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.
Highlights
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AAP Undergraduate Admissions Events, Fall 2024
Join the Cornell AAP Admissions team for engaging opportunities to connect in person and virtually at our admissions events.
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AAP Graduate Programs Virtual Information Week
Explore the cutting-edge research, scholarship, and creative practices shaping a more sustainable, just, and resilient world.
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Virtual Architecture Graduate Open House for Prospective Students, Fall 2024
Please join us for our virtual Fall 2024 Open House. The event will include program overviews, highlights of our areas of expertise, and Q&A sessions with program directors and current students.
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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Industrialist and Philanthropist Ratan N. Tata '59, (B.Arch. '62) Dies at 86
A dear member of our alumni community and AAP Advisory Council, philanthropist Ratan N. Tata '59, (B. Arch. '62) died October 9. Over many decades, he supported a number of critical initiatives at Cornell and improved lives in his home country of India and around the world.
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We Need to Read the World: 6 Questions with Jose Castillo
In advance of his upcoming lecture at AAP, new chair of the Department of Architecture Jose Castillo shared lessons learned through his wide-ranging work to date and reflected on some of the big questions still driving him as both an educator and architect.
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Three New Designer-Led Initiatives are Making Circular Economies a Reality
The Architect's Newspaper: Architecture Assistant Professor Felix Heisel's Circular Construction Lab is harnessing building technology and design to reimagine construction as an ally for regenerative design.
Wednesday, September 25, 2024 -
The King Cole Bar Reopens, Moodier Than Before
The New York Times: Ed Bakos (B.Arch. '86), chief executive of Champalimaud Design, a New York-based firm with experience renovating luxury hotels, speaks about his latest renovation.
Wednesday, September 25, 2024 -
The 2024 Bethel Woods Art and Architecture Festival Invites Students to Build Community, Build Creatively, Build Fest
The Architect's Newspaper: Festival organizer and curator Neal Lucas Hitch (M.S. MDC '24) looks back on BuildFest '24 that featured work by Architecture Lecturer Marta H. Wisniewska's Regenerative Architecture Lab, Assistant Professor of Architecture Felix Heisel's Circular Construction Lab, and Cait McCarthy and Jordan Young (both M.Arch. '20).
Monday, September 23, 2024 -
The Art and Space of Rebellion: How Iran's Streets Became a Revolutionary Stage
Platform: In this op-ed, Associate Professor in Architecture (HAUD program) Pamela Karimi explores the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising and previews her new book, Women, Art, Freedom: Artists and Street Politics in Iran, which highlights the role of grassroots art and design in shaping what many consider the first feminist quasi-revolution.
Monday, September 16, 2024
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How "Digital Twins" are Enabling City-Wide Electrification
In collaboration with RMI, Architecture and Design Tech Associate Professor Timur Dogan and Hung Ming Tseng (M.S. AAD '24) are among the authors of a report on how digital building modeling is helping the City of Ithaca.
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Material Acts: Experimentation in Architecture and Design
HANNAH, the firm led by Assistant Professors of Architecture Leslie Lok and Sasa Zivkovic, is among the artists featured in this exhibition that examines the role of nature as a starting point for material experimentation in the domains of architecture, craft, and science.
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Women, Art, Freedom: Artists and Street Politics in Iran
Authored by Pamela Karimi, Associate Professor in the History of Architecture and Urban Development program, the book explores the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising sparked by Jina Mahsa Amini's death. It highlights the role of grassroots art and design in shaping what many consider the first feminist quasi-revolution and showcases the creative power behind acts of peaceful civil disobedience.
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Material Acts: Experimentation in Architecture and Design
Visit an exhibition in Los Angeles that examines the role of nature as a starting point for material experimentation featuring work by HANNAH, the firm led by Assistant Professors of Architecture Leslie Lok and Sasa Zivkovic,
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Alp Demiroglu and Veronika Varga: hydro-POWER: State and Energy in Central Asia
Visit an exhibition that traces the colonial and de-colonial power structures surrounding the development of hydroelectric dams in Central Asia.
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Jose Castillo: a|911 — Concepts of a Plan
Attend a lecture during which AAP's new Architecture Chair will speak about his current disciplinary interests as they relate to his practice, pedagogy, and broader issues.
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Vishaan Chakrabarti: The Architecture of Urbanity, Designing for Nature, Culture, and Joy
Attend a book talk by Vishaan Chakrabarti, Thomas J. Baird Visiting Critic and founder of Practice for Architecture and Urbanism.
Resources and Publications
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Architecture Studio Spaces
Learn more about the cutting-edge facilities that house our department of architecture design studios.
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Architecture Faculty Labs
Peruse our many faculty-led labs that advance research and push boundaries toward a more resilient, sustainable, and just world.
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PLATE Publication
Explore PLATE, a digital publication of architecture student work and essays edited by Professor of Architecture Andrea Simitch and Visiting Critic Dillon Pranger (M.Arch. '15).