with Ashley Ontiveros Nenwe Geeso

Nenwe Geeso

a conversation with Ashley Ontiveros

Nenwe Geeso is a current fifth year graduate student, nurturing the roots to her architectural studies. As a former undergraduate student, she understands the roots to design fundamentals, and is now a teaching assistant for ALA 226, where she brings together her knowledge and experience to connect with students. Sprouting into the field of architecture, she is preparing to begin her internship at Orcutt | Winslow located in Phoenix. Through her design work, she tries to find ways to bridge her passion for architecture with her Assyrian culture, flourishing new opportunities to explore.

Ashley Ontiveros: I’m excited to hear your response, so I want to start with the question how do buildings connect with each other, connect with their enviroment (physically, socially, techonologically, culturally, politically, etc), connect with us, and connect us to each other?

Nenwe Geeso: I believe buildings, like humans, learn from each other. They connect with each other throughout history: each building learns from the past and instantly forms a other wordly connection. There is a lot to learn from one building, either from the technology that is used or the different use of materials; the next buidling will also carry on and improve from the others. The connection is from building to building. Buildings are a major part of our surroundings; they connect to

“ Walking into a building already evokes an emotion. Already a connection is built between us and the building. ”

their environment since they allow the site to influence their design. As for the technological, political, cultural connection to buildings, these concepts share the idea of a problem. Buildings are the solutions to these problems in fact. Walking into a building already evokes an emotion; already a connection is built between us and the building. It’s like there is this unspoken language when you walk into a space because the moment you walk into a space that is bright and green and spaced, you already feel your mood change; you are happy; you want to be in that building; you want to spend time there. These bright and well-designed buildings spaces allow us to connect to each other because those spaces provoke emotions of wanting to be there and gather with others to be in that space.

You mention there is an unspoken connection that happens with buildings, then why do you think connection is important in architecture?

Is there a project of yours that holds a significant connection to you personally?

Tying this my current passion for plants, seeds can’t grow into beautiful plants without water, good soil, sun, and pollination; the same cycle happens with architecture because connection is as vital to architecture. It’s like this ongoing cycle. Without connections, architecture cannot grow. If we don’t feel connected to a building or one that isn’t being utilized, then the building is likely to be destroyed. If the building isn’t connected to the site around it, it isn’t working. Essentially, all of architecture thrives through connection. The same can be thought of human connection with architecture because if you aren’t emotionally attached to a building-design, that building won’t be utilized or existent to its full potential.

persecutions and genocides, close to the time when ISIS had attacked many Assyrian villages in the middle east, this city had lost many of its Assyrian citizens. While doing research for the project, we learned how much had happened with this community of people in the Middle East: they were one of the first civilizations in that area within the country, but they had been almost wiped out and now dispersed throughout the world. I feel like I’m constantly bringing it up- being an Assyrian. Sometimes, I think my classmates and those around me have probably heard my story about a thousand times, but we have been put

I believe it was my first semester fourth year in my undergraduate studies; we were assigned to study concrete or precast concrete. Our project statement was open for us to decide whatever we wanted to design at any site in the world. It was completely up to us. The only constraint was to utilize pre-cast concrete. So, I decided with my teammate, Alexandra Patrick, to work on a project where I got to bring in my cultural background, which is Assyrian. I chose to design a community center in Iraq, designed specifically for Assyrians. I never thought I would be able to design something so close to me or something that meant so much. I am probably the only Assyrian in my class, perhaps in the entire Design School. There aren’t many of us around, and I just happened to have this opportunity to connect with my identity through this project. So, my partner and I picked a site in Iraq, a city where many Assyrians used to live. With previous “ Culture is a part of you, who you are, and there’s no reason to deny that; it only makes for better design. ”

in a position where there are people who try to erase us from history. I remember I sat through one of my classes in 10th grade, and my AP World History teacher mentioned that Assyrians no longer existed while we were briefly mentioned in the one paragraph of the entire textbook. I had to raise my hand, signaling that here I existed, being Assyrian. Therefore, this project made me reflect on finding ways to constantly bring up and connect with my work, but I think architecture has only been a way for me to be a stronger advocate and bring an awareness about Assyrian identity and culture.

While designing, what goes through your mind? What emotions flow through you from your hand to pencil or from mind to mouse?

Excitement. Especially when I’m first given a project statement or the problem we are to solve, I just get butterflies in my stomach. I’m not sure if that is from nerves or excitement. Once I do start, I’m constantly asking myself questions : “should I be doing this, should I be doing that? What is this idea going to provoke? How are others going to feel about the site and kind of space I am to create?” Let me think back a little, at the time I was designing the Community Center for Assyrians, although I was excited to be designing something like this, sometimes I had moments of fear of not being able to produce the right thing. I would think “am I doing this correctly; is this going to benefit the way I want it to. If I were to present this to people in my community, what would they think?” It was these moments of question that I think a lot of us go through. Something that I’ve learned and continue to learn is that you kind of have to consider those, but you can’t let the those thoughts hold you back. Unless you get that initial idea out and trail it, you will be able to move forward and create better iterations, or improve on it. I truly believe if we didn’t have deadlines, we could continue designing forever; that’s why we need them.

One last question- this is more abstract. When you think of architecture, what is the first vivid image of word that comes to mind?

I don’t want to sound cliche because the whole journal is based on this idea, but for me, connection is the one word that comes to mind. When I think architecture, I think connection. I would also say solution. I have always had a passion for teaching, and growing up, I would always find myself going in circles about my career choice: to become a teacher? a lawyer? or an engineer? I ended up studying architeecture, which I believe I am able to combine all of those desires. Architecture is a place where I can merge all of those qualities in my life as one complete connection.