Advanced Option Studio (AOS): Metamorphic Grounds - Design in Times of Planetary Change

AOS Catalog Course Description

This studio situates itself at the convergence of critical research and spatial design, urging students to ground their architectural proposals in rigorous theoretical frameworks while exploring bold and experimental interventions. The studio embraces an interrelational design ethos that weaves together the residues of the past, present urgencies, and speculative futures within layered socioecological entanglements. Research is approached not as preparatory, but as a generative, insurgent act — one that challenges normative design logics and fosters architectures rooted in ecological reciprocity, collective labor, and contested cultural memory. In this studio, we draw from the spirit of molecular revolutions — a concept that locates transformation not in grand gestures, but in the quiet force of everyday actions, intimate collectives, and embodied spatial practices.