Making - MIT - Grad school statement of purpose

Grad school statement of purpose

Language is a technology that affects the processing and expression of representation. In a self-directed research project in my Visual Practice course, I explored the overlapping boundaries of image, text and notation. After working towards specific definitions for them, I realized a latent belief that each functions as a language for communication and that the nuanced vocabulary of each language is its differentiator. Learning and commanding the vocabulary of various design languages allow architects to speak through non-verbal avenues, and the ability to translate ideas between media, to move ideas between representational languages, is the architect's strength. My architectural work has two main branches: visual translation and material translation, the former as translating ideas into visuals and the latter as translating ideas and visuals into 3-dimensional space. I approach design problems through the framework of translation, each with its own response to the interwoven cultural, material, and environmental conditions of the design investigation. An initial thought transfigures into diagrammatic, abstract visuals and further reconfigures into spatial representations of concept.

My undergraduate architecture education allowed me to explore this interest in visual and material translation through my wide range of courses. Throughout my studios and electives, I have approached the design inquiries through socioeconomic and ecological frameworks with an additional imperative of understanding boundaries of representational techniques. The field of architecture, as an interdisciplinary practice by nature, is uniquely poised to address the pervasive issues and intersections of culture, media, the built environment, and nature. In order to better relate with others of differing backgrounds, I pursued many courses outside the field of architecture; a combination of technical courses and French language study have completely impressed the importance and versatility of translation theories upon me. In my architecture electives, I selected classes specifically to learn beyond the basic architectural education, exploring theory, computational design, and digital fabrication. I believe that one's limits of representation are the limits of their knowledge, so I planned this variety to expand my own limits and design vocabulary; I intentionally selected each class so that I could better use architecture as an interdisciplinary link to encourage sustainable built development, cultural contexts, and environmental consumption.

Outside of studio and continuing after graduation, I have been heavily involved with both fabrication projects and professional work. In my Pre-Cast Concrete course, we began an open-ended investigation into reconfigurable rubber molds as a means of exploring a more sustainable future for architectural casting processes without compromising aesthetic variety. While continuing fabrication and exhibiting at the FabCity Conference over the summer, I was also working as a professional fabricator and designer with Formations Studio in Atlanta. Leading the design development and fabrication of a large, backlit wood veneer public art installation over the course of several months, I instilled my own beliefs about intentional material selection. Currently, I work as an intern architect at EYP in Boston, in a community of individuals highly dedicated to using design to improve the human experience and preserve environmental resources. The opportunity to incorporate a project into its environment beyond the complexity of a single building, in areas like historical preservation and master planning, has reinforced my desire for interdisciplinary studies in architectural education. This position has considerably improved my understanding of how visual representation through precise detailing enables the physical manifestation of design intent which has completely confirmed my desire to pursue licensure and work as an architect.

The Master of Architecture program at MIT aligns with my professional goals due to its focused curriculum, prolific faculty, and effective research groups. While teaching someone how to be creative could be seen as a contradiction, the program at MIT has an established history of teaching its students to think independently and to develop their own design constraints that set them up to be conscientious designers with a strong work ethic. The school emphasizes social engagement and environmental awareness, which completely align with the values I hold both in and out of academia. MIT's program and its research endeavors would allow me to further develop my interests in visual representation, computational design, and multimodal making while directing those interests into realized applications that are more widely accessible. I especially admire MIT for its systematic education that treats architecture as a practice; its intensive improvement of isolated skills, that when recombined, add together into great designers, readjusting mental frameworks of architecture to work between architecture and other fields. This approach to architectural instruction would apply a beneficial pressure on me to rapidly and intensively improve my existing design skills.

MIT is at the forefront of investigating the open-ended processes and practices of "making" through theory and fabrication, and this emphasis on the thinking-making relationship and advancing data visualization promises meaningful opportunities to learn from established faculty members and research organizations; Renee Green, Gediminas Urbonas, Rasa Smite, and Raitis Smite are a few individuals whose research around visualizing the intersection of art, thought/memory, culture, and the inhabited environment are particularly interesting to me. I especially want to contribute to this line of investigation, either through working directly with faculty researchers or through organizations like the Computational Making Group, enabling me to apply my range of skills towards solidifying "making" as a means of designing and enhancing both common and unique human conditions through established avenues at MIT. Between the engaging courses and wide range of research topics, I can clearly envision a path for me to contribute to architectural discourse and to expand upon my existing beliefs surrounding design.

The field of architecture can address the increasingly complex relationship between culture, nature, and the built environment, and we must be the mediators between these intricacies and their visual and material representations, working towards a more just and sustainable society. I propose that the architects of today must fully embrace the digital turn to grow their design vocabulary and prepare themselves to use design to intelligently guide the increasingly intertwined nature of the world to fight for compassion towards our fellow humankind, our shared earth, and our collective future.