Department of Architecture

Architecture at Cornell's College of Architecture, Art, and Planning (AAP) is about creative and critical design practices that make lasting impact — balancing rigorous research and scholarship, responsibility for our natural and built environments, and reimagining the world at every scale to build a just and sustainable future for all.
At Cornell Architecture we see design as a process of creative experimentation and iterative analysis, ensuring non-judgmental, holistic, and open-ended inquiry enabled by independent, critical thinking and bold thought leadership. Our undergraduate and graduate programs are designed to support interdisciplinary collaboration and provide an integrated foundation in global history, theory, structures, environmental systems, building technologies, visual representation, ensuring that our students are equipped with actionable knowledge and the agency to enact change.
Student Work Above:
Left: "Swaying Udders" by Christopher Yi, (M.Arch. '20); Top Right: "CREOLE: A Spatial Language of Cultural Preservation, Transition, and Production" by Cornelius Tulloch (B.Arch. '21); Bottom Right: "Loop Column" by Justin Foo (B.Arch. '18) and Xinyu Yi (M.Arch '16).
Highlights
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Architecture Faculty Labs
AAP labs catalyze imagination and innovation to address urgent challenges facing our cities and communities. Led by faculty with deep disciplinary and trans-disciplinary expertise, the labs forge networks and collaborations that push boundaries to advance a more resilient, sustainable, and just world.
Videos
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From Ordinary to Extraordinary
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L.P. Kwee Studios at Milstein Hall
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A Different Way of Thinking
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Unbuild Better: a Collegetown Case Study in Deconstruction
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Alex Torres (B.Arch. '23)
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Andrew Boghossian (B.Arch. '23)
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Tuesday, August 16, 2022
Cornell AAP Announces New Hires Advancing Collaborative Scholarship and Creative Practice in Social Justice and Equity
Cornell AAP announces the appointment of eight new faculty members and two fellows who will bring social justice and radical collaboration to the forefront of the college's efforts to build a more sustainable, just, and thriving world for all.
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Thursday, May 12, 2022
Migrations Grants Fund Worldwide Interdisciplinary Projects
The Cornell Chronicle highlights awarded faculty research, including work by Architecture Professor Esra Akcan, Art Visiting Associate Professor Renate Ferro, and Architecture Assistant Professor Tao DuFour.
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Wednesday, August 17, 2022
New York's Center for Architecture Announces New Leadership and Chair
Archinect reports on new appointments at AIANY's Center for Architecture, including incoming Architecture Assistant Professor Peter Robinson who has been named the organization's new vice chair.
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Monday, August 15, 2022
Biomaterial Building Exposition at the University of Virginia
For The Journal of Architectural Education, José Ibarra (B.Arch. '17) reviews the exhibition, led by Katie MacDonald and Kyle Schumann (both B.Arch. '13) with work by AAP Architecture faculty Leslie Lok and Sasa Zivkovic's HANNAH studio.
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Monday, August 15, 2022
2022 Architecture + Design Independent Projects Grant Recipients
Visiting Associate Professor Anna Dietzsch has been named among the awardees of the $10,000 grants, which she will apply towards work in partnership with Braiding the Sacred, a network of Indigenous communities in New York.
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Thursday, August 11, 2022
Design in the Age of Digital Twins: A Conversation With Graphics Pioneer Donald Greenberg
Greenberg shares his enthusiasm for his "next big project" — creating new tools for an architecture design course at Cornell based on today's capabilities for building realistic 3D worlds and digital twins.
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Thursday, August 11, 2022
The Office of Good Intentions. Human(s) Work
Coauthored by Architecture Professor of the Practice Florian Idenburg, explore American office design from the 1970s into the future through a series of images and essays.
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May 11–September 3, 2022
Deconstructing Demolition: An Exhibition on Salvage, Reuse and Deconstruction
Explore alternative demolition through this Circular Construction Lab / Just Places Lab cocurated exhibition, part of the partner network CR0WD (Circularity, Reuse and Zero Waste Development).
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Wednesday, August 31, 2022
Amanda Williams: WE OUTSIDE
Attend a lecture delivered by visual artist and trained architect Amanda Williams (B.Arch. '97).
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Friday, September 9, 2022
In Conversation with Sumayya Vally
Hear from an architect whose design, research, and pedagogical practice is searching for expression for hybrid identities and contested territories.
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Wednesday, September 14, 2022
Ana Paula Ruiz Galindo and Mecky Reuss: Pedros +/=& Juanas
Attend a lecture delivered by Architecture Visiting Critic Ana Paula Ruiz Galindo and her Pedro&Juana cofounder Mecky Reuss as they explore the process of working on various things with different people.