Geologies of Making
Cornell AAP
Fall 2025
Students study geological transformation as a model for architectural thinking, learning how time, matter, and environmental forces create form. The course frames architecture as an interconnected system influenced by landscape, culture, ecology, and history, including acknowledgment of the Indigenous homelands. The semester is structured around three assignments. Students learn to design through making and to work with environmental transformation as a generative force.
- Assignment 1 introduces spatial systems by extracting patterns from geological processes. Through iterative drawing and paper modeling, students translate rules of erosion and formation into logics of organization.
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Assignment 2 shifts from paper to wood. Students use specific tools to “mark” and “erode” a wooden block, producing physical models and drawings.
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Assignment 3 synthesizes the semester’s research into a multi-scalar proto-architectural formation. Students refine ideas from Assignment 02, develop speculative drawings, build study models, and produce documentation that links landscape, architectural, and human scales.
Program:
1st Year B.Arch Studio
Teaching team:
Sasa Zivkovic*, Katharina Kral, Manuel Bouzas, Iroha Ito, Fany Kuzmova, Connor Gravelle, Marcos Escamilla.
Students (Bouzas):
Daniel Chan, Veranika Hukish, Shiwoo Lee, Kiera Lensing, Alexa Liu, Juanita Londono, Janelle Nelson-Osae, Prim Ongvasith, Sofía Oscoy Garzon, Billy Poydar, Jerry Zeng, Michelle Zheng.
