What’s Next?

We asked third-year grad students and sophomore undergraduates intending to pursue the undergraduate architecture major: What’s next?

ELIZABETH KINGSLEY (YC ‘19)

I was always a Lego girl, and I still am: throughout midterm season my “study break” was building the Louvre. I think this is an appropriate allegory for my goals in architecture. I’m interested in how you put pieces together to reach a goal – in the creative problem-solving that architecture teaches. Whether that will lead me to engineering, or urban planning, or industrial design, is all up in the air.  I appreciate that architecture leaves those options open for me, as it is inherently interdisciplinary. So to answer the question (in the vaguest way possible because that’s as far as I’ve gotten), my next step is investigating all the formats in which those skills can be applied, and choosing one that’s rewarding and impactful.

ANDREA MASTERSON (YC ‘19)

Before I came to Yale, I had absolutely no idea what it meant to study architecture. I was unaware of the qualities of the spaces through which I passed, and indifferent to the appearance and function of the built environment around me. I’m not sure what piqued my interest, but I enrolled in a class my freshman year and haven’t looked back since.
I’m not sure what’s next for me, but I know that I will appreciate architecture for the rest of my life. If I had to decide today, I think I would choose it for my major. It excites me to think that I could make a career out of it. When it comes to my future, I am always scared to commit to anything for fear it will disappoint me. The biggest challenge for me is overcoming my indecision and taking the plunge. Whether or not I decide that architecture is for me, I will continue to take classes in the department. Now that I have been more formally introduced to it, I will never fail to appreciate how lucky I am to be at such an architecturally informative and remarkable place as Yale.

AMANDA HU (YC ‘19)

In my future, I envision the opposite of a desk job. I want to see, do, explore, feel the world around me with no limitations. I think architecture can open this door for me, not only as a profession but by instilling in me a unique, design-oriented way of thinking, developing a lexicon rooted in the movement of shapes, light, atmosphere. While I can’t predict whether this will be true, I know, in the future, I will do what I love. I will dedicate my work to imagining and creating beauty and intrigue where it has room to grow.

CASEY FURMAN (M.Arch ‘17)

It’s important to me that I continue with architecture, but after seven straight years of intense architectural education I’m ready to settle into a more routine life for a while and work on other aspects of myself. I want to find a place that I enjoy being in, and a group of people that I enjoy working with. And I want to rediscover those things called hobbies and interests and social life and purpose. A better person makes better things. (Hopefully.)