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Graduation 1/2/12. Graduation Pavilion designed by Oyler Wu Collaborative Thesis Weekend 3. Student preps thesis exhibit 4. Matthew Au presents his thesis to the critics 5. Best Graduate Thesis: Michael W. Gross (M.Arch 2), The Cut Advisor: Elena Manferdini 6. Best Graduate Thesis: David A. Bantz (M.Arch 2), Fuzzy Figures: Pictorial Dissolution of Formal Perception Advisor: Elena Manferdini 7. Selected Graduate Thesis: Donovan Ballantyne (M.Arch 2), The Cut Advisor: Elena Manferdini 8. Best Graduate Thesis: Ivan Bernal (M.Arch 2), Familiar Primitives Advisor: Hernan Diaz Alonso 9. Best Graduate Thesis: Paul Mecomber (M.Arch 2), Strange Symmetry: The Conjoined Twin Advisor: Andrew Zago 10. Visitors at Graduate Thesis Weekend pass by Paul Mecomber’s thesis project 11. Visitors pass by the Graduate Thesis Weekend sign
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3 DAYS IN SEPTEMBER
Fall term is a dynamic and inspirational time in the life of SCIArc. Students are back and the new academic year brings renewal. On a broader plane, SCI-Arc is on the threshold of its 40th anniversary, when our still young school will strengthen the promise of its future and renew its commitment to educate architects who will imagine and shape the future. ,Q HDUO\ 6HSWHPEHU GXULQJ WKH ÀUVW ZHHN RI )DOO WHUP 6&, Arc hosted its Graduate Thesis Weekend. A culmination of up to three years of study and coursework leading toward the M.Arch and M.DesR graduate degrees, the public event has students preVHQWLQJ WKHLU ÀQDO SURMHFWV WR FULWLFV IURP DOO RYHU WKH ZRUOG *UDGXDWH WKHVLV UHà HFWV 6&, $UF¡V ULJRURXV DUFKLWHFWXUDO HGXFDWLRQ WKDW is responsive to cultural change, promotes architectural experimentation and creative and academic freedom, and supports a à XLG UHODWLRQVKLS EHWZHHQ HGXFDWLRQ DQG SUDFWLFH 6&, $UF¡V WKHsis weekend is regarded among theoreticians and practicing archiWHFWV DV D PDMRU IRUXP IRU WKH GLVFXVVLRQ RI IUHVK LQVLJKWV DQG LQQRYDWLYH FRQFHSWV LQ DUFKLWHFWXUH $PRQJ JXHVW MXURUV DWWHQGLQJ WKLV \HDU¡V WKHVLV UHYLHZV ZHUH 6DP -DFRE *OHQ +RZDUG 6PDOO %UHWW 6WHHOH )DEUL]LR *DOODQWL 3HWHU &RRN -RH 'D\ -HIIUH\ .LSQLV *UHJ /\QQ DQG -HVVH 5HLVHU Every year, the guest critics are tasked with selecting the most exceptional thesis work from more than seventy graduate and SRVW JUDGXDWH SURMHFWV SUHVHQWHG VFKRRO ZLGH %HVW WKHVLV VWXGHQWV 7 honored this year were: Francisco Alarcon Ruiz (M.Arch 1): Innerscapes David A. Bantz (M.Arch 2): Fuzzy Figures: Pictorial Dissolution of Formal Perception Ivan Bernal (M.Arch 2): Familiar Primitives Michael W. Gross (M.Arch 2): The Cut Paul Mecomber (M.Arch 2): Strange Symmetry: The Conjoined Twin Curime Batliner (ESTm), Brandon Kruysman (ESTm), and Jonathan Proto (ESTm): SYN|Synchronous (Object)ives D JURXS WKHVLV SURMHFW GHYHORSHG LQ WKH QHZ 6&, $UF 5RERW +RXVH
A two-week Selected Thesis Exhibition was on view in the 6&, $UF *DOOHU\ WKURXJK WKH HQG RI 6HSWHPEHU *UDGXDWH VWXGHQWV selected to exhibit alongside best thesis winners were Matthew Au (M.Arch 1), Amanda Diemoz Webber (M.Arch 1), Donovan Ballantyne (M.Arch 2), and Kim Lagercrantz (M.Arch 2). Thesis Weekend culminated in the annual Graduation Ceremony, where degrees are conferred to graduating students in the B.Arch, M.Arch, and post-graduate programs. In what has beFRPH D WUDGLWLRQ WKH VFKRRO¡V JUDGXDWLRQ SDYLOLRQ LV GHVLJQHG HDFK year by faculty members and built with the help of students. This year, faculty members Dwayne Oyler and Jenny Wu of Oyler Wu Collaborative, along with their students, and faculty member Matthew Melnyk of Nous Engineering who did the engineering, designed a pavilion entitled Netscape that stretches across the northern end of the SCI-Arc parking lot, providing seating for 900. Consisting of 45,000 linear feet of knitted rope, 6000 linear feet of tube steel, and 3000 square feet of fabric shade louvers, the SDYLOLRQ FUHDWHG D VDLO OLNH FDQRS\ RI URSH DQG IDEULF WKDW à RDWHG above the audience. With its fabric louvers tilted toward the westHUQ VN\ WKH FDQRS\ ZDV GHVLJQHG WR SURYLGH VKDGH IRU WKH VSHFLÀF date and time of the graduation ceremony.
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7KLV \HDU¡V FRPPHQFHPHQW VSHDNHU 3ULW]NHU SUL]H ZLQQHU Thom Mayne and a SCI-Arc founding faculty member, said this about the graduation pavilion: “How typically SCI-Arc, an institution renowned for its conceptual thinking but also committed to an engagement with the real. It is right and fitting that you would be in a space created by two of your faculty members for this graduation ceremony. In keeping with SCI-Arc’s essential nature, the space is both temporary and contemporary. The temporary implies that it is of this time and place, an architecture interpretive and specific to this celebration today. The contemporary implies that the space itself will be re-thought and re-designed annually to provide an environment that evolves and changes just as the curriculum evolves and changes to encompass new technology, new world realities, and the new modes of creative thinking that you were charged with developing over the course of your education here.â€?
)RU WKH Ă€UVW WLPH DW 6&, $UF¡V JUDGXDWLRQ FHUHPRQ\ a graduating student, Tristan Brasseur 0 $UFK ¡ addressed her peers: “The final story today, the one I’d like to end on, is the one that hasn’t yet happened. It’s the story that comes after this one, the one where we all live happily ever after to the end of our days and where we stay in contact with one another by way of facetime, online social networking websites, and sporadic class reunions. This is it, guys. This is the end of this story. It’s the part of the story I never finish because I never want it to end. This is the part that actually means the world to us. We all remember rolling in here for the very first time, the very first day of school. We remember modeling butterflies in our very first Maya class. That was 748 days ago. Tomorrow it will be 749. It’s just as my father always told me: whatever you choose to be in life, be a good one. Be a great one. Our time here at SCI-Arc has taught us to be curious and optimistic, but at the same time critical. We’ve learned to do things that are unusual and we’ve learned that taking risks is a way of living our lives, not just in terms of architecture. 748 days ago we came here as Padawans and today we are leaving with Jedi masters and Jedi bachelors degrees. Be great and make good choices.â€?