The 2013 Spring M.Arch. Thesis focused on the theme "Call to Action." All 15 M.Arch. students were given the following brief:
"CALL TO ACTION is just what it says, a passionate plea for an architecture of activism. Four years after the start of the recent economic downturn, as many of the worst problems we confront reach a breaking-point, architecture seems crippled by crisis fatigue, unmotivated and listless. The discipline has fallen victim to a scarcity of both resources and willpower. This has not always been the case. There have been historical periods when architects demonstrated social agency and conviction - see the early modernist’s advocacy for social housing and new forms of urbanism, Buckminster Fuller’s attempts to use design to solve the earth’s energy and resource problems in the 40s and 50s, or the many radical practices in the late 60s that strove to subvert systems of power, or some of the grassroots attempts to rethink collective forms of resistance in the 90s and early 00s. What initiatives can architects take to make architecture count today? How must architecture evolve in order to make a relevant contribution? Define your role in a new architecture of activism."
Jury: Brian Boigon, Vishaan Chakrabarti, Teddy Cruz, Craig Dykers, Nikolaus Hirsch, Laura Kurgan, Mitch McEwan, Warren Neidich, Felicity Scott, David Van Der Leer, and Mark Wasiuta.
Spring 2013 M.Arch. Thesis PROJECTS
Jane Chua, "Sites of Confrontation: The Ephemeral Architecture of Direct Democracy." Advisor: Alejandro Zaera-Polo.
Cyrus Penarroyo, "The City Inside." Advisor: Paul Lewis.
Trudy Watt, "Invented but True: Neighborhood Chronicles." Advisor: Mario Gandelsonas.
Anna Knoell, "Landscapes of Risk." Advisor: Paul Lewis.
Mei Lun Xue, "Made in Prato: Border Productions." Advisor: Paul Lewis.
Anika Schwarzwald, "Making Moves." Advisor: Guy Nordenson
Laura Ettedgui & Julianne Gola-Papa, "Miniature Architecture: Selling Out." Advisors: Axel Kilian and Hayley Eber
Willem Boning & Matthew Bertsch, "From the Sound Up: Generating Form from Acoustic Preferences." Advisor Guy Nordenson.
Nasra Nimaga, "Home Grown Architecture: Sisal and Maintained Permanence." Advisor: Alejandro Zaera-Polo.
Michal Koszycki, "Stupid Ideas in Architecture: Transparency." Advisor: Michael Meredith.
Aleksandr Bierig, "Design for Living." Advisor: Michael Meredith.
Griffin Frazen, "Loss & Recovery of Tahrir Square." Advisor: Axel Kilian.
Jesse Seegers, "Potlatch Pavilion." Advisor: Mario Gandelsonas.
Antonia Weiss, "Transnational Brussels: A Ground for Action." Advisor: Hayley Eber.
Ryan Johns, "Mixed Reality Modeling." Advisor: Jesse Reiser.
