Undergraduate Thesis at SCI-Arc prepares students to articulate, propose, and defend their ideas and positions on architecture as well as engage with professionals as peers and colleagues.
Undergraduate Thesis
“There is no greater contribution an architect can make to the progress of the discipline than a project. In the final year of their education, SCI-Arc students develop an architectural thesis that advances the highest degree of design and technical expertise coupled with critical thinking.”
- Jenny Wu, Undergraduate Thesis Coordinator
Heading title
The culmination of SCI-Arc's five-year B.Arch curriculum is the year-long Undergraduate Thesis, which challenges the next generation of architects and designers to take firm positions, form fresh perspectives, and propose solutions for eminent architectural issues.
During their final year in the B.Arch program, students are required to take disciplinary stances in architecture, expressed through the development of a building design. This pedagogical model empowers students to move between speculative frameworks and the tangible considerations built architecture confronts.
“SCI-Arc provides immense exposure to multiple contemporary perspectives that challenge the way we approach architecture. Through technology and other disciplines, the school pushes students to seek alternative solutions to issues in the discourse. Given the current social, cultural, and political climate, SCI-Arc encourages its students to bring forward critical, repressed voices and allows the conversation to happen. Important and sensitive issues, like race, gender, sexuality, disability, and many more, can find their safe space here at SCI-Arc.
Throughout the five-year program, SCI-Arc shaped my view toward the architectural discourse. The inclusion of different aspects is as essential as the design itself. SCI-Arc gives me the hope that we can have a productive discussion about paramount issues in society through architecture.”
Undergraduate Thesis project by Santiago Alvarez + Malvin Bunata Wibowo. (B.Arch, '21)
Heading titleDeveloping a Professional Position on Architecture
During SCI-Arc’s thesis prep semester, students build upon the knowledge and perspective acquired over the previous four years of liberal arts courses and elective seminars to develop an individual position in relation to contemporary architectural discourse.
Through engaging with research methods and architectural precedents students create drawings, images, and models that effectively illustrate their developing ideas.
In the final semester of the B.Arch program, students continue to hone their positions and define design challenges that address both their personal points of view as well as global issues relevant to the discipline and practice of architecture. Students then select sites and establish programs, ultimately conceiving schematic designs for structures that intellectually and tectonically resolve their initial design problems.
Thesis culminates with a presentation and public exhibition of a holistically-researched architectural thesis.
Heading titleCritiqued by Remarkable Critics and Thinkers
Throughout their thesis year, B.Arch students regularly present their in-progress projects during reviews with the aim of fostering direction, discussion, and debate.
Each year, SCI-Arc invites world-renowned architects to serve as special advisors to Undergraduate Thesis students. Past Special Thesis Advisors have included Wolf D. Prix, Ferda Kolatan, and Neil M. Denari.
Undergraduate Thesis by Chu Wen Ong
“As a school of architecture, SCI-Arc placed me in an inclusive environment which nourished my own interests in the field by allowing me to pursue them while exposing me to contemporary figures in our profession and experiencing their different modes of engagement in the discourse of architecture.
One of my most valuable memories from SCI-Arc was walking along the long campus corridor, passing the different core and vertical studio spaces. Throughout the year, you can see the production grow into the hallway in a way that depicts the life of each semester and the culture of SCI-Arc.”
Undergraduate Thesis project by Takin Daneshmir + Yizhan Zhong. (B.Arch, '21)
Heading titleUndergraduate Thesis Weekend
Undergraduate Thesis Weekend is a public platform where students launch their careers as architects during which over 70 jurors, critics, and architecture professionals from around the globe converge at SCI-Arc to discuss, debate, and dispute emerging questions in architecture. Leading the conversation about architecture’s current and evolving role, B.Arch thesis projects speculate on how theoretical and technological innovation will shape the future of the built environment.
Over the course of Thesis Weekend, B.Arch students present their final projects to panels of faculty and guest juries comprised of some of the top architects, critics, and theorists in the field. Past thesis critics have included Thom Mayne, Sir Peter Cook, Winka Dubbeldam, Graham Harman, Catherine Ingraham, Nanako Umemoto, and Hitoshi Abe.
Heading titleUndergraduate Thesis Prize
SCI-Arc’s Undergraduate Thesis prize is endowed by Blythe Mayne and Pritzker Prize-winning architect and SCI-Arc founding faculty Thom Mayne to recognize an outstanding B.Arch thesis project that exemplifies the highest degree of design skill, technical expertise, and critical thinking. The recipient of the Blythe and Thom Mayne Undergraduate Thesis Prize is determined each year by jury commendations and announced during SCI-Arc’s commencement ceremony in September.
Isabela de Souza final presentation
Undergraduate Thesis by Alejandro Loor
Luciano Menghini final presentation
Undergraduate Thesis by Ka Leung, Wilson Chan, Yi Peng Liu and Zixiao Kiwi Zhu (Advisor: Marcelo Spina)
Undergraduate Thesis axonometric drawing by Karim Saleh