色界吧

For the third consecutive year, the School of Architecture and Design participated in the . Held annually in May, NYCxDESIGN is one of New York City鈥檚 most influential design events, drawing global audiences to hundreds of exhibitions, trade shows, talks, and tours across the five boroughs.

色界吧 plays an active role in the coordination and vision for the festival, with Dean Maria Perbellini, M.Arch., and IDC Foundation Endowed Chair Alessandro Melis, Ph.D., acting as 色界吧鈥檚 representatives on the festival鈥檚 steering committee.

Under the leadership of Perbellini, Melis, and Professor Giovanni Santamaria, Ph.D., the school contributed to three events under the theme of Worlds Un/Designed. The events put a spotlight on 色界吧 students鈥� work, highlighting the school鈥檚 commitment to advancing technology, innovation, and sustainability in design education. Here is a recap of 色界吧鈥檚 participation:

Worlds Un/Designed: Thesis Presentations and Exhibition Opening

The centerpiece of the School of Architecture and Design鈥檚 participation was the architecture thesis showcase, which featured the culmination of two semesters of work by undergraduate architecture students.

Curated by Perbellini and co-curated by Chairs of Architecture Gertrudis Brens, M.Arch., and Dongsei Kim, M.Des., M.S.AUD., along with thesis co-coordinators Associate Professor Farzana Gandhi, M.Arch., and Teaching Assistant Professor Evan Shieh, M.AUD., the exhibition featured thesis projects exploring the range of architecture鈥檚 diverse applications in research and design. This year鈥檚 theme challenged inherited conventions in planning, infrastructure, architecture, interiors, materials, and spatial design, questioning how they have shaped built environments and often limited more inclusive, resilient, and regenerative futures. Through rigorous research and experimental design across scales and worldwide locations, students tested alternative paradigms for healthier, more adaptive, and collectively responsive forms of inhabitation. The exhibition also featured a backdrop installation previously presented at Salone del Mobile di Milano, an annual furniture fair held in Milan, Italy, coordinated by Perbellini, Santamaria, Director of Urban and Regional Design Marcella Del Signore, M.Arch., and the Fabrications Labs team.

Exhibition Tour: Student-Led Exploration

The guided tour of the School of Architecture and Design studio spaces and Fabrication Labs invited visitors to explore student work across disciplines, emphasizing how site-specific design approaches and proactive experimentations鈥攆rom the scale of materials to the scale of buildings and territories鈥攃an also provoke broader cultural reflections involving local and global communities. Associate Dean Anthony Caradonna coordinated the tour.

Selected Student Presentations at FIT

Coordinated by Chair of Interior Design Florencia Vetcher and Del Signore, selected students presented their thesis projects at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). Interior design student Sasha Burshteyn鈥檚 thesis project, 鈥淟earning to Work Again,鈥� explored how interior design can respond to contemporary workplace burnout by reimagining the office as a hybrid environment that integrates work, social connection, and personal wellbeing, fostering more meaningful and human-centered experiences within contemporary work culture.

Thesis work by Master of Architecture students Rayhaan Albuquerque, Matan Lobel, and Mert Osar examined the intersecting social, ecological, and infrastructural forces that shape a city, envisioning resilient spatial futures for Rio de Janeiro through architecture and urban inter-scalar design interventions. This inter-institutional dialogue offered public insight into how emerging designers in both interior design and architecture are addressing global challenges through spatial and material innovation across several dimensional scales.

鈥淚t is important for the School of Architecture and Design to contribute to platforms that shape contemporary conversations about design, technology, culture, and innovative professional practices,鈥� says Perbellini. 鈥淣YCxDESIGN provides an exceptional opportunity to showcase the creativity and intellectual rigor of our students while engaging with an international community of designers, educators, and industry leaders. Through events such as these, we strengthen the visibility of our programs, celebrate student achievement, and demonstrate how design education can generate new ideas, be a catalyst for positive change, challenge conventions, and inspire more resilient and inclusive futures.鈥�

This article was contributed by the School of Architecture and Design.