Created by Architecture and Design students centered around the studio environment and culture. Inspired by far the too frequent text sent by design students, “Sorry, I’m in Studio.”
One of the defining moments in my architecture education has been developing the podcast Sorry I’m in Studio. I started this project in my childhood bedroom in the peak of covid with my friends online through late-night video chats until 2 am. My persistence and shared passion with my friends developed into a 43-episode catalog built over the last two years and is still growing. We have interviewed students, professors, and professionals. Each episode ranges from about 30 minutes to an hour. My team and I work to reach out to new people to interview have conversations among ourselves, and at times work for months on special edition episodes.
The podcast has been a space where we advocate for students to prioritize their mental health, inform them of new opportunities, and share their own experiences with design in the hopes of helping our small but mighty following of about 4,000 listeners in over 50 countries.
The podcast has been a space where we advocate for students to prioritize their mental health, inform them of new opportunities, and share their own experiences with design in the hopes of helping our small but mighty following of about 4,000 listeners in over 50 countries.
Graphics by Amber Quinn
Pooja Desai, Sarah Rupani, and Imran Ahmed dive deep into their identity and experiences as South Asian Americans. They speak on the topics of representation, microaggressions, and their definition of "brown". Gain insight into their journeys to define their relationship to their culture and religion in their personal and professional lives.
Jolene Limqueco and Sarah White dive deep into their identity and experiences as Asian Americans. They speak on the lack of representation of Filipino designers both within the canon and architectural education. Gain insight into their journeys to define their relationship to their culture in their personal and professional lives.
Pooja Desai & Sarah White Interview Javier Guerrero, a fifth-year architecture student who is very involved in his college community. Javi shares how he balances it all, and his dreams of owning an interdisciplinary firm and coffee shop. Listen in to the wise words of our CoAD King on this special episode of Sorry I'm in Studio.
Sarah Rupani interviews Donna Kacmar, an architect and author. She speaks about the importance of active mentorship, and sponsorship of women in architecture. Donna shares the struggles she has faced as a woman in design, along with the women who supported her along the way. We are reminded by her that architecture is not something you can do alone, it is about collaboration and community. A community that Donna continues to uplift through her work with Future Women in Architecture and Rebel Architects.
Maria Noguera and Pooja Desai interview the head of the Community Design Research Center, Susan Rogers. Throughout her work in the community she has discovered four foundations of being a community-driven designer: show up, know you don’t have all the answers, learn everything you can about a place, and most importantly listen to the community's own vision for their home. (https://www.cdrchouston.org/)
As Kadmiel Konan, Nicholas Meyer, Sarah Wong, and Michael Nguyen are preparing for their third semester jury they chat about contributing to a positive studio culture, the power of your peers in studio, and spill the tea on the tools ID students are required to buy. They each reminisce about memories of in-person studio and the highs and lows of the experience, find out what advice these students would give their first year selves!
Amber Quinn interviews the Program Coordinator of History, Theory, and Criticism of Architecture at the University of Houston. He speaks about the book he co-wrote, “Heroic: Concrete Architecture and the New Boston,” and about the many different routes beyond traditional practice available to students in design. He holds a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts–Amherst, M.Arch from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and a Ph.D. in History, Theory, and Criticism of Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Kubo's career has spanned many areas of architecture from practicing to publishing to advocating for preservation of the places that connect us to our past.
We collected candid testimonies from several students as well as Dean Patricia Oliver from the College of Architecture and Design at the University of Houston.
All testimonies included were recorded independently and featured varied viewpoints and experiences relating to creating and responding to the Open Letter inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020. Almost a year later, the Open Letter has started the conversation of an anti-racist and more equitable education and studio culture; we hope this episode inspires you to participate in this dialogue...
All testimonies included were recorded independently and featured varied viewpoints and experiences relating to creating and responding to the Open Letter inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020. Almost a year later, the Open Letter has started the conversation of an anti-racist and more equitable education and studio culture; we hope this episode inspires you to participate in this dialogue...
Amber Quinn and Sarah White interview a practicing French architect, director of the materials research collaborative at the CoAD, and co-founder of the firm z4z4 (https://z4z4.es/) that she leads with her partner. Mantz expresses her efforts to design with an ecological sensibility as well as her journey to educate others to do the same. Reflecting on her successes and failures, Mantz defines what she believes it means to be a designer.
Sarah White interviews a developer motivated by his consciousness as the Director of Building Programs at Alembic Community Development in New Orleans. Grote's employer focuses on, "generating investment in undeserved neighborhoods through real estate development and organizational capacity building" ( https://alembiccommunity.com/). Michael Grote shares resources for students interested in designing and developing projects consciously, and his journey to Development from Architecture as a graduate of the CoAD.
Amber Quinn interviews Jason Logan, a practicing architect and professor of the University of Houston College of Architecture and Design. He shares some of his late night studio memories as a student in the late 90s including sledding down the CoAD stairs and swinging off the fourth floor into the atrium. Now as a graduate of Columbia he discusses whether or not a masters is worth the financial burden and shares his efforts to update and diversify the curriculum in his new role the head of the foundation studios.
Morgan Mendenhall and Pooja Desai interview Anne-Elisabeth, an Industrial Design student and leader who speaks on her intentions of making sustainability more than a checkbox. As well as her intern experience at https://pretti.cool/, a Houston based home décor company featured in Nordstrom and Anthropology.
Imran Ahmed, Sarah Rupani, and Amber Quinn interview a practicing Architect and Professor at the University of Houston. He spills the secret to Architecture and his dream project. Learn about his experiences working with Peter Zumthor in Switzerland, and his apprenticeship at Taliesin West where he met his now business partner Joe Rivers. Together they created the firm Rivers Barden Architects (http://riversbarden.com/work/) and the podcast Spork in The Road (http://sporkintheroad.net/ ).
Collaborators: Imran Ahmed, Natalie Costello, Pooja Desai, Javier Guerrero, Kadmiel Konan, Jolene Limqueco, Morgan Mendenhall,
