In the Classroom: Winter 2022
As a two-year undergraduate program, Architectural Studies students at UCLA begin their coursework in their junior year, and for the class of 2022 this means that most of their architecture classes were held remotely. Adjusting to remote learning meant these students focused on 3D modeling and developing an architectural design language in a digital sphere before ever experimenting with physical materials central to the profession.
The fall of 2021 marked a milestone for the class: their first in-person studio course. Students in lecturer Katy Barkan’s design studio produced scale models each week as part of an iterative design process focused on formal exploration through built models.
"Returning to in-person instruction affirmed for all of us the communicative power of physical objects and their capacity to engage us as a collective. It was a pleasure to see the students' ‘thawing out’ over the course of the quarter, making thoughtful models, picking up each other's work, and starting conversations," Barkan said.
This ten-week course culminated in the undergraduates’ first in-person final review with a panel of jurors, a rite of passage in architectural education.This photo essay documents the students’ return to Perloff Hall.
Rows of scale architectural models lining the perimeter of Perloff Hall's “double-height” space is an all too familiar sight for the school’s architecture building, yet in December of 2021 it represented the conclusion of the very first in-person studio course for the graduating class of 2022. This cohort of Architectural Studies undergraduates is uniquely situated, having spent their entire first year of architectural education online, thereby missing out on many of the introductory rites of passage intrinsic to an architectural education: model building and pin-up reviews in front of a panel of jurors.
Lecturer Katy Barkan's ten-week undergraduate studio focused on the iterative process of model building, providing students with much-needed exposure to physical construction techniques. Students overcame the learning curve of adjusting to physical output and produced about ten models each, detailing various scales and stages of the design process.
Pinning up drawings and passing around models introduced a long-awaited element of reality and immediacy to what had been an exclusively virtual experience. The opportunity to connect with a jury in person proved invaluable–allowing the community to engage in dynamic conversation about the students’ projects.
Story by Gavin Aleshire
Gavin Aleshire is the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture Strategic Communications Photographer in Residence and a fourth-year undergraduate double major in Architectural Studies and Biology.
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