 The architectural design program has a long tradition in the south, of course, in Colombia. But I would say also that it's been highly influential in the overall context of architecture. It's here where some of the most, I would say celebrated kind of immersions in the digital culture were pioneer for architecture. It's here where many, many people develop the most important part of their innovations in architecture. It's here where many people basically build up the position that then allowed them to have a very strong voice in architecture. And for me, being kind of part of this legacy, it's quite important. And to share this every year with a hundred new people, it's quite exciting. But I say it's kind of shared with a hundred new people because we keep being connected to those that in the past were part of the AD and sort of a community that keeps feeding each other. Like we basically keep discussing and that's a fundamental part of what we do. What is that that we understand by advanced? Advanced is not really this idea that there's a linear progression. We're not talking of kind of, what is that that makes other possibilities in architectures obsolete? That's not really what we do. Advanced is the really the idea that there's fundamental challenges that are shaping our times and that we understand that are part of architecture. Architecture is already part of this. We want to make the best of the power of architecture to introduce more diversity, to introduce more possibilities to expand the spectrum of what is possible and to introduce forms of fairness and justice into the built environment in societies at large. So when we think of climate crisis, when we think of racial inequalities, when we think of the tensions across borders, when we think of the exploitation, over exploitation of bodies, natures, landscapes, climate through technology, through design, we're basically thinking that that's an arena where we want our voice to be important and where design can make huge changes. That is the notion of advancement that we understand is a constant reinvention of the agency of architecture to intervene reality, to be part of reality, expanding the spectrum of what is possible and rendering it more fair, more exciting, inequity in forms of dissidents with hegemonic powers that make daily life more inclusive. And this is kind of what we do all the time and we do it through specific ecosystems of questions and developments, ideas, projects, theories, concepts, techniques, methodologies that allowed us to base in references that allowed us to understand ways for environmental engagement. These are lines of work that we keep discussing for Angel, Maria Christine, Joel, Ali, this is not new. We basically been from basically a year ago probably been exploring the possibility for architecture to promote enhanced forms of environmental engagement to bring technologies accountable to explore the possibility to rearticulate the societal not to think architecture of something that is a new that starts with the tabula rasa but rather as a kind of ecosystem of strategies that allow to change the way societal relationships are unfolded in daily life to also reconsider material cyclabilities to move away from this culture of extraction that we inherited from modernity to one we understand that materiality could be cycle and that there's nothing or no such a thing as waste or resource but rather processes and cycles in which basically materials are transformed and that architecture is really about the entire cycle and how to operate in all the phases of those evolutions. Also in a crucial aspect of the AD it's the line of work that tries to question anthropotentition and the exceptionality of the human to advance forms of interspecies justice forms of base for humans to relate to others based on equity but also for humans to understand that our bodies are not seeped up autonomous self-contained but rather interdependent with others interdependent with animals with plants with oxygens with gas with many things that basically need to be taken care of and are also caring for us but also the urbanities that could regulate that could provide inclusivity and fairness in the online offline urbanities or the way identities are constructed managed challenged racial issues the way bodies are racialized, genderized the traditions of queerness and trans the way that that is not really only about people and bodies but that constitutes societies and environments and ecosystems if we take them seriously all these are basically lines of words the geopolitics in the making the way that the world is organized through borders, through transactions through demarcations, through jurisdictions and the way that that is being challenged the way that that could be innovated, reinvented, responded in the way as well that that could be we can be dissident to that through architecture and we can really respond to those situations that need to be transformed and challenged but as you see basically these eight lines of work are basically a structure to explore contemporary thinking, contemporary theory, contemporary action contemporary basically lines to challenge hegemonies and the kind of subtle knowledge what the AD stands for is basically to make it possible that in a short period of time everyone joining the program can really go through the most important readings that are shaping contemporary thinking that everyone gets familiar to them and that basically can operate through them and as you see they are broad enough so each of you can find your own path some of you will be more interested on interspecies relationships and you will grow on there on that and you will gain a voice as a fundamental thinker and designer operating there others will be basically growing in a different area but what we want to build up is a class that has a conversation that allows us basically to operate in the leading edge in the boundaries of the new architecture to come and not just as passive let's say observers but as fundamental actors in the questioning in the pulsing in the extension of those boundaries this is all to say we believe that architecture is very relevant in the making of the new world that is kind of growing in the cracks of the old ones and we want to make sure that everyone coming to the program has the capacity the possibilities, the strength, the empowerment to operate here with a very relevant voice understanding what is that that has been done and how that can be taken further challenge or responded basically what we think and this is something that initially could be challenging but once you're in the program this is basically what we all share is the idea that when we look at buildings and when we look at the built environment there's criticality embedded here there's particular specific forms of political tension and political action that is enacted through buildings and through the built environment and that is precisely this embedded criticality not something that is added not something that is just a discourse but really something that is embedded in the way windows are dimensioned in the way things are installed in what happens to glass when it is removed from a building and taken to the dump all those questions are precisely the ones that we use to explore how architecture is political and what is the way that through architecture we can change the world and connect ourselves to the reinvention of the everyday life. How we do this basically we are very careful in how this is curated through the semesters for your class basically you will start the summer and I'm saying this because for the previous class the summer was kind of a long discussion but we started in the fall. So that's very unique because it means that for the first time there will be an overlapping between the graduating class and the incoming class which I think will be kind of unique and a great moment for you guys and for the school. In the summer you will have advanced architectural design studios that we call entangled studios because they are very, very much designed. So you will have 18 choices and each of them exploring a way for architecture to reinvent contemporary or to operate in contemporary tensions and they basically are understanding architecture as entangled with the making of reality. This will come together with trans-colorities with this is the moment in which the entire class comes together. I'll tell you more about this to discuss the way architecture operates transition across scales and we will have arguments something that you will share also with the graduating class. Basically we invite some of the most important thinkers both from the context of architecture from other disciplines. We read what they written, we see their work and we prepare a conversation with them that you guys basically have and in which you participate and you are the ones making the questions. So we really get into the details of how they're thinking and their ideas are operating and how we can basically relate or respond to them. It's a kind of a very rapid way to get a voice by discussing with others. I mean, the list of people that we have brought historically it's an amazingly diverse from Oscar award filmmakers like Laura Poitras to important architectural thinkers like Keller Easterlin and I could go on and on and on and probably everyone that you have in mind it's been there. Then it will follow by the fall semester, advanced studio history and theory elective and visual and technology electives. And then this spring semester with advanced studio G-SAP elective and G-SAP visual technology electives. I refer to this later on, but basically there's a huge pool and this is something quite exciting the moment also. I mean, the fall the summer for me it's the most important moment in the program because it's basically in two months and a half you basically get immersed in this huge ecosystem of possibilities and it's quite fast. The process of getting to know basically quite a lot about the contemporary context of architectural innovation but then the fall is actually quite amazing as well because it's the moment that you get infiltrated into the entire school possibilities. If we go to the details of some of these the advanced design studios is a culture that it's quite unique of the school. The school is progressively moving into much more in person but the studios have been open throughout the fall and spring with very low density and what's the way they were called like cycles like rotations basically but the studio is a fundamental part of our education and basically it implies that the question of design but design as something that is critical is essential to what we do. And design for us it's very open and it very much depends on you to define what you mean to certain extent by design but definitely not something to be avoided. It's the kind of the making, the experimentation the possibility of reinvention of taking risk of presenting new possibilities reinventing a piece of daily life in the way that you think could be critical. And when we do this it's very public and very collective it's something that basically happens with objects in front of others as something that happens live basically and that Odyssey is not like the idea of kind of something you do in the dark and then you show one day but rather something that is collectively produced and conferences with others there's not a run or write everything is kind of material for discussion and there's no certainties. And it's also your moment to bring together many different forms of experimentation and representation and the school basically provides the possibility of doing this but then once you present it and that's your time of course it happens in front of a community that have fun with all inventions that keep celebrating invention and it's something that we all enjoy but also love to discuss and to see what's the kind of hidden options what are the aspects of it that we can see from a different perspective. So basically we advance together and we problematize what we do all the time. You don't have to be right you just have to be doing things and keeping discussing and kind of making your work more complex through questions and through the interaction with others. This is kind of what we believe in at the AD. And this is something that also bring us in conversation with others. This summer we will have sympositions in which basically all studios will expand into conversation with scientists, activists. We are every week we had for in during the fall and the spring this technical assemblies in which basically we had people coming to talk about microbes and how that affected architecture or I remember in now for instance an amazing conversation about the economy of social housing and how important it was how the property was defined legally to ensure the maintenance of buildings. So scientists of all different disciplines for instance we had an amazing conversation of a bunch of people that have been putting together kind of a network that connected all the computers in Ivy League universities across the country. So it could be used at night for activist projects that would use the computational capacity of all these universities at the time that they were not using it. So basically we are constantly engaging with scientists, experts, activists people from other disciplines to basically have a conversation of what is technology? What is science? What is knowledge? If we see it from an architectural point of view and we mobilize it as part of our discussions. Transclerities arenas of design is a fundamental part of what we do and it's what to certain extent brings the class together for the first time. And this is something that Angel, Maria Christine, Joel, Ali will tell you more probably but basically we explore I think last year we explore more than 200 buildings and projects that go beyond the notion of what a building is. But basically we try to see what it means what do we mean by ecology for instance which is something that is not simple. Architecture is producing huge knowledge about what do we mean when we say ecology or what do we mean when we say body or what do we mean when we say technology and basically we see a huge amount of architectural projects and we discuss what are the ideas that they have behind and what is the way that they are materializing it. And this is not something that is close you will be asked to produce your own reading of many of these buildings to work on new buildings to be added to our list but basically we won't understand what is the way that the design of buildings constructs the possibility for architecture to intervene in societies, environments, ecosystems political frames and to change them to introduce changing them. Arguments is something that I already mentioned it's also a crucial part of what we do. We basically invite the most important people that is discussing architecture now and we have conversations, discussions with them for my phantasma you see here Jack Halberst and the trans theorist Laura Poitras. We basically invite Ruja Benjamin that we hope to have basically what we try to see it's what is the leading edge of the discourse and criticality and research applied to architecture at this right moment now and we bring these people directly to discuss with us their ideas and to confront them with our own ideas this is a great resource for the program and it basically allows you to directly gain the confidence to discuss one to one with the leading voices in architecture and criticality and these are always very exciting moments for the program this year it will be amazing because it will be bringing together also the graduating class you guys that are here in a discussion that I think will be quite amazing quite unique. We have the time also to do that we expand lunch, we bring lunch normally this year we'll see how we do it but it will be exciting and then we get to the fall and to the spring and what is quite exciting is basically both studios and electives give you access to a broad number of people and what I would describe as probably the big part of the most important people operating in architecture now very diverse. I mean, I could talk for hours about each of the people that you see here and the way that they are part of the school and what they contribute to is people probably that you're very familiar with they come at different moments they do you have the possibility of interacting with them taking, I mean, basically the studios are taking through lottery and you have options you present your options you can see the studios the different studios also in the reviews not only the ones that you take and then but also visual and technology courses are quite important. I always kind of insist on the great potential of working in close proximity with people like Laura Kurga and Lola Ben-Alon they offer visual and technology courses they are the sequence directors for that and that is something that you can take through your electives as well but basically G-SAP is very well known both for the innovation in representation and that's something that you will be invited to dig in and also in the huge engagement on materiality on the reinvention of materiality and that's something that we keep doing and you will be doing. Hopefully, I think if everything goes well we will go back to in-person progressively a big part of what we'll do is also traveling not as visitors but engaging with people where we go this is a trip for instance we did to Iceland with CRC and a fan studio, the director we didn't go as tourists here we were working with more than 15 different scientists as we were there visiting them, discussing with them basically we consider these kind of reciprocal relationship that we established with the locations we're working with and kind of an opportunity to basically understand that the world we do need to be situated and basically also we will be offering summer studio TAs to your class and for the coming students for the current students we're offering associate positions in the fall but this is something that is part of the basically a larger engagement of the program with basically bridging the next steps offering the possibility for those that are not from the US to gain a professional experience afterwards something that is in New York or in the US something that is very much facilitated by the career development team with Lee and Karen that you've already met and the team talked about their work they're quite amazing they will be very busy in the summer also working with the graduating class but when we talk about the next steps for the AD class I'm excited to say that this is really diverse and that it's of course many of you want to work in big ambitious offices others want to work in more independent groups or smaller teams or kind of creative small teams in New York others want to be part of public agencies others want to engage on activism and advocacy work basically the school facilitates a kind of a custom basically a possibility of kind of bridging the next step the professional step