Architecture as Applied Utopias: From Planetary to Personal Systems

Working collaboratively on crucial and sensitive topics that explore roles, responsibilities, and tools available for our designers as future “agents of change,” this project showcases more integrative and systemic design techniques while envisioning sustainable strategies for fragile local and global communities. Experimental methodologies, which investigate and represent the complexity of our current built and unbuilt environments, are explored at SoAD throughout all our curricular and extracurricular activities, at the graduate and undergraduate levels, and prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion in all its forms. This approach also encourages action and leadership through transformative and continuously evolving learning experiences that promote innovation and advance systems of discovery to provide a design and technology-based 21st-century integrated education in the fields of architecture, construction, interior design, and digital art. More specifically, the students’ work presented is the culmination of two semesters of final thesis class, part of our B.Arch program at the New York City campus, led by esteemed faculty, who are also the hosts of this event, Professors Daniel Sundlin and Alana Goldweit. This unique Thesis studio section has been selected by SoAD Dean Maria Perbellini as the endowed Tommaso and Franca Chieco Dean’s Atelier Studio for the academic year 2023-2024. The work exhibited focuses on the topic of “Architecture as Applied Utopias,” and highlights the proposals produced in the class including an installation designed and built by the students in the New York Tech campus in Long Island (Education Hall building).
After last year’s installation tilted “From Personal to Planetary Systems: Designing for Environment, People and Economy,” (also shown in the images included here) the new one titled “Architecture as Applied Utopias: From Planetary to Personal Systems,” focuses on the future of sustainable design. Within this framework, students explore localizing vital systems like water, food, and energy at urban and architectural scales. This event offers a unique opportunity to engage with visionary concepts, examine the spatial impact of human existence, and understand the frameworks for communities that prioritize climate, ecological, and social well-being.

To participate in this event please register here