Making Relationships
Cornell AAP
Spring 2026
The studio introduces architecture as a global, diverse discipline shaped by local culture, environment, materials, and methods of construction. Students study regional precedents to understand how context produces distinct design strategies and how materials, tools, and techniques inform space, scale, and structure. Across all work, the course challenges students through defamiliarization, helping them see everyday spaces with fresh eyes and become more critical thinkers while building the analytical, technical, and representational skills needed to articulate their own design approach. The semester is structured in two parts:
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Assignment 1 trains students to document and analyze precedents, reinterpret their essential ideas, and convert those insights into new spatial and material concepts. Students record organizational and construction logics, extract and abstract design principles, and apply them in a short design competition.
- Assignment 2 focuses on the design of a schoolhouse annex. Building on the analytical tools developed in the first half of the semester, students investigate learning environments, rituals of use, site adaptation, and spatial organization. Through iterative studies, they develop contextual, structural, and material strategies that culminate in a comprehensive architectural proposal.
Program:
1st Year B.Arch Studio
Teaching team:
Suzanne Lettieri*, Jennifer Newsom, Manuel Bouzas, Iroha Ito, Marcos Escamilla, Cat Chen, Connor Gravelle.
Students (Bouzas):
Anqui Li, Aristedes Chavarria, Aron Bakos, Brooklynn McGough, Jerry Hu, Jun-Ki Kim, Levi Elenbaas, Olympia Hu, Sanjita Paspulati, Sining Lu, Xiwen Lin, Xiyan Sun.
