Arrivederci ! Au revoir! Auf Wiedersehen! ¡Adiós! ...and goodbye!
How did the end of the semester creep up on us so fast? It only felt like we were just getting started!
As I reflect back on Chicago studio Spring semester 2018, it was possibly one of the best opportunities that I took advantage of in UIUC's graduate program from living in the city to having studio in Stantec's office to firm visits and hospital tours, we had it all. We got a very holistic studio in which the seminars correlated back to the studio itself, deepening our knowledge of healthcare architecture.
We met a lot of interesting people and created new connections with architects, designers, and planners in the field. We were able to get all kinds of perspectives and feedback from these great people which has helped us as designers of the future.
I have taken all kinds of studios throughout grad school from fabrication to skyscrapers. This healthcare studio was not your typical architecture project in school, where you get a syllabus with the site selected and the program outlined for you with square-footages and all. We were able to each take on the project in any approach we thought was the most interesting to us. It was a great way to get our minds thinking in a different way than what we are used to. We were able to zoom out and zoom in from the whole urban scale down the a specific individual and their needs.
The studio finally culminated into each of the four teams having wildly different projects. It was amazing to see how each of us could interpret the project from the beginning and design something new and well thought out while being just as valid as the other teams'. We all had the same problem presented to us but took it on at different angles, producing various scales of solutions.
The format in which we presented our final work was a museum/cocktail style. All of our work was pinned up in a museum style fashion and we had a 2 hour event in which professionals in the healthcare world and in architecture were invited to come and see our work. We were able to discuss our work on a more personal level and while making connections with new and familiar faces.
I would highly recommend this studio to all graduate students who are considering it, it is definitely worth your while! I couldn't have asked for a better way to end my 6 years with UIUC than here in Chicago participating in this studio.
Thank you Stantec for hosting us!
Images: Taken by Luz Upegui on iPhone 7