A Jungle of Ideas: SCI-Arc Closes Out the Academic Year with Undergraduate Thesis and Spring Show

SCI-Arc concluded the 2024–25 academic year with two major events: Undergraduate Thesis Reviews and Spring Show: Jungle. Both drew strong attendance from the design community and beyond, offering a public glimpse into the school’s experimental ethos. The student work on view was ambitious and provocative—true to SCI-Arc’s reputation for pushing architectural boundaries.

Undergraduate Thesis Reviews: Bold Visions Take Shape

On April 18 and 19, the Undergraduate Thesis Reviews brought together faculty, guest critics, and a wide community of visitors to witness the culmination of the B.Arch students’ final year of study. More than 80 reviewers engaged in dialogue with students over two days of presentations, where architectural proposals doubled as cultural critique, personal narrative, and speculative fiction.

Projects explored topics ranging from environmental futures to political resistance, often using bold formal strategies to ask urgent questions about how architecture intersects with contemporary life. The reviews sparked rigorous discussion, underscoring the school’s ongoing commitment to pushing the limits of the discipline. View the projects at ugthesis.sciarc.edu.

Spring Show: A Jungle Comes to Life

One week later, the SCI-Arc campus was transformed into a living rainforest for Spring Show: Jungle, an exhibition and opening party that turned the school into a surreal landscape of light, sound, and greenery. The show, curated and designed by faculty member Damjan Jovanovic, presented student work from every program across a lush, sensory installation.

The opening night drew hundreds of guests, immersed in drifting fog and glowing greenery, as Dublab DJs spun electronic sets. Neon light filtered through tree canopies, illuminating architectural models along the walls, while large-scale projects ascended The Steps. Monitors throughout the space played narrative shorts, animated experiments, and intricately rendered environments.

Together, these events offered a vibrant snapshot of a campus where architecture is not just a profession, but a living, breathing act of imagination.