UCLA Architecture & Urban Design

UCLA Architecture and Urban Design is pleased to share its full 2025–26 program of lectures and events, all free and open to the public. Celebrating AUD’s 60th anniversary, the poster centers on an archival photograph of Perloff Hall from the 1960s, enlarged to reveal its details — the grain of film, the traces of age, and the imperfections carried through multiple scans. This act of zooming in collapses time, bringing decades of history and reproduction into a single surface. Layering extends this gesture, allowing past and present to overlap and accumulate within the design. As with the anniversary lecture series itself — which brings together distinguished speakers and alumni — the poster underscores how AUD’s past continues to shape and inform its present conversations. All events are held at AUD’s Perloff Hall on UCLA’s Main Campus in Westwood and begin at 5:30pm, unless noted otherwise. See the link in our bio to RSVP to the below events: Keller Easterling, “Your Land” Mon, Oct 6, 2025 Julie Eizenberg & Ananya Roy with Dana Cuff & Karen Kubey, “Architecture and the Right to Housing in Los Angeles”, co-organized by UCLA cityLAB & U of Toronto Mon, Oct 20, 2025 Tatiana Bilbao Thu, Nov 13, 2025 David Godshall, “Surfing a Tsunami” Mon, Nov 17, 2025 Kai-Uwe Bergmann (MArch ’93), “Materialism” Thu, Jan 22, 2026 Mark Jarzombek Mon, Jan 26, 2026 Marlon Blackwell Thu, Feb 26, 2026 Mark Lee Mon, May 11, 2026 (rescheduled from April 13) Hsinming Fung (MArch ’80), Distinguished Alumni Lecture Mon, May 18, 2026 RUMBLE 2026 Mon, Jun 8 & Tue, Jun 9, 2026

Six sides. Six events. Six decades of AUD. AUD60 continues from January through June with a lineup of six public programs celebrating the legacy and future of UCLA Architecture and Urban Design. Follow along as the series unfolds. Details + RSVP at link in bio. #AUD60 #UCLAArchitecture #ArchitectureEvents #DesignExhibition #losangelesdesign

For sixty years, UCLA Architecture and Urban Design has pursued a better tomorrow through design. Grounded in a culture of collaboration and experimentation, UCLA AUD is where emerging designers and a diverse community committed to creativity, rigor, and shared purpose come together to imagine new possibilities, test bold strategies, and shape the future. As UCLA AUD celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2026, we honor the legacy of our students, faculty, and collaborators—the buildings and communities we’ve shaped, the innovations and policies we’ve pioneered, and the knowledge we’ve created. We also look forward with ambition and purpose, ready to design for a city and world in constant flux. AUD60 is also a celebration of Los Angeles—a city whose pioneering architecture and innovation inspire the world. What we create here echoes globally, and UCLA AUD is committed to advancing ideas that shape both our city and our world. From January through June 2026, AUD offers a series of public programs that honor and reflect on our institution’s rich legacy. Click the link in our bio to see more information and RSVP.

Congratulations to Ceren Harputoglu and Anjana Ann George (both MSAUD ’26) for receiving an Honorable Mention in the 2026 Advanced Architecture Contest organized by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) for their project, “Floresomatic”. Developed for “The Automated Abundance: Architecture Between Technology & Governance,” Guvenc Ozel and Michael Peguero’s MSAUD Architectural Intelligence Studio, “this project proposes a new housing paradigm where digital intelligence, urban agriculture, and human experience form a single cyber-physical architectural system. Responding to climate instability, social fragmentation, and ecological illiteracy, the project reframes housing as an active, living infrastructure: a responsive architectural organism shaped by plant life, sensory feedback, robotic fabrication, embedded AI, and collective participation. Residents cultivate high-value plant species through immersive, gamified environments, where ecological processes are translated into shifts in light, material, and atmosphere. Across scales, “Floresomatic” imagines housing as part of a distributed ecological network, one that learns from its inhabitants while supporting regeneration, shared responsibility, and new forms of collective life. See the link in our bio for more from this project. #UCLAAUDStudentWork #MSAUD #ArchitecturalIntelligence #FutureHousing #UrbanAgriculture

Among the art on view at this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is “Visage Brut,” a large-scale installation by Claus Benjamin Freyinger (M.Arch. ’05), lecturer in UCLA Architecture and Urban Design, and Andrew Holder (M.Arch. ’05), co-founders of The Los Angeles Design Group. Reimagining the logic and mythology of a totem pole through contemporary construction, “Visage Brut” takes the form of a soaring steel tower composed of modular boxes, each folded, rolled, cut, or warped just short of structural failure. The result is a vertical procession of hybrid geometries that carries weight while projecting an uncanny, almost figurative presence. Shifting between sculptural mass and filigreed lattice, “Visage Brut” invites viewers to slow down, move around it, and look closely. Explore the full story behind the project at the link in our bio. #UCLAArchitecture #Coachella2026 #PublicArt #InstallationArt #DesignCulture Photos courtesy of @lance.gerber @googlepixel

To celebrate 60 years of architectural education at UCLA, the institution's Architecture and Urban Design (AUD) department @uclaaud is hosting a unique exhibition. Drawing on an eclectic archive accumulated over six decades, organizers Samaa Elimam and Michael Osman have extracted samples of the lives lived within the AUD and its predecessors, from portraits and lecture slides to 3D printers and phonebooks.  As the Core Samples exhibition opened, Archinect spoke with Elimam and Osman for a behind-the-scenes look at the exhibition, its origins, the process behind organizing it, what visitors can expect, and what it says about architectural education past and present. 🔗 Read our interview on Archinect: archinect.com/features/article/150534817/at-ucla-an-unconventional-exhibition-revisits-60-years-of-architectural-education Core Samples is on view through June 30, 2026, at Perloff Hall, Room 1118, UCLA, by appointment only. 📸 Cover image: Core Samples opening night at UCLA's Perloff Hall on March 12, 2026. Image credit: Sarah M Golonka #archinect #architecture #architectureacademia #uclaaud #architectureschool

Join us for “Transitioning Worlds”, a two-day conference celebrating 60 years of architectural experimentation at UCLA AUD, organized by Natasha Sandmeier, Kutan Ayata, and Mariana Ibañez. As part of AUD60, the conference brings together faculty, alumni, students, and invited guests for conversations on the changing conditions shaping architecture today. Monday’s program features four thematic sessions on experimental practice, design education, building, and Los Angeles as a site of urban inquiry. On Tuesday, the conference turns toward tomorrow with student-led Pecha Kucha presentations, followed by an afternoon of making, reflection, and exchange across the AUD community. This event is open to the public; please register in advance at the link in our bio. #UCLAAUD #AUD60 #TransitioningWorlds #ArchitectureConference #DesignEducation

AUD’s Core Samples exhibition draws from decades of archival material to explore the many media, methods, and histories that have shaped design pedagogy at Perloff Hall. We enjoyed an opening reception on March 12, featuring tours and insights from AUD’s Samaa Elimam, Michael Osman, and Chair Mariana Ibañez. As the second program in our AUD60 celebration, Core Samples reactivates the AUD archive as a site of teaching, research, conversation, and collective memory. Swipe through for moments from the opening and click the link in our bio if you’d like to arrange a viewing — the show is on view through June 30, by appointment only. We look forward to continuing the AUD60 festivities next month with our conference, “Transitioning Worlds,” on April 20 and 21.

Join us this Thursday, March 12 at 6:00 PM for the opening of Core Samples, on view March 12–June 30, 2026 in Perloff Hall, Room 1118. Organized by Samaa Elimam and Michael Osman, Core Samples is the second program in our AUD60 Celebration. Uncovering decades of materials from AUD’s archives, the exhibition brings together cassette tapes, slides, posters, photographs, videos, and other media that document sixty years of pedagogy at Perloff Hall. Rather than revisiting only the “greatest hits,” Core Samples samples across the archive to ask: What has been kept, what has been lost, and how does an institution remember itself? Part exhibition, part teaching collection, Core Samples reactivates the archive as a space for research, reflection, and conversation. #UCLAAUD #AUD60 #CoreSamples #ArchitectureExhibition #ArchitectureSchool

Midterm review progress in the MSAUD Material Innovations Architecture Studio with @koernerjulia and @vanleuwenhall As part of UCLA AUD’s MSAUD program, this advanced topics studio engages graduate students in yearlong research through design at the intersection of architecture, materials, computation, and sustainability. Students shared developing proposals for the yearlong research studio “Towards Circular, Innovative Buildings for the Olympics: Reimagining Design and Construction through 3D Printing” — exploring large-scale 3D-printed, modular prefabricated systems for more circular, low-carbon building futures. Through computational design, design for manufacturing/disassembly, biomimicry, and material reuse, the studio investigates how Olympic-scale infrastructure can become a test bed for adaptable buildings with long-term life beyond the Games. #MSAUD #3DPrintingideas #Olympics #DesignStudio #UCLAAUDStudentWork

Last Friday, Perloff Hall was buzzing with energy as 35+ architecture and design firms connected with UCLA AUD students at our annual Career Fair. The event gave students the opportunity to connect directly with professionals, learn about current employment opportunities, and share the work they’ve been developing at AUD. Thank you to all the firms and professionals who joined us, and to the students who showed up ready to engage! #UCLAArchitecture #CareerFair #UCLA #ArchitectureCareers #Architecture

Registration for UCLA Architecture and Urban Design Summer Programs is now open! Whether you’re a high school student curious about architecture and design or someone looking to explore the field, we have two immersive studio options for Summer 2026: TeenArch is a 3-week program designed for high school students, delivered in-person and online in a remote learning format, and carries 3 UC credits. JumpStart is a 4-week immersive program for individuals interested in exploring careers in architecture, design, and related fields. Open to students from all backgrounds, JumpStart offers hands-on studio experience and 6 UC credits. To participate, students must have a high school diploma (or equivalent). Apply now and join us at UCLA for Summer 2026! Click the link in our bio to learn more and register.