On The Ground

Preemptive Nostalgia
Tian Hsu (BA ‘26)
Seniors: Entering into our 4th and final year in the Have, we have frequented York Street, Cross Campus, and Atticus more than most grad students combined. With the impending thoughts of graduation and leaving the Yubble (Yale bubble), we will try our best to hold back tears. This summer, our fearless gatekeepers of Rudolph’s 7th floor scattered to Istanbul, Copenhagen, Taiwan, Budapest, and the architecture-mainstream expo in Osaka. We are all excited to be back for one final year!

Juniors: Welcome to the biggest class in years. If you see a junior looking lost in the shop, offer help—or offer them to Tim. **Calm After the Storm** *Majdi Alkarute (M.Arch I ’27)* Highlighted by sweaty days under the sun on site, and equally sweaty nights dancing to Meixi’s DJ sets at 6on7 barbecues, summer 2025 has been the desperately needed first major break after the crucible that was first year. As the days begin to shorten, our summertime sadness is tempered by excitement to see our friends–and knowing we will never have to sit through OSHA training again. **Creeping Anxiety ** *Tony Salem Musleh (M.Arch I ‘26)* It’s the ocean’s womb that lets us forget, offering a moment of wholeness. On this small piece of land that overlooked an endless horizon of blue, we found ourselves all to forget: study, stress, struggle. Yet, as we gave ourselves to the illusion of our travel, our anxiety wandered with us, surely reminding us of what is to come. Emails yet to arrive, offers soon to be signed, securities still not obtained.
Three work offers were signed during our Mexico trip, trading rest for another line on one’s CV - an attempt to fulfill the ever-growing demands of a market that struggles to even absorb those who were promised to once thrive in it. **Identity Under Construction** *Marusya Bakhrameeva (M.Arch II ‘26)* This year, graduating post-professional students will officially occupy the entire north tray of the seventh floor. The administration has granted them a permanent space to establish a clearer identity within the school. What that identity will be, however, remains undecided: should it revolve around roof sunbathing every other day, ritual cocktail hours to ease solitude, or something more generous, like sharing a collective spirit with the undergraduate students who also call this floor home? Time will tell. **A Full House Convened** *Layna Chen (MED ‘26)* The M.E.D. cohort spent the summer dispersed across three times zones, each pursuing distinct research while monitoring news of a rapidly dismantling infrastructure on our cellphones. In the northwestern United States, Estella Dieci researched recent dam removals in the Klamath River Basin. On the island of Borneo, Indonesia, Layna Chen traced the emergence of a state-sanctioned agriculture through indigenous terminology. Meanwhile, in Morocco, Iskander Guetta examined practices of informal design. This fall, we return to New Haven to a full house, welcoming three new students, ready to plan out how the M.E.D. working group can be leveraged this year. **New Beginnings** *Jaime Solares Carmona (PhD ‘28)* In the final days of the last semester, PhD students from both tracks (History and Theory of Architecture + Ecosystems in Architectural Sciences) gathered to set up a list of shared suggestions, contributions, and questions to the new Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), Prof. David Gissen. The meeting went well, with a feeling of openness and willingness to work together. One of the points of discussion was how to increase our involvement with the School, in activities such as teaching courses related to our professional development, participating in reviews, organizing round tables and colloquiums, etc.