— Engineering— Construction Management (MSAECM, PhD-AECM)

Joshua D. Lee, Track Chair

Master of Science and Ph.D. in Building Performance & Diagnostics (MSBPD, PhD-BPD)

Vivian Loftness, Track Chair

The Architecture–Engineering–Construction Management (AECM) programs prepare building-delivery professionals for careers in capital project delivery dealing with the entire life-cycle of capital projects, from pre-design through the design, construction, commissioning, operation and maintenance stages. They focus on the integration of design and technology, particularly advanced information systems, as a means of both improving building performance and enhancing environmental sustainability.

Graduates of our AECM programs are educated to become effective decision makers who can positively impact economic, environmental and ethical aspects of the built environment through professional management strategies. Our graduates have successful careers in government, industry, business, real estate and NGO (non-governmental organization) sectors, prospering in positions where design professionals continuously make large-scale capital project design, construction and operations decisions. Graduates of the program have specific position titles including Real Estate Developer, Project Manager, Construction Manager, Facility Manager, Code Inspector and Plan Reviewer.

Our graduate programs in Building Performance & Diagnostics (BPD) have long led the world in advanced building technologies that sustainably reshape the built environment.

“Sustainability” was our passion and expertise long before it became a buzzword. CMU’s Master of Science in Building Performance & Diagnostics and Ph.D. in Building Performance & Diagnostics are top-ranked building science degree programs dedicated to advancing high-performance buildings and empowering communities for a more resilient and sustainable future.

The BPD programs are founded on the premise that the integrated design of building and community systems is critical for environmental sustainability, human health and productivity. The Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics (CBPD) conducts research for international governments and industries on: high-performance building system design and operation; offices, schools, healthcare facilities and urban settings of the future; design addressing climate, energy, resource conservation, health and productivity; environmental assessment and post-occupancy evaluation for design and operation; and the financial, natural and human capital benefits of investing in high-performance built environments.

Master of Science and Ph.D. in Computational Design (MSCD, PhD-CD)

Daniel Cardoso Llach, Track Chair

The Computational Design program takes a computer science view of design, applying both the science and art of computing to design problems in relation to creation, presentation, analysis, evaluation, interaction and aesthetic expression — in real and imagined applications, both perceived and conceived.

Our CD graduate program started in the late 1960s — among the first and best known in the country. From the beginning, the program has benefitted from close cooperation with other units of the university, particularly the School of Computer Science and the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering. Computing has become increasingly important in nearly all areas of design: simulation, analysis, synthesis, tangible interaction, and people-centered as well as building-centered design algorithms. Students are urged to utilize the wide-ranging expertise, facilities and personnel available throughout the SoA and the university.

Our research-based degree programs are intended for practitioners, educators and researchers in architecture, computer science, engineering and design. Our graduates go on to successful careers in government, industry and academia.

Master of Science in Sustainable Design (MSSD)

Dana Cupkova, Track Chair

Centered on architecture’s response to climate change, the Master of Science in Sustainable Design is a post-professional researchbased graduate program focused on expanding innovative design methodologies that position the built environment as a vehicle for environmental stewardship. Situated at the intersection of computational design, environmental science and advanced manufacturing, the MSSD program leads students to discover new socio-ecological approaches to evidence-based design frameworks across scales, while also focusing on circular economies of landscape systems, production of new materials, and more equitable material system assemblies. The MSSD offers an integrated education that strives to prepare its graduates for careers that will reshape the built environment through novel design solutions grounded in multicultural aspects of ecological thinking, technical expertise and critical thinking.

Master of Urban Design (MUD)

Stefan Gruber, Track Chair

Ph.D. in Architecture (PhD-Arch)

Nida Rehman, Track Chair

The Master of Urban Design is a post-professional, two-year program that prepares graduates for careers using urban design to critically address environmental, economic, social, political and cultural issues affecting contemporary urbanization.

The studio-based curriculum allows students to explore design strategies in a variety of scales and settings, including the post-industrial city, the suburban periphery and the dense global metropolis.

The studio sequence is supported by small-group seminars and workshops to develop the skill sets necessary for an urban designer in the twenty-first century. Students graduate with a firm grasp of the history, theory and practice that has established urban design as a discipline, as well as with skills in cutting-edge media and design methods.

This program is distinguished by its emphasis on integrating sociallyengaged practice with new tools and techniques for representing, understanding and designing cities; by the opportunity to work in trans-disciplinary teams at the intersection of the arts, humanities and technology across CMU's departments and colleges; and by its location in Pittsburgh — a thriving post-industrial laboratory.

The PhD in Architecture program at CMU advances interpretive, contextual and projective perspectives on the built environment and spatial design. Bringing together methods in spatial analysis, history of architecture, urban studies, environmental humanities, digital humanities and community-centered research, the program offers students an interdisciplinary platform to investigate issues of spatial justice, urban and environmental change, and building cultures and practices across a range of historical and geographical contexts.

The intellectual foundation of the program is informed by the SoA’s commitments to racial and spatial justice in architectural epistemology, pedagogy and practice. It builds on a legacy of community-oriented design and research at the SoA and is supported by the wide-ranging expertise and resources in the school and across the university.

Doctor of Design (DDes)

Erica Cochran Hameen, Track Chair

Accelerated Master’s Program (AMP)

Multiple Degree Options

The Doctor of Design (formerly Doctor of Professional Practice) is a threeyear program for mid-career professionals aspiring to solve advanced problems in the fields of architecture, engineering and/or construction. Modes of study include conference and video calls, web-based learning, field work, professional practice work, international exchange, and institutional meetings and conferences.

Unlike academically founded graduate programs, the DDes is based on the assumption that mid-career professionals can develop doctoral-level research by building on their tacit knowledge acquired through years of professional practice. The cohorts in this program come from various AEC (Architecture — Engineering — Construction) fields, as well as from various states in the U.S. and nations of the world. The program is a collaborative effort with Université Paul Sabatier in Toulouse, France.

We seek self-motivated cohorts who thrive in multitasking situations and are able to manage concurrently the DDes program requirements and their full-time professional practice responsibilities. Thanks to a sophisticated distance-delivery system, the program accommodates participation both in residence (Pittsburgh) and remotely.

The CMU SoA offers undergraduate students the opportunity to obtain an accelerated master’s degree in one additional year after completion of their bachelor’s degree. The Accelerated Master’s Program (AMP) saves both time and money, enabling students to enter the job market with specialized knowledge and two Carnegie Mellon degrees.

5+1 Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch) + AMP-Compatible Master's Program: Five years of undergraduate coursework followed by two semesters of full-time master’s level coursework for a total of six academic years.

4+1 Bachelor of Arts in Architecture (B.A.) + AMP-Compatible Master's Program: Four years of undergraduate coursework followed by two semesters of full-time master’s level coursework for a total of five academic years.

AMP-COMPATIBLE MASTER'S PROGRAMS:

Master of Advanced Architectural Design (MAAD)

Master of Science in Architecture–Engineering–Construction Management (MSAECM)

Master of Science in Building Performance & Diagnostics (MSBPD)

Master of Science in Computational Design (MSCD)

Master of Science in Sustainable Design (MSSD)

Master of Urban Design (MUD)

STEM-Eligible Degree Programs

Due to the technical nature of the SoA’s graduate programs, all of our graduate programs have been assigned CIP (Classification of Instructional Programs) codes by the Department of Education that are STEM-eligible. This means that in addition to one year of Optional Practical Training (OPT), a student on an F1 visa may apply for a 24-month STEM OPT extension following graduation. All SoA STEM-designated degree programs are characterized by a rigorous, research-based pedagogy with emphases on computational design, building science, industry and/or practice.

The GEM Fellowship Program

The School of Architecture supports the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science Inc. (GEM), a nonprofit organization, in its effort to support graduate program study fellowships for underrepresented groups (African Americans, American Indians and Hispanic Americans) at the masters and doctoral levels in engineering and the physical sciences.

2022–23 School of Architecture Faculty

UPDATES FROM THE 2022-23 SCHOOL YEAR ARE ITALICIZED IN THE LIST BELOW.

Jared Abraham

Associate Studio Professor

Jared Abraham has been appointed to a new full time role as Associate Studio Professor with the school.

Vicky Achnani Adjunct Instructor

Vicky Achnani, the recipient of a 2022 Master of Architecture degree from Yale University, joins the studio teaching faculty in the Praxis I Studio.

Sarosh Anklesaria

T. David Fitz-Gibbon Professor of Architecture

Mary-Lou Arscott

Associate Studio Professor & Associate Head for Design Fundamentals

Nina Baird

Assistant Teaching Professor

Nina Barbuto

Adjunct Faculty

Joshua Bard Associate Professor & Associate Head for Design Research

William Bates Adjunct Faculty

Ardavan Bidgoli Robotics Fellow

Priyanka Bista

Joseph F. Thomas

Visiting Professor Priyanka Bista is a recipient of a 2022-24 Joseph F. Thomas Visiting Professorship

Heather Bizon Special Faculty

Daragh Byrne

Associate Teaching Professor

Daniel Cardoso Llach Associate Professor

Don Carter Adjunct Faculty; Senior Research Fellow, Remaking Cities Institute

Nickie Cheung Adjunct Faculty

Erica Cochran Hameen

Assistant Professor, Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Doug Cooper

Andrew Mellon Professor of Architecture

Stuart Coppedge Adjunct Instructor

Dana Cupkova Associate Professor

Gerard Damiani Associate Professor

Stefani Danes Adjunct Faculty

Jeffrey Davis Adjunct Faculty

Tamara Dudukovich Adjunct Instructor

Emek Erdolu Graduate Instructor

Jeremy Ficca

Associate Professor, Director dFAB

Laura Garófalo

Associate Professor

Ray Gastil Director, Remaking Cities Institute

Sinan Goral Adjunct Faculty

Stefan Gruber

Associate Professor

Stefan Gruber has been awarded indefinite tenure with the school, effective July 1, 2022.

Kai Gutschow

Associate Professor & Associate Head for Design Ethics

Najeeb Hameen Adjunct Faculty

Volker Hartkopf Professor Emeritus

Hal Hayes Studio Professor

Matthew Huber Special Faculty

Matthew Huber has been appointed to a new full time role as Special Faculty with the school.

Elijah Hughes Adjunct Instructor

Theodossis Issaias Adjunct Faculty

Theodossis Issaias, Associate Curator at the Heinz Architectural Center at the Carnegie Museum of Art, joins the studio teaching faculty in the ASO Studios.

Jenna Kappelt Special Faculty

Jenna Kappelt has been appointed full time Special Faculty with the school.

Zaid Kashef Alghata

Joseph F. Thomas Visiting Professor

Zaid Kashef Alghata is a recipient of a 2022-24 Joseph F. Thomas Visiting Professorship.

Lynn Kawaratani Liaison Librarian to the School of Architecture

Lynn Kawaratani has received a faculty appointment as the Liaison Librarian to the School of Architecture.

Omar Khan Professor & Head

Eddy Man Kim Associate Teaching Professor

Phyllis Kim Adjunct Faculty

Jonathan Kline Associate Studio Professor

Ramesh Krishnamurti Professor Emeritus

Kristen Kurland Teaching Professor

Katie LaForest Adjunct Instructor

Khee Poh Lam Professor Emeritus

Joshua Lee Assistant Professor

Steve Lee Professor

Suzy Li Graduate Instructor

Wei Liang Graduate Instructor

Vivian Loftness University Professor, Paul Mellon Professor

Jackie Joseph Paul McFarland Visiting Special Faculty

Jackie Joseph Paul McFarland joins the school as visiting special faculty for the next two years.

Christine Mondor Special Faculty

Christine Mondor has been renewed as part time Special Faculty with the school.

Melanie Ngami Adjunct Faculty

Irving Oppenheim Professor

Paul Ostergaard Adjunct Faculty

Paul Pangaro Visiting Scholar in Computational Design

Paul Pangaro has been appointed as a Visiting Scholar in Computational Design.

Steve Quick Adjunct Faculty; Research Fellow, Remaking Cities Institute

Sarah Rafson Special Faculty

Nida Rehman

Lucian and Rita Caste Assistant Professor in Architecture and Urban Design

Jinmo Rhee Graduate Instructor

Manuel Rodríguez

Ladrón de Guevara Studio Instructor, Research Assistant

Azadeh Sawyer Assistant Professor

Nathan Sawyer Special Faculty

Nathan Sawyer has been appointed full time Special Faculty and Facilities Director for the school.

Charlie Schmidt Adjunct Instructor

Charlie Schmidt, of Midland Architecture, joins the studio teaching faculty in the Poiesis III Studio.

Diane Shaw Associate Professor

Louis Suarez Adjunct Instructor

Louis Suarez joins the studio teaching faculty in the Praxis I Studio.

Jill Swensen Adjunct Instructor

Jill Swensen, Studio Leader and Principal at SmithGroup, joins the studio teaching faculty in the Praxis III Studio.

Ala Tannir Adjunct Instructor

Ala Tannir, Curatorial Research Fellow at the Heinz Architectural Center at the Carnegie Museum of Art, joins the studio teaching faculty in the Praxis I Studio.

Daniel Tompkins Adjunct Faculty

Francesca Torello Special Faculty

Francesca Torello, PhD is an architectural historian and Special Faculty with the Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture since 2007.

Kushagra Varma Graduate Instructor

Valentina Vavasis Special Faculty

Valentina Vavasis has been renewed as part time Special Faculty with the school.

Gerrod Wood-Sternburgh Adjunct Faculty

Garrett Wood-Sternburgh, an Architect at DRAW Collective Architecture, joins the studio teaching faculty in the Poiesis I Studio.

Heather Workinger Midgley Senior Academic Advisor for Undergraduate Studies

Tommy CheeMou Yang

Ann Kalla Professor in Architecture

Tommy CheeMou Yang will continue in the Ann Kalla Visiting Professorship for the next year, and subsequently continue for an additional year as visiting special faculty.

Tiancheng Zhao Graduate Instructor

School of Architecture Affiliated Faculty

Burcu Akinci

Paul Christiano Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Susan Finger Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering; Associate Dean, Integrative Design Arts & Technology (IDeATe); AECM CEE Chair & Advisor

Stuart Candy

Associate Professor, School of Design

John Folan Professor & Head, Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design

Berangere Lartigue Visiting Researcher

Golan Levin

Associate Professor of Art

Pingbo Tang

Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Molly Wright Steenson

Senior Associate Dean for Research (SADR) in the College of Fine Arts; Associate Professor, School of Design

Incoming School of Architecture Faculty

The SoA is thrilled to welcome the following faculty members in the 2023–24 school year:

Juney Lee Assistant Professor for Architectural Structures

Vernelle Noel Assistant Professor for Computational Design

Jongwan Kwon Assistant Teaching Professor

Tuliza Sindi 2023 Ann Kalla Visiting Professor

Misri Patel 2023 Ann Kalla Visiting Professor

2022-23 School of Architecture Staff

Robert J. Armitage Computing Administrator

Alycia Barney Financial Assistant

Christi Danner Marketing and Outreach Manager

Christi Danner joins the school as the Marketing & Outreach Manager.

Kristen Frambes Assistant to the Head, Director of Alumni & Professional Relationships

Jon Holmes Shop Director

Terry Hirtz dFAB Lab Manager

Jenna Kappelt Director of Outreach Programs, Director of Pre-College, Architect Licensing Advisor

David Koltas Business Manager and Assistant Head

Todd Luckey Office Assistant

Meredith Marsh Marketing and Communications Manager

Erica Oman Academic Advisor

Alison Petrucci

Graduate Academic Advisor Alison Petrucci joins the school in the new role of Graduate Academic Advisor.

Sarah Rafson

Curator of Public Programs, Director of EX-CHANGE Exhibition and Publication

Nathan Sawyer Facilities Director

Alexis McCune Secosky Director of Recruitment and Enrollment

Steven Sontag Assistant Shop Director

Steven Sontag joins the school as the Assistant Director of the School of Architecture Shop (ArchShop).

Heather Workinger Midgley

Senior Academic Advisor for Undergraduate Studies

Incoming School of Architecture Staff

Leanne Rosso Outreach Associate

Mark Jovanovich Multimedia Support Specialist, CFA Dean's Office

Remembering

Irving Oppenheim

(1948-2023)

Dr. Irving Oppenheim, emeritus professor in Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Architecture (SoA) and Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) department, passed away on February 26, 2023, at 74 years old. Oppenheim served on the faculty with great distinction from 1972 until retiring in 2022.

Oppenheim left an indelible mark on countless students, faculty and staff in his 50 years of service to the SoA and CEE. The unique connection between the two departments is an interdisciplinary testament to his legacy as an educator and researcher. Oppenheim is remembered fondly for his singular mastery of communicating across disciplines. He shared his passion for his work and the arts freely, and the stories of those his life touched painted the portrait of a mentor, friend and humanist.

TYPEFACES:

The EX-CHANGE 2023 identity utilizes Nickel, designed by David Jonathan Ross. The publication features Pitch alongside Tiempo Headline and Tiempo Text, both designed by Kris Sowersby of Klim Type Foundry.

EX-CHANGE is an annual exhibition and publication celebrating the work of the Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture from first year to Ph.D. Inaugurated in 2017, EX-CHANGE represents an ongoing opportunity to shine new light on the school’s programs and to position the work within larger questions of research and practice. Exhibitions are on view on campus August 28 -September 10, 2023 in the College of Fine Arts, Margaret Morrison Carnegie Hall and Hunt Library.