This year's set of five UG3 studios elected not to interpret a single functional buiding type but instead to begin from a more open architectural type: the Hall. Of course that word gets around, even in thin red type on a light red background: assembly hall, city hall, music hall, food hall, dance hall, kingdom hall, hall of justice, hall of mirrors, hall of fame: these are just a few of the most familiar uses. In casual speech, "hall" often just means a place of entry, sometimes a mere corridor. But in architecture, Hall tends to mean a civic place, especially one with designated occasions of use. As is evident from the even the short list above, that could be just about any kind of use. Sometimes the hall is one grand room amid the complexities of a specific use, like the arrivals hall of an airport. Sometimes a single wide span space defines a an ever-changing mix of uses beneath it, like a market hall of a city in Europe. Sometimes a space built for one use gets appropriated decades later for another, unforeseen use, as if form transcends function.Although each studio emphasized a different set of social shifts, all shared a quest for architectural expression, starting here with the thoughtful resolution of one excellent room, as a part of a legible, well-articulated result, working with a graceful space of low complexity, not only as a way to level up in the legible resolution of the work.

ZAIN ABUSEIR

Ann Borek

Man Lam Cheng

STRATTON COFFMAN

Meghana Tummala

Mira Witte

MALCOLM MCCULLOUGH

Chenkun Ma

Dallas Witbeck

ADAM MILLER

Blaise Gimber, Brianna Manzor, Christine Scerbak

Margaret Hawley
Julia Yan Qian

KEITH MITNICK

Leah Altman

Chandler Shan