https://taubmancollege.umich.edu/architecture/publications/dimensions/dimensions-33Dimensions is the annual, student-produced journal of architecture at the University of Michigan. It seeks to contribute to the critical discourse of architectural education by documenting the most compelling work produced by its students, faculty, fellows, and visiting lecturers.
Letter From the Editors
As a way of reframing relationships between people, objects and architecture, this year we are approaching Dimensions not as an objective artifact but as a subjective volume bringing together a diverse set of work and discourse—both before and after the journal is published.
The journal follows various trajectories of correlations and a series of overlaps that blend seamlessly to provide multiple readings and hierarchies, yet forming a cohesive whole—Dimensions 33.
This creates a platform for a spectrum of topics ranging from speculating what architecture can be to working with digital realities. It involves working with tangible projects of making and fabrication while also questioning the relevance of temporalities of space in the built environment. It works on how architecture can play a role in preservation while also rethinking its role in real estate and land-rights movements.
As the Dimensions team puts the finishing touches on the book with this letter, we are acclimatizing ourselves to a new normal, one created by a global pandemic. We are at the beginning of the end, waiting for a new beginning. While our collective actions as well as the action of leaders will likely shape the world for years to come, we are
…
…at a global pause.
Through all this, Taubman College has been ever-responsive, its faculty ever-involved and its projects ever-present. As we swim in the uncomfortable waters of climate change, surveillance, land rights, urban restructuring—and now a global pandemic—the projects featured in this journal tackle such issues with the rigor and grace they deserve.
Before any of this, though, Dimensions had already made the choice to favor these environmental, societal, and cultural indices over any one program or focus within the school—evident in the index. If you didn’t notice, we hope it was a smooth read. If you did, you can ruminate on how this organized chaos of the journal reflects the changing times.
It was challenging to publish a book with our minds racing back and forth, hoping for a return of normalcy while adapting to this altered reality. But this reality exists and we hope this book offers you a chance to rethink the world we are living in and use this pause as an opportunity to extend your participation towards constructing our new future(s) together.
Project Information
Dimensions 33, 2020, Tuabman College, UMich
Editors Team:
Mytreyi Chandrasekhar
Liyah George
Anhong Li
Abirami Manivannan
Jenny Scarborough
Rachel Skof
Ben Vassar
Instructor: Christian Unverzagt
