School News

Carnegie Mellon Architecture is pleased to announce that Priyanka Thakur (M.Arch '24) has been selected as the winner of the 2026 Delbert Highlands Travel Fellowship for her proposal "Learning from the River: Building a New Vernacular with the Communities of Majuli, Assam, India." The Highlands Fellowship supports Carnegie Mellon Architecture alumni in the study of collections belonging to locales to promote the professional development of awardees and contribute to the richness of our surroundings.

This edition of the newsletter celebrates the community and work of Carnegie Mellon Architecture. Head of School Omar Khan reflects on how architectural education at CMU contributes to a bright view of the future. We also share videos and photography from school celebrations this spring, including the PJ Dick Innovation Fund Faculty Grants Program showcase and the "x-change" publication launch and welcome back celebration.

A research gift from Autodesk supported a new program of competitive grants funding exploratory research and pedagogical experiments at the crossroads of artificial intelligence (AI) and design at Carnegie Mellon Architecture's CodeLab (Computational Design Laboratory). Four collaborative teams comprising CodeLab and other CM-A faculty and students were awarded grants this year.

The Master of Architecture (M.Arch) program is proud to announce the recipients of the 2026 travel awards. The awards support travel proposals for work grounded in architectural design research across a range of diverse contexts, practices and cultures. Upon completion of their travel, the recipients deliver a Pecha Kucha style presentation of their travel study and ongoing research.

Carnegie Mellon Architecture (CM—A) is proud to announce the 2026 awardees of the PJ Dick Innovation Fund Faculty Grants Program. Funding has been awarded to 14 project and teaching grant proposals (9 and 5 respectively) during this third round of the program. Established in 2023 by PJ Dick Trumbull Lindy Group, the Faculty Grants Program will award a total of $400,000 over four years beginning in 2024.

Carnegie Mellon Architecture is pleased to announce that applications are now open for the Spring 2026 Awards. Applications are due on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, at 11:59pm ET. Up to more than $33,000 is available to support undergraduate, master’s and Ph.D. students. Awards recognize professional promise, public interest design, sustainable design, and design and representation.

In our last edition of the year, the CM—A Newsletter dives into the Computational Design Laboratory (CodeLab). We talk to its director, Daniel Cardoso Llach, and alum Lydia Schweitzer (MSCD '21) who now works in research at NASA. We also share exciting news: the school launched a publishing imprint, in otherwards, and its inaugural publication "after school"; this year's "x-change" publication will soon be available; and in January, we will celebrate the second round of PJ Dick Innovation Fund awardees.

Carnegie Mellon Architecture (CM—A) is proud to announce the launch of the 2025 edition of "x-change," our annual publication showcasing work from first-year students to Ph.D. candidates. Inaugurated in 2017 as "EX-CHANGE," the publication has since evolved into "x-change" to more pointedly reflect its role as a platform for critical discourse and reflection. Save the date for the book launch on Friday, January 16, 2026.

Carnegie Mellon Architecture is proud to announce the student recipients of the Fall 2025 Architecture Awards. This fall, more than $80,000 in funding has been awarded to support projects and internships, research, travel and more, for undergraduate, master's and Ph.D. students.

In this edition of the Carnegie Mellon Architecture Newsletter, we explore the legacy of the Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics, one of the most storied research centers at the school. We hear from co-directors Vivian Loftness, Erica Cochran Hameen and Azadeh O. Sawyer, as well as an alum of the program, Siliang Lu (PhD-BPD '19). We also learn about research from the M.Arch Travel Awards winners, who presented their work at an exhibition and Pecha Kucha presentation on October 27.