The Studio

The Studio

How the CAPLA community is building a changing world.

In The Studio, you'll find stories, thought leadership, profiles, and project narratives and galleries by and about the CAPLA community of faculty, staff, alumni and students.

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Casa Verde render

UArizona Architecture Students Make Impact on – and are Impacted by – 2023 Solar Decathlon Design Challenge

Two B.Arch student teams made the finals of this year's Solar Decathlon Design Challenge, while the Casa Verde team took third place in the Attached Housing Division. As much as we tout the students’ success, however, the more significant impact is on the students themselves.

 

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CAPLA Building viewed from Sonoran Pentapus

Projects

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The Temporal Passage, by Jacob Downard

The Temporal Passage: Jacob Downard '22 B Arch

The architecture of The Temporal Passage responds to the site's volcanic conditions by being conceptually rooted in scale, time and the moving materials of our living earth in an attempt to convey the magnitude of these natural forces. It further explores the spatial and conceptual juxtapositions between the human-operated straight line and the ensured chaos of nature.

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Sonoran Soundscapes

The Sonoran Soundscapes multimedia experience at the UArizona Wonder House at South by Southwest 2022 in Austin, Texas. Photo by Hunter Lohse.

CAPLA Graduate Students Bring Sights and Sounds of the Sonoran Desert to Austin for SXSW

“For thousands of years, the beauty of the Sonoran Desert has invoked wonder among its human inhabitants,” says Hunter Lohse when introducing the Sonoran Soundscape project that he and fellow MLA students Alizabeth Potucek and Christian Galindo created with Assistant Music Professor Yuanyuan (Kay) Le for the UArizona Wonder House at South by Southwest in March.

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Apelido Theatre Company, by Brandon Willmon

Apelido Theatre Company, by Brandon Willmon.

Apelido Theatre Company: Brandon Willmon '24 B Arch

The Apelido Theatre Company in the historic mining town of Bisbee, Arizona, is inspired by Brazil, where practitioners of Capoeira use their bodies to create artistic performances in displays of martial prowess, and from the lessons of historic designers whose work brought forth fresh ideas about performance, dwelling and presence.

Research

Lecture Recap and Video: Lynne Peterson on 'Roadways for People: Building Safe, Just and Affordable Communities'

In this CAPLA Lecture Series lecture, Lynn Peterson draws from her personal experience and interviews with leaders to highlight new ways of building more inclusive communities through transportation engineering and urban planning.

How Cities Use Energy to Regulate Temperature—Just Like Mammals

A UArizona undergraduate working with CAPLA's Ladd Keith looked at cities as living things to investigate how human energy use changes with rising temperatures. Her research could help save lives from heat waves.

Architecture Lecturer Bill Mackey’s Book ‘Guess That Arroyo’ Sheds Playful Light on the Tucson Region Watershed

“Arroyos on the desert are magic,” writes CAPLA Lecturer in Architecture Bill Mackey in the introduction to his new bilingual book Guess That Arroyo: Tucson, developed in collaboration with the Watershed Management Group's River Run Network.

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