Undergraduate Thesis 2021 Renews Discourse Through Imagination and Community

In acknowledgement of the extraordinary work done by the 2021 Undergraduate Thesis class during this unprecedented year, SCI-Arc is proud to announce its 2021 UG Thesis Weekend on April 23–24, 2021 as this year’s graduating thesis students, along with Undergraduate Thesis Coordinator Jenny Wu, present and share their accomplishments with the world.

“Since our move to remote teaching a year ago,” shares Wu, “our students have used this opportunity to be inventive about how they work on their thesis, by transforming their digital work into compelling narratives and turning their own living spaces into creative laboratories for unconventional model building.”

Each year, Undergraduate Thesis at SCI-Arc prepares fifth-year B.Arch students to articulate, propose, and defend their ideas and positions on architecture as well as engage with professionals as peers and colleagues.

In their final semester of design studio, students in SCI-Arc’s Undergraduate Thesis class complete the production of a year-long thesis project, which addresses a position in relation to contemporary architectural discourse and presents a highly developed building design project.

This April 23-24, SCI-Arc’s fifth-year B.Arch students will present their thesis projects during an immersive, virtual Undergraduate Thesis Weekend, an online public platform during which over 70 jurors, critics, and architecture professionals from around the globe converge to discuss, debate, and dispute emerging questions in architecture.

SCI-Arc’s 2021 Undergraduate Thesis Weekend will be held remotely, featuring multi-channel livestreamed reviews broadcast online and viewable simultaneously in real-time, so friends and family from all over the world can tune in and experience the boundary-pushing work of SCI-Arc’s 2021 Undergraduate Thesis class.

"I'm super impressed that our undergraduates have been able to create high-level discourse about the architectural issues of today, all while being physically separated from one another,” relates Tom Wiscombe, SCI-Arc Undergraduate Program Chair. “It sounds impossible, but they and their faculty have been crafty, relentless, and focused on establishing and maintaining a strong community throughout. I'm proud of everyone and looking forward to seeing the outcomes in April."

"In times of crisis, we demand and hope that architecture helps us cling to the possibility of a better future,” comments SCI-Arc Director Hernán Díaz Alonso. “Our 2021 Undergraduate Thesis students, with the support of our incredible faculty, have renewed this energy for us over the past year. The work they’ve produced in the face of uncommon challenges continues the imagination, obligation, and commitment of architecture as a cultural production to improve us as a species. These are times of transformation and renewal for our society, facilitated forward by the creativity of our students. They are a vehicle for the changes we want and need.”

Visit the Undergraduate Thesis 2021 website to access review schedule for the entire weekend, participating juror list, multi-channel session streams during the event, sneak peeks of student thesis projects, and more.