Architecture Masters Theses
RISD’s Master of Architecture program is one of the few in the US embedded in a college of art and design. Here, architecture is taught in a way that understands the practice of design and making as a thoughtful, reflective process that both engenders and draws from social, political, material, technological and cultural agendas. The program aims to empower students to exercise their creativity by understanding their role as cultural creators and equipping them to succeed in the client-based practice of architecture.
The degree project represents the culmination of each student’s interests relative to the curriculum. A seminar in the fall of the final year helps focus these interests into a plan of action. Working in small groups of five or six under the guidance of a single professor, students pursue individual projects throughout Wintersession and spring semester. Degree projects are expected to embody the architectural values that best characterize their authors as architects and are critiqued based on the success of translating these values into tangible objects.
Graduate Program Director: Hansy Better Barraza
These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Theses from 2025
Living Heritage, Aysenur Cetin
SPACE, LIFE AND CAPITAL: THE METABOLIC RIFT, Zhongsu Cheng
Soft Stickers, Alexandra L. Croft
Built for Belonging: An Exploration of the Mutual Adoption Between Human and Home, Jillian Edwards
the house at the end of time, Gyles Jose Antonio Ferrao
Almost Architecture, Almost [ other ] : Examining Approximative Methods of Design Through the Lens of Hydrologic Structures, Pateton Gonzales
A Weathering Narrative: Architecture as a Living Archive of Time and Change, Estephania Granados
Prosthesis, Alexander A. Grosek
What [Could] Happen[ed] in Oak Cliff: Reimagining Gentrification without Displacement, Samantha E. Hernandez
The (Im)possibility of Existing (Conditions), Emily Hesse
Time in Architecture, MInho Kwon
Building From Found, Isabelle K. Troutman
NEW WATER ORDER - THE LEAKY VESSEL, Anand Upadhayay
bodies collapsing together... together as dust., Catherine J. Wang
Eco-Posthumanism — A Utopian Transformation of Modernist Residence, Shuli Wu
Delusional Motel: An Architecture Evoking Negative Symptoms and Disorders, Zesha Xie
Objects Into Things: The Ordinary into Extraordinary, Michael K. Yirenkyi
Theses from 2024
Reform Craft | Re-Form Clay, Katherine Badenhausen
Narrative Structures, Theodore Badenhausen
Room to Grieve: The Space of Solace in Public Life, Lauren Blonde
Frontier: Land, Architecture, and Abstraction, Jacob Boatman
Rhythm of Space, Brian Carrillo
Searching for the Hyperobject: Crystals as Transscalar Vehicles, Jay Costello
Unconditioning Air, Weijia Deng
(Matter)ial Revolution, Aleza Epstein
Building the Body, Jasmine Flowers
House Calls, Gregory Goldstone
Culinary community: Collaborative Relationship Building through Improvisational Fine Dining, Victoria Goodisman
Textile Tectonics: Shaping Space Through Soft Studies, Lela Gunderson
Hong Kong’s Architectural Resistance: Practice Through Research, Jingjing Huang
“Modern Nomads”: Unfolding Domesticity, Yifan Hu
Mind Follows Matter, Fiona Libby
Curb Appeal, Eric Liu
Dreampool, Xia Li
Atelier Interloper, Isabel Jane Marvel
Entre Manos Y Barro: Innovando Con Tradición, Jose Mata
Patchwork: 76km between Juárez and El Paso, Naheyla Medina
The Dollhouse, Kristina Miesel
A Dispatch from the Site Office, Adrian Pelliccia
Infinite Plane: Metaphysical Architecture + Digital Space, Isabella Ruggiero
Icons of Solitude: Peace, Quiet, and the Urban Condition, Jack Schildge
Beyond the Idle Machine: Spatio-Subjective Architecture, Andrew Schnurr
snowstorm, Caleb Shafer
Corner Revolution: Beyond “skynet”, Brightening Grey space and Building Security, Caimin Shen
Living Surfaces, Ryan R. Sotelo
THE RUNIS: HOW CAN SOCIAL REMIDATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL REMEIDATION BE LINKED THROGUH ARCHITECTURE?, Tayu Ting
Entropic Accumulation, Abby Tuckett
What does water want?, Julia Woznicki
Design With Decay, Charlotte Wyman
LifeLink, Yuan Yuan
Architecture As A Carbon-Based Practice, Qixin Yu
Theses from 2023
Ghost Hotel, George Acosta
Cohabitation x Adaptation, 2100: A Climate Change Epoch, Kyle Andrews
Reintroducing Hemp (rongony) in the Material Palette of Madagascar: A study on the potential of Hemp Clay components and its impact on social and ecological communities., Henintsoa Thierry Andrianambinina
Norteada- En Busca De un Nuevo Norte. Cocoon Portals and the Negotiation of Space., Kimberly Ayala Najera
Decolonial Perspective on Fashion and Sustainability, Haisum Basharat
Psychochoreography, Nora Bayer
Whale Fall·Building Fall, Jiayi Cai
Means and Methods: Pedagogy and Proto-Architecture, Daniel Choconta
The Miacomet Movement, Charles Duce
Unpacked: Consumer Culture in Suburban Spaces, Jaime Dunlap
you're making me sentimental, Chris Geng
Myths, Legends, and Landscapes, Oromia Jula
Old and New: Intervention in Space and Material, Yoonji Kang
Urban Succession: an ecocentric urbanism, Anthony Kershaw
An Architect's Toolkit for Color Theory, ella knight
WAST3D POTENTIAL, Andrew Larsen
Recipes for Building Relationships, Adriana Lintz
Water Relations, Understanding Our Relationship to Water: Through Research, Diagrams, and Glass, Tian Li
Exploring Permanent Temporariness: A Look into the Palestinian Experience through Refugee Camps, Tamara Malhas
A Study of Dwelling, Julia McArthur
Appropriate that Bridge: Appropriation as a way of Intervention, Haochen Meng
Toronto Rewilded, Forrest Meyer
Confronting and Caring for Spaces of Service, Tia Miller
Reorientation, Soleil Nguyen
The De-centering of Architecture, Uthman Olowa
[De]Composition: Grounding Architecture, Skylar Perez
Soft City: Reclaiming Urban Public Spaces for Play, Jennifer Pham
We Have a (Home) - Co-operative Homes for Sunset Park, Lisa Qiu
The Incremental Ecosystem: Hybridizing Self-Built + Conventional Processes as a Solution to Urban Expansion, Shayne Serrano
Liberdade para quem? - Layered Histories, Vanessa Shimada
Tracing as Process, Lesley Su
The Design of Consequences, Yuqi Tang
On the Edge of the "Er-Ocean" State, Mariesa Travers
Beyond the White Box: Building Alternative Art Spaces for the Black Community, Elijah Trice
Translational Placemaking: The Diasporic Archive, Alia Varawalla
Unearthing Complexity: Tangible Histories of Water and Earth, Alexis Violet
Ritual as Design Gesture: Reimagining the Spring Festival in Downtown Providence, wenjie wang
Spatial Reveries, Alexander Wenstrup
Public-ish, Aliah Werth
Phantom Spaces, Craytonia Williams II
Green Paths - On the Space In-Between Buildings, Hongru Zhang
Blowing Away, Ziyi Zhao
Uncovering Emotional Contamination: Five Sites of Trauma, Abigail Zola
Theses from 2022
Revisionist Zinealog : a coacted countercultural device, Madaleine Ackerman
Reengineer value, Maxwell Altman
Space in sound, Gidiony Rocha Alves
Anybody home? Figural studies in architectural representation, David Auerbach