Department of Architecture
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).
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
-
March 26–27, 2026
Unearthing the Earth: Architectural Histories of Extractivism
Submit an abstract to this HAUS-hosted symposium asking: how do we historicize extractivism's long dureé from the perspective of architectural history?
-
Tuesday, September 3, 2024
Fellowships and Funding Opportunities
View a selection of externally and internally sponsored fellowships available to undergraduate and graduate students in architecture.
Videos
-
From Ordinary to Extraordinary
-
L.P. Kwee Studios at Milstein Hall
-
A Different Way of Thinking
-
Unbuild Better: a Collegetown Case Study in Deconstruction
-
Wednesday, December 3, 2025
Announcing: Architecture and the Right to Heal, Resettler Nationalism in the Aftermath of Conflict and Disaster
Cornell AAP Architecture Professor Esra Akcan released a new book this fall examining architecture's dual role as both a cause of human casualties and an agent for the public good with the potential to ameliorate traumas following conflict and crises.
-
Monday, November 24, 2025
Using Found Objects, California Artist Turns Trash to Treasure
Cornell AAP alumnus Alvaro Alvarez (B.Arch. '15) is profiled for transforming discarded materials from the US-Mexico border region into sculptural artworks that reframe waste, abandonment, and environmental neglect as sources of beauty, memory, and renewal.
-
Ulysses Unveils First Community Park Draft Designs Following Public Survey
Tompkins Weekly: The Town of Ulysses unveiled two draft designs for a new 15-acre community park, developed with resident input and a Cornell Design Connect team featuring AAP students Reiley Cahill-Steeg (B.S. URS '28), Maple Shang (B.S. URS '29), Jonah Yarbrough (B.S. URS '28), Upasana Patgiri (M.R.P. '27), and Brandon Chen (B.Arch. '28).
Tuesday, November 18, 2025 -
Manuel Bouzas and SalazarSequeroMedina Will Transform the ARCOmadrid 2026 Guest Lounge Into a Reborn Forest
Architectural Digest: Architecture Visiting Critic Manuel Bouzas, in collaboration with SalazarSequeroMedina, will create 350,000 Ha for ARCOmadrid 2026 — an immersive installation crafted from reclaimed Iberian forest wood that reimagines the Guest Lounge as a meditative landscape of regeneration, memory, and architectural imagination.
Tuesday, November 11, 2025 -
Section as Cosmogram Reveals Section as Both Analytical and Cosmological
The Architect's Newspaper: Edgar A. Tafel Professor of Architecture Caroline O'Donnell reviews Section as Cosmogram, an exhibition at Ithaca College featuring work from members of the AAP community, where she frames the section drawing as a "cosmogram" — a synthesis of analysis and cosmology that bridges the material and the mythic through drawing.
Friday, October 24, 2025 -
Landscape or Architecture? They Boldly Blur Boundaries
The New York Times: This exploration of work by Weiss/Manfredi [Michael Manfredi (M.Arch. '80), cofounding partner], examines how the firm has discovered expressive possibilities by sculpting landscapes that shape buildings.
Monday, October 20, 2025
-
Wednesday, November 19, 2025
LABICS Wins International Competition for New Training Center in Maranello, Italy
Francesco Isidori, Maria Claudia Clemente
Cornell in Rome Visiting Critics in Architecture Maria Claudia Clemente and Francesco Isidori of LABICS have been awarded a major international commission for a new Ferrari-sponsored training facility in Maranello, underscoring their global design leadership and continued impact as educators at Cornell AAP.
-
Monday, November 17, 2025
Embodying Justice in the Built Environment: Just and Equitable Land Use Transitions in Advancing Carbon Neutrality
Felix Heisel, Jocelyn Poe , Jennifer Minner
The Reparative Praxis, Just Places, and Circular Construction labs, and other partners, have released a workbook that provides a framework for centering justice in land use planning for a carbon-neutral future.
-
Monday, November 3, 2025
Memory Landscapes Receives AIA Seattle Award of Merit
Gensler Visiting Critic Robert Hutchison's conceptual project Memory Landscapes received an Award of Merit at AIA Seattle’s 76th annual Honor Awards for Washington Architecture. The project relates directly to Hutchison's current AAP design studio Speculative Proposals for Amphibious Infrastructures.
-
December 11, 2025–February 4, 2026
AAP Engagement Impact Grant Virtual Informational Sessions
Attend an informational session about the AAP Engagement Impact Grants available to faculty and students in spring 2026.
-
Friday, December 12, 2025
Cornell in Rome: Fall 2025 Student Exhibition
Cornell in Rome presents an exhibition of fall 2025 projects by B.Arch. and B.F.A. students, featuring work in architecture, drawing, photography, and contemporary Rome studies.
-
March 26–27, 2026
Unearthing the Earth: Architectural Histories of Extractivism
Submit an abstract to this HAUS-hosted symposium asking: how do we historicize extractivism's long dureé from the perspective of architectural history?
Resources and Publications
-
Architecture Studio Spaces
Learn more about the cutting-edge facilities that house our department of architecture design studios.
-
Architecture Faculty Labs
Peruse our many faculty-led labs that advance research and push boundaries toward a more resilient, sustainable, and just world.
-
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).
