Dami Olufowoshe and Katie Chuh: Form and Function
Works In Progress is the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture podcast. It's available everywhere you listen to podcasts: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, and Pandora.
UCLA Arts alumni and active practitioners Dami Olufowoshe M.Arch. ‘16 and Katie Chuh M.Arch. ‘16 join Works In Progress to discuss what initially drew them to architecture, what they gained from their time at UCLA, how they have adapted to rapidly evolving technology, and any advice they can provide to aspiring architects.
Dami Olufowoshe is a Studio Director at RIOS, an international design collective. As Studio Director, Dami applies his accumulated knowledge in design and representation to contribute to thought leadership and shape design excellence around the RIOS office. He believes architecture is a complex network of relationships constantly shaping the world and that as designers, we are all catalysts for connections.
His experiences working on and completing a handful of commercial renovations and ground-up projects have gained him the technical knowledge and design sensitivity to understand trends in the future of the workplace. Dami is in tune with the trajectory of architectural pedagogy by consistently engaging in academia, from teaching and lecturing at the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design to being a visiting critic at USC, Sci-Arc, Woodbury, Cal Poly Pomona, and Kent State University.
Katie Chuh, left, and Dami Olufowoshe, right, discuss what initially drew them to architecture. (Patrick Shao / UCLA Arts)
A licensed engineer and a licensed architect, Katie Chuh is a Principal at OFFSET Engineering, a full-service structural engineering firm she co-founded with Ben Varela in 2022. Katie retains a unique depth of experience in projects ranging from multi-family/mixed use, custom single-family houses, modular/prefabrication, and commercial buildings with technical emphasis in seismic design and detailing, structural dynamics, and Building Information Modeling.
Katie worked for several years in Los Angeles-based architectural and engineering firms, including Kevin Daly Architects and Workpoint Engineering. She has served as a guest lecturer at the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design and has helped teach graduate-level technical studios focused on structural performance within architectural design.
Katie Chuh, left, and Dami Olufowoshe, right, discuss what initially drew them to architecture. (Patrick Shao / UCLA Arts)
Click here to listen to past episodes of Works In Progress.
Header image: A photo of Katie Chuh, left, and Dami Olufowoshe, right, at RIOS. (Patrick Shao / UCLA Arts)
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