When the Sky was the Limit

Louis Sullivan, the famous American architect, transformed urban life and bequeathed to us an enduring truth: "Form ever follows function." His iconic quote refers to the skyscraper—his groundbreaking invention—which launched life, culture, commerce, and community into a new plane of existence. To elevate society and design, Sullivan gazed into the clouds.

With foresight as prescient as Sullivan's, SCAD propels architecture into a new dimension through preeminent education. If Sullivan looked up, SCAD reaches beyond, past the walls of the studio and into digital spaces and virtual worlds—from which SCAD Bees emerge as architectural practitioners, far more than simply creators of form. Indeed, SCAD architecture graduates grasp the stakes—the aesthetics, branding, and financial interests—woven within the walls of their creations. They enter the field with unparalleled preparation and confidence, inspired by SCAD's future-think curriculum that reflects industry-leading architectural techniques as much as it shapes the profession for years to come.

Pictured: work by SCAD student James Jung (B.F.A. Arch. 2019; M.Arch., architecture, current student).

Transformational technology

Historically conservative, architecture has discovered a new sense of urgency during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to SCAD professors. The global economy's transition to work-from-home environments prompts architects to collaborate remotely and expects design firms to respond creatively to client needs. More and more, architects evaluate the integrity of designs with AR/VR headsets and host clients on virtual walkthroughs of buildings. And while such techniques might surprise some recent graduates of other universities, SCAD alumni enter their firms well versed in emerging, near-future methods.

Consider SCAD 2018 valedictorian Nicolas Barrera (B.F.A., architecture, 2018), now an architectural designer at Sasaki in Boston currently collaborating virtually with fellow designers and clients. "Something that we've been exploring at Sasaki is how can we use VR to make a creative hub where we can draw and model in the same virtual space," Barrera recently told me. "At SCAD, I used VR headsets from day one, so they became my new normal." At Sasaki, even before the arrival of COVID-19, he quickly emerged as a key member of a cadre that examines and experiments with the intersections of architecture and technology, and whose explorations continue during the pandemic. None of this is surprising: after all, Barrera’s 2018 architecture capstone project—more on this later—blended virtual walkthroughs with the game design software Unreal Engine 4. He even first experimented with drones at SCAD, and he’s currently using the vehicles to capture site images for an ongoing project in Lima, Peru.

Barrera’s familiarity with VR—experience garnered at SCAD—allowed him to not only seamlessly transition into one of architecture’s leading future-think firms, but to elevate his professional practice during the pandemic. Today, during intermittent test sessions, Barrera dons VR goggles and enters virtual meeting spaces with colleagues for presentations and reviews—the very same techniques SCAD students and professors practice during the pandemic.

Pictured: Dome by SCAD alum Geraldo Tarallo de Assis (B.F.A. Arch. 2018; M.Arch. 2020)

In Studio III: Spatial Relationships and Human Design, taught during SCAD's much-applauded Spring 2020 virtual quarter, SCAD Architecture Professor Mike Hill immersed second-year students in digital renderings of their creations. Once inside the spaces, they identified opportunities to improve plant and infrastructure, plus evaluated the cost of inconsistencies. Professor Hill employs an anecdote from professional practice to remind his students that, yes, architecture is art, yet it’s also money. A wall that’s just six inches off can become a $20,000 or more mistake—yet a preventable error when students learn to spot such anomalies from the outset, during virtual walkthroughs and reviews.

Virtual reviews were the culmination of Professor Brent White’s Architecture Studio VI course, which united 20 professional architects—from firms like CannonDesign, ZGF Architects, and West Workshop Architects—who offered invaluable critiques of SCAD students’ work, and who generously networked with our students. "This was a true testament to the optimism and tenacity in our profession, especially in these troubling times," Professor White said. "The praise I received from students following critiques was overwhelming." Throughout the comprehensive studio course, Professor White and his students used advanced parametric modeling to evaluate, in real time, the cost implications of design decisions. Indeed, as SCAD Chair of Architecture Anthony Cissell says, "SCAD students enter the practice of architecture with experience, capable of being thought leaders."

Customized collaboration

Before Nicolas Barrera sketched his first plan at Sasaki, he worked on a SCADpro assignment—an in-house project for SCAD that conceptualized a mobile work studio similar to SCADpad—with fellow students whose majors ranged from industrial design to interior design. The collaboration didn’t stop there. Those drone flights that he's currently using to check on his project in Lima? He practiced pilotage alongside SCAD photographystudents. That capstone project that utilized Unreal Engine 4? He developed the concept through conversations with a fellow SCAD Bee, an interactive design and game development major.

"A key differentiator at SCAD is that, here, you have the opportunity to be anything," Professor Hill recently said. "We help you be the type of architect you want to be." As Barrera’s experiences illustrate, and as Professor Hill’s professional observation highlights, SCAD architecture students benefit from industry-standard tools, materials, and equipment, plus unmatched cross-disciplinary collaboration, which is as intentional as it is customizable.

As Chair Cissell explains, SCAD’s undergraduate architecture majors choose from a score of minors in complementary university degree programs. Meanwhile, the program's masters-level studio intentionally offers 10 focused elective options—from disciplines beyond architecture—to encourage graduate students to broaden their artistic and professional perspectives and deepen their thesis investigations. The inherent flexibility of the programs creates an unparalleled peer network, a vibrant cadre of future design dynamos and industry leaders who seek collaborative opportunities and patronize each other for years to come. 

"My architecture education at SCAD was immensely valuable because I was always encouraged to collaborate outside of architecture, to expand my horizons," Barrera said. "Today I work at an interdisciplinary firm, and I keep in touch with my friends from SCAD—I still collaborate with them, in their different industries."

Pictured: work by SCAD student Riya Gajjar (M.Arch., architecture, current student)

Formidable foundations

SCAD’s commitment to collaboration stems from our university’s dedication to refined professional process. SCAD students can design on a lark with elegant hand-drawn contours sketched on napkins or whiteboards in a flash. They master color theory and 2D and 3D rendering. They can pitch ideas and elucidate design narratives through compelling storytelling techniques and visualization methods—power skills reinforced throughout the curriculum and mastered with mentorship from communication coaches at SCADamp, the university’s professional communication studio. SCAD architecture students communicate clearly and effectively.

"At SCAD, we teach from an art and design context," Chair Cissell said. "I stress this to students all the time, that while we're moving toward this virtual future, we’re not abandoning proven tools and techniques—the knowledge of our hands that Juhani Pallasmaa so eloquently describes in The Thinking Hand. Instead, we're augmenting those tools with virtual reality."

Truly, SCAD is the preeminent source of knowledge in the disciplines we teach, and architecture’s leading firms know well the expertise SCAD students bring to their employers. For the past three years, 99.52% of SCAD architecture graduates were employed, pursuing further education, or both within 10 months of graduation. I’m tremendously proud of our program’s tradition and renown—we hold the maximum eight-year accreditation from NAAB—just as I applaud our faculty’s fearlessness and innovation, leading SCAD as a pilot member of the Integrated Path to Architectural Licensure. 

Pictured: work by SCAD student James Jung (B.F.A. Arch. 2019; M.Arch., architecture, current student).

Decades after graduation, SCAD alumni remain leaders in the field. Geoffrey Mouen, formerly with Robert A. M. Stern in New York, has been town architect for the Legacy Project in Celebration, Florida, since 1999, and today leads his eponymously named firm. Last year, alumnus Craig Clements was recognized with the 2019 AIA Young Architect Award by the national chapter of the American Institute of Architects, and Chair Cissell—also a SCAD alumnus—received the 2019 AIA Georgia Emerging Professional Honor. Our alumni embody SCAD's mission, just as they remain lifelong learners who embrace change.

When Louis Sullivan's skyscrapers lifted architecture to new heights, the sky was the limit. No longer. Now, SCAD's leading-edge curriculum elevates the profession beyond the brick-and-mortar bounds of traditional iconography. From drone photography to AR/VR walkthroughs, from cross-disciplinary SCADpro assignments to the latest suites of digital tools, we empower our students' journeys into new creative frontiers and help them realize their dreams. Today, at SCAD, we shape tomorrow. So, come dream with us. Envision what's next. Build the future.