U-SoA Spring 2025 Final Reviews

ARC 608: Integrated solution: Fire Station along the Miami River

Faculty: Wong

Location: Murphy A

Time: Afternoon Session

ARC 608: Integrated solution: Fire Station along the Miami River

Faculty: Trautman

Location: Murphy B

Time: Afternoon Session

ARC 407-510: Stilt Village

 Just as stilts allow fishermen in Sri Lanka to occupy the sea while minimizing the lateral effect of waves, many architectural constructions on water also anchored or moored themselves, reaching down through the water in search of firm soil. Anchorage involves securing oneself to something fixed to facilitate equilibrium above for a variety of timescales. One can also anchor oneself (permanent or temporal) to rock-like foundations such as our values, history, identity, etc., to propel forward. Our design studio calls for an adaptive reuse study on the historic Stiltsville’s houses, that as the Sri Lanka fishermen, they also seat on stils located on sand banks of the edge of Biscayne Bay in Miami FL. The course aims to bring back Stiltsville’s active presence to the Miami’s seascape by repurposing the seven existing buildings for a Wellness Center where nature serves as our anchor for mental and physical health. It also proposes to develop students’ awareness to adaptive reuse principles and to approach a design problem from a conceptual foundation through exploration, rigor, and questioning.

Faculty: Alarcon + Kiliddjan

Time: Afternoon Session

Location: Murphy A + B

ARC 407-510: New York Skyscraper

The NEW YORK CITY STUDIO is dedicated to an in-depth study of the architecture of the high-rise through observation, drawing research and design. New York City is the site of the discovery of the skyscraper and the testing ground of the vertical city and high urban density in America. The NYC STUDIO is committed to the invention of a new generation of little skyscrapers inspired by the architecture of the city. The studio will research the architecture of the block, the street and the skyline in connection with historical skyscrapers such as The Empire States Building, Chrysler Building, Rockefeller Center, Waldorf Astoria and Seagram Building as well as contemporary interpretations by Pritzker prize winners Rem Koohaas, Aldo Rossi, Frank Gehry, Herzog de Meuron, Chipperfield, Sanaa & Venturi-Scott-Brown. Teams of two students will design a small skyscraper for the city in close relationship with the research conducted. A non-mandatory field trip to NYC is planned.

Faculty: Behar

Time: Afternoon Session

Location: Korach Gallery

ARC 407-510: Historic Preservation

The Lummus Park Historic District is on the National Register of Historic Places and is significant in the historical and architectural heritage of the City of Miami, specifically for its associations with the early history of Miami. This neighborhood represents development in Miami before the phenomenal growth of the Land Boom years. The land on which the district is located was originally owned by the Model Land Company, Henry Flagler’s real estate company. The extant buildings and structures, such as the Scottish Rite Temple, are illustrative of the growth patterns in Miami, where areas closest to the water and downtown developed early in the history of the City. Over the years, the park has become home to a number of historic structures that were threatened by demolition and were relocated in an effort to preserve them in the public realm. Continued development along Biscayne Bay has brought residential uses back to downtown Miami, increasing the demand for transit, and resulting in the construction of the regional Brightline Station at the Miami-Dade County’s Government Center. Nestled between a resurging downtown Miami and the Miami River, the Lummus Park Historic District faces an uncertain future. A number of its contributing historic buildings have been demolished, including the Temple Court Apartments which burned down just last summer. This studio seeks to develop a strategy for the redevelopment of the sites of once-contributing historic buildings to meet the growing demand for housing near the city as well as for improved public access to parks and the city’s public waterfront, in a manner that is compatible with the historic district.

Faculty: Lopez

Time: Afternoon Sessions

Location: Murphy C

ARC 407-510: Sustainable Design for Multi-Generational Living

Step into the future of architecture with this hands-on studio focused on designing a self-sustaining, off-grid family compound! Dive into regenerative farming, net-zero energy systems, and wellness-focused spaces, crafting a rural retreat that balances independence and community for multiple generations. Students will design flexible, eco-friendly environments that honor nature and inspire sustainable living. Discover how architecture can blend resilience, comfort, and innovation in this exciting journey to create the ultimate family haven!

Faculty: Montero

Time: Afternoon Session

Location: Murphy A

ARC 407-510: Houing for All

The global housing crisis is affecting diverse populations and family types, leaving many struggling to secure basic living conditions. A hallmark of a successful city has always been its ability to foster social and economic opportunities that support human flourishing. However, in the past fifty years, urban expansion has often prioritized development at the expense of environmental and human well-being. Today, architects face increasing pressure to address climate change, political displacement, and growing social and health inequalities. The architect's role in ensuring the health, safety, and welfare of communities is more critical than ever. This design studio seeks to explore how architecture can meet the urgent housing needs of a diverse society, focusing specifically on housing security. The course encourages students to consider affordable, public, or social housing, and to investigate other building types that contribute to individual and community well-being. The studio, led by faculty members Veruska Vasconez and Eric Firley, centers on a site in Paris that presents unique social, economic, and environmental challenges. Students will draw on their expertise to create design proposals that respond to these specific conditions, advancing their understanding of low-income housing within a broader urban context. Each student will have the opportunity to define their focus, whether on materials, construction methods, or more expansive urban planning and health-related topics.

Faculty: Vasconez + Firley

Time: Afternoon Session

Location: Murphy B

ARC 407-510: Tradition and Innovation Studio

The studio’s focus on innovative practice methods, aimed at improving the built environment while safeguarding human scale, health and cultural heritage with Tradition & Innovation, shall be explored in proposals for New Dwellings on selected lots and the final parcels along the Prado Entrance, in Coral Gables, Florida. Coral Gables, a citrus plantation reimagined as a master-planned Garden City inspired by “City Beautiful” movements, and now having been designed over 100 years ago, is looking to the studio for contributions on thoughtful architectural advancement for growth and development.

Faculty: Martinez

Time: Afternoon Session

Location: Murphy C

ARC 407-510: Sakamoto

Architecture and music are intimately related: Both rely on time to be experienced, thrive on the dialectic between limit and void, and incorporate notions of harmony, trance, or proportion. While the one requires performance, the other needs to be built. Based upon such considerations, the concrete brief will be the design of a musician’s small house and studio at Biscayne Bay. Our imagined client will be Ryuichi Sakamoto (1952-2023), a Japanese composer, pianist, and pioneer in electronic music who closely studied the relationship between space and sound, how one reflects and refracts the other. Inspired by his avant-gardist oeuvre and a series of critical movies that will accompany the semester, our goal is to re-envision this building typology in a secluded park in the center of Miami. For Sakamato, the sounds of a city at night might inform the architecture of a new album: “You have to open your ears all the time because anything could happen unexpectedly,” he said of his approach. Just as for Hans Hollein “everything is architecture”, for him, “anything can be music.” Conceived as true catalysts and “machines à réaction poétique,” all projects are thought to be developed in great detail, emphasizing issues of materiality and construction, place-making, and spatial atmosphere. Touching upon the roots of architecture, our contemporary versions of the primitive hut shall be planned as a self-reliant and autonomous building unit; thus, they should all be soundly adapted to their subtropical surroundings by embracing but also poetically unveiling the natural forces. The course will be grounded on disciplined experimentation, physical model-building, and encourages courageous exploration. It is designed to empower the students to achieve a maximum freedom of expression. 

Faculty: Sauter

Time: Afternoon Session

Location: Murphy D

ARC 407-510: Canin Studio

Faculty: Correa + Zeghar

Time: Afternoon Session

Location: Korach Gallery

ARC 102: The Difficult Whole: Bar Space/Meditation Space

Faculty: Von Moos

Time: Morning Session

Location: Murphy A + B + C + D + 2 in Korach Gallery + Murphy Wall (interior) + Room 48-320 + Old Gallery 

ARC 407-510: Digital Fabrication Studio

This upper-level undergraduate (4th+5th year) and graduate-level studio will focus on

utilizing computational design methodologies to develop optimized concrete 3D printed

structures at the scale of a single- or two-story residential home. The course will focus

heavily on the use of digital workflows to enhance students’ ability to design, evaluate,

and optimize complex geometries that push the boundaries of concrete 3D printing both

in terms of design and performance. Additionally, students will have access to the

COBOD printer on campus and work to print physical prototypes of portions of their

building to confirm the viability of their designs. Students will be highly encouraged to

submit their work to the ACADIA 2025 Conference which will be hosted at the University

of Miami and Florida International University in November of 2025.

Faculty: Jarosz + Yactayo

Time: Afternoon Session

Location: Murphy A + B  

ARC 407-510: A Tropical Civic Center for Silica City in Guyana

A consortium led by ExxonMobil discovered the first major oil deposits in May 2015 off Guyana, one of the poorest countries in South America despite its large reserves of gold, diamond, and bauxite. This South American country of 791,000 people is poised to become the world’s fourth-largest offshore oil producer, placing it ahead of Qatar, the United States, Mexico, and Norway. The oil boom will generate billions of dollars for this largely impoverished nation. In the Spring of 2024, a team of students from the University of Miami School of Architecture designed the Master Plan for a new community Silica City. Silica City is envisioned as a new model for an innovative resilient city of the 21st Century. The Spring Studio will focus on the design of the new Village Hall. The design will involve the analysis of similar building types such as Tongde Hall in Hainan,China, Viborg City Hall in Denmark; Chonquing Hall in Shanghai; Elk Grove City Hall in California; and a number of others. We will approach the project from the standpoint of Resiliency and Innovation. resiliency. Students will work in teams of two and the final project will be developed in detail outlining structure and tropical sustainable strategies.

Faculty: Gelabert-Navia

Time: Morning Session

Location: Murphy D

ARC 407-510: Net Zero Schools

Welcome to the Upper Design Studio focused on Net Zero Schools, an advanced design course dedicated to preparing students for impactful careers in architecture. This semester, we’ll simulate a collaborative team environment, equipping you with cutting-edge tools, workflows, and insights to master the design of educational spaces, with a choice to focus on either K-12 or higher education facilities in a location of your choosing. Through practical projects and real-world applications, you'll address the critical challenges of sustainability, resilience, and limited resources in designing modern learning environments. Adding depth to our exploration, guest speakers from HKS and other leading firms will share their expertise and experiences, providing valuable industry perspectives on shaping the future of educational environments. Together, we’ll create future-ready designs that embody sustainable solutions for education. Join us in crafting the educational spaces of tomorrow.

Faculty: Branger

Time: Morning Session

Location: Murphy C

ARC 407-510: Mixed-Use Studio Village

The studio explores a 60-acre site consisting of a film studio, luxury hotel, VR center, retail village, office, and housing. The vision is to create a unique Master Plan design that creates an envelope pushing ideas that are directly tied to the special program and site.

Faculty: Givens + Garcia-Navarro

Time: Afternoon Session

Location: Korach Gallery

ARC 204: Miami Fish Market

Faculty: Cure

Time: Morning Session

Location: Murphy A + B + C + D + 2 in Korach Gallery + Murphy Wall (interior) + Glasgow 

ARC 306: Building Studio: North Beach Youth Center

Faculty: Sarli

Time: Afternoon Session

Location: Murphy A + B + D + 2 in Korach Gallery + Murphy Wall (interior) + Room 48-330 + Old Gallery + LaGorce 270 + One Studio Presentation (Selected by Coordinator)

ARC 407-510-602: Urban Design Studio

Faculty: Lombard

Time: Afternoon Session

Location: Murphy C

RED 660: Urban Development

Faculty: TBD

Time: 8:30am-2:30pm

Location: Glasgow 

ARC 605: Design Studio

Faculty: Flores

Time: Morning + Afternoon Session

Location: Murphy A + B

ARC 610: Thesis

Faculty: Juneau

Time: Morning + Afternoon Session

Location: Murphy A + B + C + D + Korach