On The Ground

Don’t Forget to Sleep
Yanbo Li
M.Arch I ’26

How did you manage your midterm stress? A quiz.

a. Bring homemade baked goods to share with the class

b. Noise-cancelling headphones—lock the fuck in

c. Break the Zund by not sparing the time to read simple instructions

d. Work from home to avoid studio vibes and wow everyone with a model that seems to materialize overnight

e. Cigarettes

’Twas the Weekend Before Midterms
Majdi Alkarute
M.Arch I ’27

When all through the pit, not a racquet was swinging, not even Zeid’s. As I passed by Justin Morande’s desk, his thriving plant caught my attention. “If the plant is living, you’re living,” he reminded us. Marisa Crandall looked up, “The plant is NOT under the same duress as me.”

Bittersweet Company
Maggie Holm
MArch I ’28

Nathan Nguyen unofficially joined the M.Arch I ’28 cohort for the midterm week. During his time, he gleefully camped out in the southwest corner of the sixth floor working on any project that wasn’t his. His term came to a close in the early morning hours of review day when he announced, “your suffering brings me suffering.” À la Charlie Brown Sad Walk, he retreated back to the fifth floor.

From Distant Coordinates to New Coordinations
Layna Chen
M.E.D

The schedules of the M.E.Ds finally aligned to allow an active brainstorm of ideas for the Roth Symonds lecture.
Estella got back from a research trip in California. Layna accidentally found herself participating in a conservation conference in New York. Iskander gave a tour of the program to a prospective student. First years stayed in New Haven.
Zoe went as the M.E.D representative to the student council. The atmosphere was tense. The topic was budget cuts. The school will be shaving off 10–15% from every department and they will NOT be letting us know where the cuts will be made.

Halloween Lifehack? Stoggles
Tian Hsu
Undergraduate

With the spooky season right around the corner, I realized that being an architecture student puts me in the most optimal position to dress for Halloween. The MVP accessory being my Stoggles (prescriptive safety goggles).

Paired with a high vis jacket? Construction worker
Lab coat? Mad scientist
Fake eye? Tim Newton

Yale’s undergraduate Halloween scene is a whole week-long affair with one of our most sought-after events being a classical music concert by the Yale Symphony Orchestra, and by contrast the other being Toad’s. With high probabilities of being hit by falling frat cups, spilled liquids, and god-knows-what at all these occasions, those who wear Stoggles (or any form of safety goggles) are guaranteed to be protected at all times.

9/19
TARA VASANTH, aka DJ Cold Bru, eyes a non-architecture career as the host of The Smiling Hour on WYBCx Yale Student Radio, with ADIMCHI ATISELE as her first on-air guest. Tune in Fridays at 10 am and decide for yourself whether you think she is more, by her own words, a “deconstructivist disaster” or a “brutalist beautiful mess.”

10/18
JAIME SOLARES hosts the CICA Conference in Rudolph 706; ANIRUDDH SHARAN (M.Arch II ’25) gets a chance to speak with Anne Lacaton post-graduation.

10/19
LAYNA CHEN and JULIUS BRONOLA (M.Env.Sc. ’26) plan a belated Halloween-themed event for the Tropical Studies Working Group after much procrastination. The Theme: Tropical Horror (“black magic” and a short film screening) The Date: November 3 (woops)

10/21
After completing their first ever midterm review, Core I students contemplate how they can better coordinate their diagram colors to the paprika carpet for finals.