The closure of the Rice University campus mid-semester forced educators to creatively adapt their planned curriculum to a challenging virtual classroom setting. This semester, HRDD’s Heather Rowell assisted Wonne Ickx with a graduate architecture studio - “Pyramid Schemes”. The class drastically pivoted after an early semester field trip to Mexico City and intensive physical model investigations. In an attempt to save the original goals of the studio, Wonne asked the students to create simulated physical models of their final projects. ArchDaily recently published the students’ hard work:

"Students were asked to simulate, to feign a physical model: to create an image that would look as much as possible as if a physical model had been produced, but the whole image had to be engineered in virtual space. A playful exercise in simulation. Students invented specific backgrounds, accidental spots of shade, disregarded tools, studio-lighting or leftover masking tapes... to make their images look as realistic as possible. Lots of effort was spent in avoiding the pristine quality of the digital assembly: walls were places slightly off-grid, handrails were bent or received a minor fold, glue remnants were digitally applied and uneven joints were carefully crafted into the virtual realm.”

The Rice Architecture students were resilient and results were fantastic!