School of Architecture and Design Student and Faculty Work Displayed at NYCxDESIGN

For the second consecutive year, the School of Architecture and Design participated in the NYCxDESIGN Festival. Held annually each May, NYCxDESIGN is one of New York City’s most influential design events, drawing global audiences to hundreds of exhibitions, trade shows, talks, and tours across the five boroughs.

New York Tech plays an active role in the coordination and vision for the festival, with Dean Maria Perbellini, M.Arch., and IDC Foundation Endowed Chair Alessandro Melis, Ph.D., acting as New York Tech’s representatives on the festival’s steering committee.

Under the leadership of Perbellini, Melis, and Professor Giovanni Santamaria, Ph.D., the school contributed to three major events under the collective theme Future by Design: Re-thinking Processes of Making for Healthier Futures. The events put a spotlight on New York Tech students’ work, highlighting the school’s commitment to advancing technology, innovation, and sustainability in design education.

Here is a recap of New York Tech’s participation:

Future by Design: Thesis Presentation and Exhibition Opening

The centerpiece of the School of Architecture and Design’s participation was the architecture thesis showcase, which featured the culmination of two semesters of work by undergraduate architecture students from the New York City and Long Island campuses. Curated by Perbellini and co-curated by Chairs of Architecture Gertrudis (Trudy) Brens, M.Arch., and Dongsei Kim, M.Des., M.AUD., along with Associate Professor Farzana Gandhi, M.Arch., the exhibition also featured installations fabricated by graduate students in health and design; architecture, computational technologies; and architecture, urban design. The projects investigated how architecture can function as a tool for resilience and transformation, addressing urgent global issues such as climate change, public health, and urban adaptability. The exhibition featured a backdrop installation previously presented by School of Architecture and Design faculty at Salone del Mobile di Milano, an annual furniture fair held in Milan, Italy, coordinated by Perbellini, Santamaria, Director of Urban Design Marcella Del Signore, M.Arch., and the FabLab team.

Exhibition Tour: Student-Led Exploration

The guided tour invited visitors to explore student work across disciplines, emphasizing how site-specific design approaches and proactive experimentations can also provoke broader cultural reflections involving local and global communities. Associate Dean Anthony Caradonna coordinated the tour.

Selected Student Presentations

Coordinated by Chair of Interior Design Florencia Vetcher and Director of Architecture, M.Arch. Robert Cody, two students presented their thesis projects at the Fashion Institute of Technology. This inter-institutional dialogue offered public insight into how emerging designers in both interior design and architecture are addressing global challenges through spatial and material innovation across several dimensional scales.

“It is essential for us to actively engage in the global conversation about architecture while contributing to New York City’s community of outstanding designers and creative thinkers,” says Perbellini. “The NYCxDesign Festival provided us with a fantastic opportunity to showcase the work of our talented students to a wide audience, greatly enhancing awareness of what we do at the School of Architecture and Design. It reaffirms our role as a catalyst for design leadership, which is deeply integrated into architectural education and a professional path of development.”

This article was contributed by the School of Architecture and Design.