 Hi everyone. Welcome. It's really a great pleasure to see you again, just speaking earlier today. I hope you are starting to get a little bit of a sense of the school even at a distance. As I said earlier this morning, we have a record number of prospective students interested in joining us and so we're really excited and grateful for that but also for the fact that you're all coming from 45 different places in the world and across six continents and it just warms my heart to think that so many of you want to become architects and have an impact in the world. So thank you for joining us again. I am here joined by just a number of amazing faculty, colleagues who together with myself are leading the MR curriculum. So before sharing a few words about the program I wanted to introduce them and have them say a few words about themselves. So I'm going to go by the order of my screen. Galia. Hello everyone. I'm Galia Solomonov. I'm a professor of architecture and I'm originally from Argentina and I'm a practicing architect in the city of New York, a licensed architect. Thank you, Galia. Erica. Good morning, everyone. My name is Erica Getz. I'm also a practicing architect in New York and I coordinate the core to studio in the second semester of the first year and I also teach core three housing. Welcome. Thank you, Erica. Hillary. Hi, good morning, everyone. Welcome. I'm Hillary Sample. I'm an IDC professor of housing design and I lead the housing studio and also work on the core and I'm a co-founder of Moss Architects here in New York and licensed architect. Thanks, Hillary. Anna. Good morning. I'm Anna Pujane. I coordinate core one, our strategic core one and advanced six. And I run a practice called Mayo based in Barcelona recently also in New York. We will be giving a lecture today and I invite everyone to join at 6.30. Yes, join. Very excited about Anna speaking tonight. Tonight for our time. Ziyad. Yes, hello, everyone. My name is Ziyad Jamal. I'm a partner at Left Architects based in Beirut in New York and I coordinate and teach advanced core studio. Nice to have you, Ziyad. Andres. Yeah, I'm also very happy to be here with all of you. I'm teaching normally advanced studios and, but I'm also the director of the advanced architectural design program. And I have a practice, the office for political innovation, which is based in New York and we develop projects, we're developing projects around the world now. Welcome. Good to have you, Andres. I see you are in New York right now. Yes. We're starting to know each other's living rooms. Reinhold. Hi, everyone. Hi, I'm Reinhold Martin. I, I teach the history and theory of architecture here at GSAP and direct the sequence in the MR program, the history and theory sequence that begins in with the two semesters of questions of architectural history one and two. And I teach in the fall semester for that as well. And I direct the Buell Center for American Architecture. Yes, yes, don't forget. Amina. Hello, everyone. I'm Amina Blatcher. I teach core one and core two. I am. I have a New York based practice called atelier Amina. And I'm very happy to be meeting with you today. Thank you. Amina. Great to have you. Lola. Good morning, everyone. Welcome. I'm Lola Benelon and I'm an assistant professor of building technology. I run the natural materials lab. And I also direct the building science technology sequence at GSAP. Good to have you Lola Mario. Hi, good morning, everyone. I'm Mario Gooden. I'm a professional professional practice at Columbia. I am the sequence director for the advanced five advanced six studio and the co director of the global Africa lab. So great to be with you today. Good to have you Mario Laura. Hi, everyone. I'm Laura Curgan, professor of architecture. I'm the director of the visual study sequence for the march program. I'm also director of the center for spatial research and launching today a new program called computational design practices, but that open houses at 2pm. I hope to see some of you there. Super exciting. Okay, I know we don't have much time. I will have a very short I'll try to keep it short presentation and then open it up for a question. You're not here today, but I hope you will have or will tour our virtual every tour which was constructed recently. This morning, I think it doesn't completely convey the experience of being here in the buildings and on this campus but will give you a great sense of the different spaces and studios and classrooms and labs that exist at the school. As I mentioned earlier, you know, I really do believe that the school is very much engaged in this question of scales of engagement at what scale. Do we approach the issues of our time and certainly this transpires into the MR program into its curriculum It's a curriculum that's very engaged. Our students are incredibly engaged and we think through these questions of scale in everything we do, whether we're looking at, you know, issues of climate, as I said earlier, which, you know, extend from the experience of our students and in through coursework through summer workshop, but also extend to the research that our faculty is doing and this is the lab in my lawns, natural materials lab which is really trying to explore alternates to materials such as concrete can steal and something that that we know we must do if we think about energy and embodied energy in particular earlier today I also mentioned that we're very engaged with issues of equity, social equity racial equity and thinking through issues of representation this is something we've been doing for quite some time and it's really intensified in the past two years with the GSAP anti racism action plan which I invite you all to look at, but I'm also very proud that our faculty have brought all these issues into the curriculum and not just studio studies into technology, of course, into history theory, and all of the dimensions of the school this extends to the kinds of events. We host that are always questioning the foundations of the discipline or what we imagine the foundations to be and recasting them and extends to the kinds of research that we do in the research centers, some of them led by faculty some of them led by students constantly kind of pushing the boundaries of practice, such as with the housing lab to try to define new modes of more equitable practice in the built environment. Laura Kergan we're launching a new computational design practices program today and this is really the result of the school's kind of leading or situating itself at the cutting edge of how we think critically, actively about about data and its impact on the built environment to become really skilled to be able to sort of critically engage with with these issues and this really is a result, I mean this new program will exist and and kind of exist alongside the m mark and build on a lot of what is fundamental to the m mark and thinking about technology through building science, but you know in terms of the built environment in terms of issues of energy in light of climate change but also thinking about imagination and how we sort of think about new worlds and design them in new ways and always for you know never forgetting that we it's not an avoid the kind of virtual as we see that the sort of virtual and the physical need to interact and exist together and this feedback loop between data and the material and and experience in the city and what can be created as a result of something that is crucial and central to the program here at the school. I'm going to very briefly, the actual sequence you may know it's sort of three and three, three kind of core and the first three semesters three advanced in the last three semesters and what you see here in terms of the colors are the different in the studio history theory, visual studies, building science technology and professional practice. And what, you know, we like to think is that the core is not just a sort of authoritarian authoritative transfer of knowledge but rather and kind of empowering you to ask about the curriculum and then in the second part to really kind of think through your own positions collectively individually vis-a-vis the discipline and vis-a-vis the practice of architecture. And what is I think unique and this is why it's so important that we are all here on this screen together what is unique I think about the MRC is that each sequence, while working really together has its own identity in a way and kind of states a position on what it believes architectural practice and architecture as a discipline should do and so we find that our students kind of carve a way through the curriculum to claim a certain position in terms of whether it's going to be more really on design or redefining design relative to data or engaging really issues of materiality or or scholarship and history and so just kind of very briefly taking giving some examples, you know in the building technology if you're interested in the kind of I think of that sequence I encourage you to hear the recent podcast that Lola Professor Ben Alon has launched and you know we really again think through issues of scale from surfaces and building materials to really engaging the city and I would say that this is something that is still really fundamental to the school more than ever is we have New York right here and we are constantly kind of using it as sort of not so much a laboratory but as a place to test some of ideas about how architecture is really shaping the built environment. For the history theory curriculum as Reinhold mentioned is questions of architectural history one and two and not just history and this is because you know we are sitting sort of above the low around every library which represents you know which is the probably the largest architectural library in the world and still sort of represents a certain canon and we are constantly pushing against for this canon and kind of opening it up. And so it's really about questions whether you know our PhD program in architecture is I can say the best, certainly in the in the country because of that constant pushing up the boundaries with here you're seeing Professor Lucia Alep, Professor Felicity Scott, who directs the program and Barry Bergdahl who is in arts history, you know this kind of conversation on, on, on thinking about history and its, its impact, not just in terms of the kind of European and your history but really send a history that brings all different kinds of perspectives together it's crucial to the sequence and that's in particular something that it's pushed on issues of a race and representation on issues of environment and how to rethink modernity through a new lens, given the climate crisis we are in, and producing sort of new discourses new ideas new ways to think about history in a way that is engaged in making books and making new knowledge and scholarships such as through Columbia books on architecture in the city which you should check out on the website and hopefully when you're here in person, you know this is an amazing office, a publication office for the school as I think is producing great new knowledge for the field. In terms of visual studies you know it's been, it was, it's always been a very exciting sequence of the literacy, with which our students kind of taken software and data and, and, and their imagination and design skills. You know this was an amazing kind of project that they did when we were all remote, you know, just, just an incredible sort of knowledge in terms of how to address data and design which, as I mentioned cuts across the research of our faculty and always brings back this conversation to the people in a sort of feedback loop between the virtual the physical. In a really important way I think for the future and the professional practice for us is not just a course. It's really again engaging with the city, going to offices, you know we are very sort of lucky to be able to kind of amongst our colleagues many, many professionals in the city that are here for reviews that invite our students to offices and so this level of connection and this incredible network, generous network I think is, is really very, very special and unique and at the same time being able to bring people back to think through, you know what, what kind of professional sort of path that you want to take and, and how are you going to negotiate for it we're very proud of supporting our students kind of skill making skill building and, and asking what's right for them through our career services program. And so, finally, I would say, you know, many of these ideas you will spend a lot of time in studio bringing them all together from core one and I will speak a little bit about it, which is really the first introduction to design here and is completely anchored in the city in issues of context and redefining how one thinks about site or analyzes site or thinks about context to core two, which is a small institutional building for the past few years it's been a school, often in the east village or the lower east side and you know education at this moment is at such a juncture it's been fascinating to have student think through, you know, what needs to happen together what needs what can happen remotely and, and how kids are educated today and what is the impact of the of a building and of space on on education to the question of housing, which brings a lot of these issues of equity and climate change and data and design to kind of bear upon a pretty large scale, sort of intervention in the city, often around this around our neighborhood, often around Harlem where there's a long history of very interesting housing and poses really critical issue in terms of what housing has enabled in terms of coming together or on the country dividing historically. And the last three studios from advanced four led by Ziad to advanced five and six, led by Mario with, you know, Andrea stepping in in terms of the AAD program is again thinking through materiality thinking through scale thinking through moving beyond the kind of maybe the tangible and the built to the kind of intangible and environmental to broaden these questions and and make the invisible more visible so that we can act on it and it really focuses on issues of representation and questions, you know, where is it that we should intervene as as architects, you know, in the kind of very, very, I think interesting and productive way. The spring studio the last semester is the semester of the Kenny traveling fellowship and the school has had a long tradition of sort of encounter as a motive of knowledge and it's something that we hope to do again next year. And so you know I encourage you to scroll through abstract or the portfolios you're also connected to instruct Graham and other modes of broadcasting what's happening here at the school but it, you know I just want to say that this is incredible to see how much students articulate what is important to them. In a short time and it's not just about design it's also about writing about thinking and kind of create a sense of identity for themselves as they go out in the world. And so in your life, you will be if you're with us almost overwhelmed with the amount of events and conversations and often they, this is our animated poster, which doesn't show what's on but if you want to see what's on you can get on the website and tonight and I will be speaking interesting about the events in the public lectures and and all of these conversations is that, even though you're in the remark and you're going to feel very crunched in terms of your time these are windows into the other programs and often as a result students decide to take, you know add another I mentioned this morning dual degrees have become incredibly popular. You really will spill out in the city and not just be limited to the campus and that's always kind of really exciting. There's a lot of institutional ties and collaborations with other cultural institutions etc. This is an exhibition that was done at the Queens Museum and students participated with the makerspace and building the models for the exhibitions and this is just one example of many collaborations are student groups are brilliant and many and numerous and they organize their own events and conversations that are always so timely and posing important questions for us at the school and for the field. We have an incredibly engaged alumni board increasingly engaged. And I'll say that in the last 18 months they really stepped in to support our, our students and you know kind of share with them thoughts on what are possible path for architecture and for architects in the world. So that's it for my presentation and we are very eager to get your questions and have everyone jump in to to respond so. Okay, this is link issues. So, I will just say that for any kind of logistical questions on scholarships or application or etc. I think the best is to direct those questions to Stephen vertical, who will either answer here in the chat or please email him. And this way we can make sure to use to use this time for content and for the sequence directors and coordinators to share more about about the m mark program. Would you have a great question here from Alan crazy crazy as a video. What is the theory at GSEP based upon and does it welcome theory and discourse happening in places elsewhere. This is a great question and I want to invite everyone to share. There's no single theory. And, and, but I would say that it is most definitely the kinds of discourses that happen and are supported at the school are ones that are really, really working to be more inclusive and to bring very many different perspectives together. In, in debate in contrast, but, but certainly there is no single single theory. There's also I think a very more than theory I would say the last few years for me at least have been incredible in terms of where architectural history has gone and what it has produced in terms of opening up new possibilities so maybe I can invite Reinhold to say a few words about that. Yeah, no thanks for the question. Well, first of all, yes, absolutely that the one of the reasons that you know for example when I introduced myself as a director of history and theory that put those two concepts together and to teaching, you know, approaches together is, is because you're really of this the spirit I think in which you're you're asking the question, I like I think. And so, which is to say that all theory, whatever, whatever that could mean in the sense of, you know, architects writing about about buildings or, or, or about the design of cities planners writing about cities and whatever. And it's the interpretation of those, those objects and processes and so on all of that is situated historically it happens someplace in a particular language in a particular setting with a particular framework. And certainly in the history and theory seminars and this I know is in a code and reverberates around the whole curriculum. And I think about these matter we matters we really very much think and teach about how, and in what sense, these concepts might be situated so much so so for example in the qh sequence that I mentioned that we actually we read a lot of primary like, you know, text written by architects and their interpreters over a couple of centuries and we've made a significant effort to translate text for example in Arabic and some in from Spanish from Latin America and, and others to to read just, you know, kind of English language generalizations about, you know, these parts of the world but but voices from from around the world. So that's the spirit of this across the board. There's a few questions. Thank you, Reinal. And I know we'll kind of there's a lot of responses will overlap. There's a there's a number of questions as always on what makes us different. You know what makes one accredited program different from another after all we are all following the same sort of, well we're not a checkbox school. And I think, as you see on the screen, it, you know, I, I, I'm very proud that it's really a team a kind of collective of people coming together to think about, you know, what is architecture what is architecture as a discipline what is architecture as practice. For me, at least I don't know any other school that asks so many questions about the discipline about practice. And, and that's really exciting because this is I think what we, what we hope to, to empower our students to do to never just take something as a, as a, as a sort of given, but try to delineate or reshape its boundaries and. So I think that is what makes us, I think for me special it's really an ongoing conversation and, and there's just a tremendous sense of possibility in terms of shaping what the future of the field is but also re rethinking and understanding in a new way what the past was. And that's really important at this moment in particular, but others may want to jump in. I'll say I can say something. I think it's, you know, the question of uniqueness always, always comes up in every open house and I imagine everybody is going to a lot of open houses and it's not something that we want to do is say that we're better than other schools you know all schools. You know, there are many, many good schools, maybe it's not the best thing to say at an open house, but I think it's really important to look when you, when you, when you go to some schools because the weaknesses of some the weaknesses are our strengths and our strengths are our weaknesses in every school that you go to. So if you're in it going to a small school, you know, the, the strengths are that it's small and its weaknesses are that they're not as many classes or choices and things like that. You know, sometimes when they are that many choices, it's confusing as a student to choose and I think that, you know, if I would say what's unique about about G-SAP is, you know, our willingness always to be on the forefront of complicated and difficult ideas and pushing the profession forward. From my perspective of visual studies and visual technology, I think we have a very large range of classes that you don't, that you don't find in other schools. I think I can't speak for history and theory, but I'd say it's the same in, in history and theory and many, and many other aspects of our curriculum. I really do encourage you when you go to other schools, you know, just look at the variety of courses that are available and compare them against ours. I think it's one of our big strengths. Thanks Laura. There's a number of questions, there's a question on collaboration and whether we support collaboration and as you see on the screen. I think we're, we've, we very much support collaboration, not just in, in the curriculum and the design studio but I thought maybe I would even invite Lola to say a few words, Professor Ben-Alon on collaboration in the tech sequence, which I think is quite unique relative to, to maybe other programs. Thanks Amal. Yes, definitely. I also saw a question about courses from historic preservation. Is there any possibility to take some courses from HP and as part of the building science and technology sequence we offer cross, we cross list courses from historic preservation. And so that is a nice opportunity to engage with critical topics on preservation and technology of preservation we have a course on machine learning and preservation and also traditional building practices that you can take as part of the tech sequence for collaboration certainly so we're striving to implement more and more design build possibilities where you can collaborate essentially in the building science and technology sequence, many of the courses you will work in teams to not only analyze and invent technology but also to produce and fabricate building elements and components and that also resulted in a design build course for instance that Gallia here on the screen has led with another faculty where they designed and built a pavilion here in front of the school. So many avenues to collaborate between students and also with the faculty. Thank you Lola. Gallia do you want to say a few words on that experience and sure. Thank you. Thank you for the question. I think last semester we built a pavilion together and it was an inflatable pavilion and so it was basically an opportunity to do something with air and together and in a way come together as the vaccine was released and as we started to do things together and they are to be out of our homes and the result was a very engaged group of 22 students and the confluence of our diversities. I would say our strength is our diversity and it's not our as faculty but the diversity that you bring to us every year from the many places that you come and our strength is to integrate the influences from the outside. You do not come to a set set of principles. You come to participate for a year two, three in a joint team and so it's collaboration, diversity, forward thinking goes together and I think if we talk about strengths we also have to talk about our weakness and the weakness is that there's never enough time to do everything that wants to do at Columbia. It's a tease of school in a way. And so we go as deep as we can for the amount of time that we have and we continue to be engaged for life. Broken as a true alum. Thank you, Gallia. There's a question about what are opportunities for community engagement and I thought maybe Hillary you could say a few words about the housing studio and also Mario if you wanted to also think through even your advisory role for the housing lab in particular. Great. Thanks a mall. Yeah, with the housing studio we are actively working on a project in the Bronx in the Melrose neighborhood and with that we're working with a community garden and so the students last year and this year have already started doing some volunteer work as part of the studio and working with the community garden. They come and speak to the students and then they also participate on reviews so it's a kind of exchange between the students, the faculty, and also those in the community they have a kind of annual stickball game that happens on a weekend and students are invited to go out and then kind of informally other activities happen around helping them with small projects, painting murals, repairing furniture, other things that come up and that and also not so much in terms of that local to the neighborhood but it's complemented and expanded through working also at the city with HPD so we have city agents who are part of the studio as well and really explain for instance design guidelines, how they're written for housing and this has been going on for about two years now. We also offer workshops students can take later on so there's beginning to be more and more kind of feedback loops both within the neighborhood and at the city. Hi, just to pick up on on Hillary's comments regarding that the housing studio I'm advising the housing lab and in the housing lab our graduate students have the opportunity to be research assistants in the housing lab. For the past year and a half, the housing lab has been working with the West Harlem group assistance agency and providing their expertise as students who've been working on housing and thinking through issues of housing. The students have also been working with city agencies, as Hillary has mentioned HPD and others. And so there are opportunities to sort of get into, let's say real world situations and engage the community through housing and be directly engaged with the community that surrounds our school that surrounds Columbia. Thank you for that question. And Mario maybe if you wanted to expand on the there was a question on design equity in particular and I don't know if you wanted to mention the work you've been doing also with the global Africa lab and other sort of your own focus in the way as well. Sure. Well, I think for those of you attending our open house if you, you know, take a really good look at the website you'll see there are have been three areas of focus that we've really been focusing on over the last few years that is climate change, equity, and, and technology and I think that if anything the past 18 months has shown us that that these things are all entangled. And that the when we think of climate, we also have to think about climate justice. So the issue of equity doesn't necessarily stand stand alone. And in the advanced studios, as well as the AD program and then I'll turn it over to Andreas and maybe Andreas can speak about that. We've also been the past few semesters, having conversations at a kind of larger level about justice conversations about entanglement and conversations this semester about intersections but these have have to do with questions if you will around these issues and maybe just to kind of go back to one of the previous questions what makes our school unique. And I think Reinhold said it and the Dean said it, it's really about questioning so you know we have questions of architectural history in our studios the advanced studios, we're asking questions so we're not. I would say that for GSAP it's not about sort of style or it's not about a priori knowledge, but asking questions in order to produce new knowledge, and that includes knowledge around issues such as spatial justice and equity. So Andreas, I don't know if you'd like to expand on that. Well, I just want to say that this has to do with the advanced studios mostly, but with the whole culture of the studios in the school, it's growing in a discussion of how architecture is entangled and a fundamental player in the huge crisis and pieces that are shaping the times that we're living from climate of course that has been mentioned to ecological crisis to of course inequality but also border conflicts and how they are participated not only by the architecture of the of the border but also how they manifest in every single aspect of the built environment. To questions of course of gender but also to questions of trans species relationships and other forms of justice that we have to address now. And what I think it's very very important of the school, it's how this is also dealt with, not just as a matter of discussion but the matter of design, how design and the material world is playing a key role in the enactment of all these realities and how different scenarios can be promoted to design evolutions. And I think this is crucial it's this culture of entanglements and intersections that Mario and I have been discussing for many for many years now and that is happening in the studios and it's something very very important I would say that manifesting many different ways in the school. Thank you Andres. And, you know, since we, you know, Andres and Mario occupy the, the end of the of the curriculum I thought I'd give an opportunity to, to the people who are holding the beginning. I mean, Anna and Erica. There's a really nice question from Rachel strong as educators professionals and leaders in your fields. Is there anything in particular you hope to impact upon your students, in particular those who might be emerging designers so someone shows up on day one. What, what are you trying to share with them. Amina do you want to share some thoughts. Thank you. Um, yeah it's a privilege and it's a really joy to be engaging students in the first semester of the six semesters if they're doing that in mark. And I think, regardless of the background, it's really a productive kind of exchange, whether you have a B arc, or another field that you come from in core one as we analyze Broadway and each section dives deeper into a segment of Manhattan. Throughout the studio and in my section we start with a premise where it's incumbent upon you as an architect a future architect to be aware and knowledgeable of the land on which you stand. And that kind of puts time into play that we're standing in the present but you also before you break ground you would need to know, not just as a kind of surprise but all of the layers that come before so we look at the section as a stack. The ground is kind of a past the present as the surface and then the infinite possibilities that can come and from the ground up. So it's a really exciting semester, all of the different mediums drawings, different techniques, one to one mock up. It's a really good kind of just moment to look at your project through a scale that's at construction scale. So it produces really diverse range of imaginations and I think the students going back to the question. What makes Jesus stand out the imagination I just think that it's really a meeting of creative minds, and then it's about kind of basing your position in a logic so you can have any kind of take this, and we refine that clarity of the logic. So, yeah, I think. Yeah, it's great thank you. I would love to have a minute comments, expanding. We do on the first semester and also inviting. Yes, we encourage students with a non architectural background to apply. Yes, please do apply we love diverse narratives diverse context and we bring all that knowledge on the table in one. I was mentioning, looking to the context talking about what means public, and that relates what has been said already. We talk about social justice in public space and how to use public and the center of public to break it down social differences, and what means the school unique is that precisely we talk about the contemporary all the time, and that affects directly in how we address our courses and we teach. We change a lot. We are a community that talk and discuss a lot about what's happening out there so we do relate there was also a question about how we do relate with what happens outside academia. We do relate what happens outside academia because we talk about that all the time, and that influence in the way we teach. So courses evolved to that in response to that. So in this last years, we have been a semester sorry, we have address the racial differences that do have happened in New York and I still happen in in order to try to understand public space in a way in that as a tool to be able to dismantle them. So, I think that definitely, probably when you look to our curriculum you will see that approach to the contemporary and critical thinking very rooted in all courses. Thank you. Thank you. I think core to very much kind of picks up on what what started in core one that we're looking at the city and history and the ground that I mean I talked about the scale, very much of a building so we work on an existing building on the lorry side which as well mentioned as a public school that was built over 100 years ago for a community of immigrant immigrants in a neighborhood that is kind of has an amazing history of people and is incredibly diverse and we go inside of the building, which is kind of an archaeological site at the moment it's abandoned building and we learn from its history through its very physicality. And I think that's also one of the things that makes the program unique of course it's here in New York and and it's in the in the slipstream of a city that is always in motion and the people that you interface with in court to and other semesters are working in the city so we work with a team of engineers who are professionals in the field to come into the city and talk to you one on one or two on one about the very projects that you're designing. And we engage with the physical sites that we're working on so the core sequence is all based here in the city and so you're very much doing kind of field research and and a part of the projects and the projects and the histories through through physically being present in them and working on a piece in time that's as I mean described as part of history and then projecting something about what you could imagine there. Thanks, thanks Erica and just tying continuing to go to advance for for a second tying the question of, you know, climate change is not some abstract, you know, entity, it has very specific, you know, consequences on on on different neighborhoods, different places and different kinds of people and and I wondered if you wanted to talk, you know, about that intersection in the sort of context of advanced for. Thank you, I think advanced for actually sits right in the middle it's before advanced five and six on of course it's after the course studios in that sense it plays that bridge between the course studios kind of concern with the advanced studios concern that are much more general and general. And I think you had advanced for them does is maybe at multiple levels is to first to build on core 123, which is mostly focused on a relationship of architecture the city and moves to the larger scale which is the relationship of architecture to the larger and the territorial scale by namely focusing on upset New York and the kind of rural countryside let's say area of New York State but also problematizing that relation between the city and the hinterland and the countryside. I think that sense advanced for it tries to bridge from the core to advanced five six studios where students are yes, like I mean I mentioned I asked to take a position construct an argument and hence start to formulate the thesis, which is then further developed. There's no freedom to develop their thesis, then advanced five and six studios. And maybe I want to add one more thing if I can regarding the very first question theories, the multiple theory and for me that I had mentioned going back to the primary sources. There's also an attempt in the studio to go to the primary source as the building to have to visit the building that we've studied and actually look at it from a fresh eye. And I think it's a question that has to do with the expanding the field. It's based and kind of uncovering raised architectural histories that have been either marginalized or kind of assumed to be outside the cannon. So in that sense, I think advanced studios five and six, especially try to focus on on region and areas that have been historically been marginalized like North Africa or considered at the periphery, say of Europe, and try to also sustain relationship with those places by building and by building kind of a relationship with the local committees there with experts in the field, which is also I should mention is kind of sustained and empowered by Columbia Global centers in those places that allow these relationships to happen and to continue. Thanks, Ziad. Just to reiterate, for all of you who are wondering, you know, whether your background is welcome. Please apply. Absolutely. We are really always excited to have students from, you know, very many different backgrounds come together and, you know, I saw a question about independent research. Everything you do is a form of independent research. But at the same time, you can also obviously choose to work with a particular faculty. Professor Ben Alon did that recently and so this is welcome as well if you can carve the time in your curriculum. There's also a question about the Center for Spatial Research. And I thought maybe Laura, you could share some thoughts about it and about how in general the interface, you know, students interface with the research at the school happens. Yeah, hi. Thanks. Thanks for that question. CSR is a is a grant funded center, and we have been funded by the Mellon Foundation for a long period of time and we're working right now with a grant from the Gardner Foundation about the history of New York City and the census and how to document the history of the city a really interesting and very time consuming project. So we have, we have had three TA ships every semester. They're, they're competitive and you know there's an application process like all like all TA ships and we like to hire students who have mapping knowledge of mapping experience whether QGIS or GIS and things like that. There's also some research oriented opportunities and every summer we do engage a large number of students in the various research projects that we're working on and so over the past two summers we've had between six and eight students work with us on various project, which is the same as the Buell Center and I have a feeling the natural materials lab will also be hiring students this summer I don't know about the other labs but those are the three I know about so centers and research labs are really great way to get involved in collaborative work and with specific interests of faculty and at CSR in particular we really do make links to urban planning and other parts of the school and also other parts of the university so we've done projects with neuroscience with history with data science. All kinds of all kinds of fields. Thanks Laura we have a few minutes left and maybe I'll end with a very broad question and please jump in. From your perspective is what is the most impactful part of attending GSAP as either a student or faculty are, is it the studios you take the resources you have the relationships and connections you make. And in a way how did GSAP change your life so I should just start by saying that. You know I think any school that you attend or choose to attend will change your life that, you know, and this is why it's such a important decision to make and many of us have been lucky to be able to choose this place to teach in and be part of and just for me personally it's been the incredible group of colleagues at the school I learn every day from them and from the students and it's just a really wonderful place to be part of. Just to think through in this difficult time and I think to be part of that kind of intellectual community and friendship is is really all we can ask for in this moment but I'll turn it over to some of you. Yeah, no, I just wanted to. I've been teaching you for a while and and have to echo, first of all, Dean address is kind of appreciation of the, what Laura I think was referring to as a sort of strength in numbers, both at any given time but also over time and. You know, for example, now at this point, some of my former students are now my colleagues and, and this is really a privilege to be able to, you know, way to share the institution with both students and colleagues in different capacities, just in the spirit of sharing I really I wanted to underline the questions from ish mom and Wyatt about liberal arts education and so on this is very much part of an architecture education in general and especially I'd say here that that this this is the curriculum that we're here discussing is really set up to to risk to welcome and and cultivate critical knowledge and critical conversations from across the humanities and across the social sciences that you've been hearing. But you know there's there's a fair amount of reading and writing in the history sequence of this, but but more than that there's the there's a conversation and that conversation would be very kind of deeply impoverished, not just like do you admit, you know, kind of people with a school called non architecture back, but it would not be conceivable without the knowledge and the questions posed by the humanities and the social sciences so. So this is very much, you know, I would say, part of how the big questions the ones that we have been this climate and, you know, and equity and so on are articulated and identified is through these types of kind of sharing of knowledge rather than mere mere specialization in a professional kind of, you know, sense. Absolutely. Yes. Thank you. That's a good anyone else. Well, thank you so much again for joining us wherever you are whatever time it is where you are. It's, it's really great to be able to share a little bit about about this cool. And, you know, I know that not all the questions were, you know, answered very precisely and, you know, Stefan and will make sure to do you know things like what is the difference between one program or the next and you know, we'll make sure to get all of this answered but again. This is I think incredible community of colleagues and we look forward to staying in touch and I'm so excited to know so many of you are thinking about architecture for the future so thank you for that as well. Bye. It's always weird still. Okay. Bye everyone.