Master of Architecture II Thesis 2020

Image

GRADUATE THESIS
Assistant Professor Nora Akawi
Professor Anthony Vidler

The 2019-20 graduate Thesis studio occurred during the last months of 2020, a year that was incredibly challenging for students. The semester began with a suggestion for each student to consider the context in which they were creating their Thesis, and to see themselves participating in the building of a world of many worlds: un mundo donde quepan muchos mundos, borrowing from a Zapatista manifesto. 

Each project is a window into the concerns and curiosities of each student, as they relate to and position themselves in the field of inquiry and design in architecture. Their work takes us from meridians in the body to meridians around the globe; from queer performance spaces and an architectural performance of mistranslation exposing cultural appropriation, to architectural ghosts, cracks, and the toxic dust of corporations; through ambiguity and void as design strategies and their potential for institutional critique, and into the troubling role of the photograph and the elevation in architecture’s understanding of the street, calling for the collapse of visual representation and political representation into a single act. We know, of course, that these projects are all only beginnings—the questions posed by students now will continue to follow each of them for some time to come.

< Back to Selected Graduate Design Studio Projects

Projects

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.