High resolution - Princeton - Example graduate school personal statement

Example graduate school personal statement

I am a designer who is concerned with architectural theory ultimately as it engages with the practice. I see urban tissue as a laboratory for testing the psychological, economic, and physical effects of built work on its surroundings. My aspiration is to do work that both investigates prior solutions and is also stimulated by current events and technologies. With its focus on new technology and its unsurpassed background in history and theory, Princeton School of Architecture is the ideal place to strengthen my design ideology and target my direction as a designer in tomorrow’s socio-political milieu.

As an undergraduate student, creating digital models as a personal hobby helped me to develop a design sense. I experimented freely with my projects by mixing many digital production methods which pushed my technique further. I familiarized myself with a wide range of design development workflows including evidence-based design methods, computer-generated design, design with conceptual methodologies, and more.

After a few years in architecture school, I had the opportunity to intern at Preliminary Research Office. I am stimulated by how this firm is able to adopt formal characteristics from their theoretical interest in a way that creates an architectural language. I admire how they can turn one gestural mass move into a plan move or a detail, solidifying a formal code at varying scales. Additionally, the office excels in resolving the even the most minute details of their projects in surprising ways, revealed in intricate physical models to animated technical drawings. I want to bring this sense of “high resolution” into my own future work.

My eventual aim is to become the principal of my own architectural practice that can both rigorously engage in contemporary theoretical discourse and remain relevant to the demands of a world increasingly concerned with overpopulation, privacy, mass migration, big data and more. I desire to learn in an academic environment that seriously addresses the near future of architecture as it relates to these topics. Pursuing the Master in Architecture degree at Princeton will grant me the opportunity to further learn how to implement the most current ideas, tools, and conceptual design methodologies as well as master fundamental architectural spacial tactics to reify my design narratives.

To me, it is critical to study interpretations of what the built environment could be, and then begin integrating the concerns of scholarship into the practice in new ways. At Princeton I will be exposed to a collaborative and experimental studio culture that I believe fits my learning style well. I will have the chance to further improve my collaboration skills and can practice performing team roles in high-intensity projects. I am particularly intrigued by the diverse array of studios whose themes can wildly diverge from or can play off the others’. To me, this atmosphere is an incubator for innovation as it corrals students to think about a single concept with different perspectives while also continuously bringing in fresh ideas.

Thank you for reviewing my application. Looking forward to your response,