Nathan Wax’s kitchen area includes a small refrigerator, hot pot, George Foreman Grill, ventilation system, microwave, indoor plant and even salt and pepper shakers.
But the setup isn’t in his home
— it’s at his drawing table in the architecture studio unit he shares with fellow student Paris Swanson.
Wax said he’s an “extreme example” of a hard-core architecture student. Every morning at 9 a.m., he arrives at the studio, where he’ll spend about 15 hours a day, staying as late as 2 a.m. Wax said he puts in the extra hours to keep busy and because it’s a long 15-minute walk home.
“I go home to sleep and shower
— that’s studio life,” he said.
“Studio” is a hands-on learning environment where architecture students can develop the skills they’ve picked up in textbooks. Each studio is a partitioned classroom situated along an open hallway, where students work on projects at individual drafting tables. Below each student’s desk space, there are gated cages where they can lock their possessions.
Each classroom focuses on a different type of project, and students must complete two studios every term for five terms, for a total of 10 studios. “Studio” is the term used to refer to the class and the room itself. There are approximately 15 students in every studio, each governed by a professor. Studios are located in both Pacific and Lawrence halls.
Some architecture students such as Wax really do almost live in their studios. Michael Fifield, a professor of architecture and head of the department, said there is more to “studio culture” than spending time designing at a work space. Camaraderie and long-lasting friendships can evolve in the long hours students spend with each other.
Fourth-year graduate student Bjorn Nelson said his project, which he started in January, is designing a model of a proposed public architecture institution in lower Manhattan.
“If you are a designer, you never finish,” he said. “You just quit at some point when you run out of time.”
Fifield said instructors interact with their students on a daily basis. Instructors critique the work of their students both individually and in small groups.
“It’s much different than being in a lecture class,” Fifield said.

Hours away from home
Students are required to spend 12 hours a week in studio working on single or multi-term projects but can put in more than 40 hours, Fifield said. Twelve hours a week just isn’t enough time to complete all the work that goes into a project, and the hours students spend increase even more as the end of the term approaches.
Many students are currently preparing to present their final projects in June, which are incorporated into students’ portfolios to be used for job interviews after graduation.
“It’s a lot like marketing, because when it’s time to present, it’s basically selling a product to a client,” junior architecture major Alex Yale said.
“I put in at least five hours a day outside of class,” said Yale, who is also minoring in business. Yale said he is taking 17 credits this term, including studio.
“Even though it’s a lot of time, you are working on a project that has value and goes beyond just yourself,” he said.
In studio, students customize their desks to fit their personal needs. Fifield said the only restrictions are that structures must not be built too high to fail the fire marshal’s standards.
“Each person has a nest of their own,” architecture Professor Christine Theodoropoulos said. Outside of students’ individual nests, Theodoropoulos said Lawrence Hall also features a coffee shop to meet students’ food and beverage needs.
As beginning students mature, Fifield said they learn to manage their time better so they are “not pulling as many all-nighters.”
“My first year, I set up a hammock, and I spent a lot of nights in the hammock sleeping,” Yale said.
But experience has taught him ways to be more efficient in studio.
“The trick is not socializing,” he added. Theodoropoulos said there are positive and negative aspects to studio culture that involve the safety and health of each architecture student under “intensity and pressure.”
“It can be exhilarating — but sometimes it can go too far,” she said.
All studio classes are pass/no pass, and there is no graded option. Fifield said this is intended to diminish competition so students are “not trying to hide their designs in a corner. It fosters unique communication.”