MIT Portraits 2011/ Juxtaposition:Faces of Architecture at MIT

When thinking about architecture schools, one may think of the head that runs the department. First there was Yung Ho, now it’s Nader. Both I’ve come to know because I had to research them to find out if MIT was the right school for me. While their faces are clear to me, Architecture students have long been hidden away in their studio slaving away for their next studio review right behind the most social center of the campus; Steam Cafe. While we associated the school with Nader, I find that there are much to say about how much the school depends on students as well. In a way, architecture school uses student work as much as faculty or chair to draw in future students. In a way, the increasingly business-like structure of university makes me question the roles, priories, and dreams of students and Nader. This project seeks to uncover the struggle between running an architecture school and being in architecture school through portrait style photography.

As a premise, I asked a few students to choose who they could start a firm with and what image they want to portray .