Mar 20
Josef Albers, 1976 [David Zwirner, New York, NY. © 2026 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation / ARS, New York]
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Josef Albers, 1976 [David Zwirner, New York, NY. © 2026 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation / ARS, New York]
Architecture no longer considered a "professional degree" in US !
Under the terms of the OBBBA, the provision of student loans in the USA will be overhauled starting 1 July, 2026, with borrowing amounts set to be determined by whether a degree is considered professional or not.
Architects, along with several careers including other nursing and accounting, will not be considered as "professional degrees", a move that was criticised by the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
"The American Institute of Architects strongly opposes any proposal or policy that fails to recognize architects as professionals, particularly when designating which degrees qualify for student loan caps," said the AIA in a statement.
"The title of 'architect' is earned through years of rigorous education, extensive professional examinations, and a demanding licensing process," "To classify otherwise dismisses the expertise, professional standards, and dedication that define the profession."
The Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP), which will replace all previous loan programs, will see borrowing capped at $20,500 for "graduate students" and $50,000 for "professional students".
"Lowering the loan cap will reduce the number of architects who can afford to pursue this professional degree and harm American leadership in this field," said the AIA.
"AIA will be actively engaged with policymakers to ensure that the essential role and professional standing of architects are properly recognized in federal policy. We remain steadfast in our commitment to protecting the integrity and value of the architectural profession."
The United States Senate has reintroduced the Democracy in Design Act to its chamber. The bill, introduced on September 19 by Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), seeks to ensure communities have a voice in shaping federal buildings and that no single architectural style is imposed nationwide.
The move comes weeks after 'David Dennison' aka 'The notorious P.I.G.' introduced a new executive order making classical architecture the ‘preferred and default’ style for Federal public buildings.
Keep em poor, keep em sick, keep em stupid. Motto of the GOP.
This home is neatly tucked away into nature.
Courses I'd like to teach
A recent realization from reading Deleuze is the value of the virtual (vs. the actual) on its own. If dreams, inspirations and passions are not evaluated against the golden rule of actualization but as "a nice thing to have existed", so many things will be worth doing.
Along this line, I've been thinking (dreaming) of a question: what are the courses I would like to teach in the future? This not to say I'm ready to teach them, but a time stamp of the things that inspires me and make me curious. So far I thought of:
Creative Academic Writing
I'm still very much in love with Tim Ingold's writing as affective text. Although not as literate in reading literature (I envy my boys so much for their education nowadays), I always love to read all sorts of books on writing (lol). Yesterday I flipped through Lauren Fournier's book on autotheory, and thinking of citation as part of the narrative opens up so many possibilities.
It's funny that humanities are openning up to new forms of writing, while design self-censor for ligitimacy as science. A quick search shows that this term "Creative Academic Writing" is already out there. Definitely something I would like to explore more
Philosophy and design, or philosophy of design
I'm envious of the small group of people in organizational studies who are into philosophy and found each other as a group. People like Robert Chia, Chris Steyaert and Daniel Hjorth and Robin Bolt are the reason why I feel the organizational studies/enterpreneurship studies are not boring (the latter two wrote a book using Romanticism literature as a basis of their "seduction and play" model of entrepreneurship!)
On the other hand, it seems the philosophy that is driving design is pretty much random, determined by a few people who stumbled by design and decided to stay. The impression of Tony Fry talking about Heidegger is so deep and dominating. On the other hand anthropologist picked up design as some hope, but does it help them to break from structualism on the theory level? I'm surprised I haven't encountered any design theorist talking seriously about design, Deleuze and process philosophy (I"m sure they touched on Bergson for being "creative", but on process and duration as being? Please suggest if you know).
6 years after I came to design, the question of "what is design" finally morphed into "how do we understand design? what is the philosophy behind?" Some progress I guess..
Hong Kong and ecomodernism design, or The Political Economy of Chinese Contemporary Design
Well... these topics are tricky... but just thinking from the angle of talking about something not universal but local, relevant here and now. There is always the material/embodied aspects of ideology, and these aspects are perfect bridges to talk to "normal people" who are not so acquainted with theory. My eyes are still not so well trained, but that's something to work on!
Entrepreneuring your life
Since I read so much about the unconventional understanding of entrepreneurship, and really think it should be a way of living rather than making money, I think this can be a poststructuralism 101 course. Also trying to think out of the box of faculty of design...
Co-becoming
Co-becoming, co-evolution, correspondance... so many terms, but what are they really about? What are the mechanisms? Where to work on apart from lip service? I'll probably also sneakily blend in some content about embodiment, eco psychology and care...
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Looking back at these "virtual" titles, they seem to tell something about the inspiration of my thesis. Dreams tell things, even day-dreams can be good material for psychoanalysis :)
What are your dream courses to teach?
Photo credit: M.C. Escher
I created this blog back in 2018 and have revisited it rarely since. A recent task, however, has again directed my attention to completing this venture. For now, it is less of a blog and more of an organized collection of sketch demonstrations, some of which go back more than a decade.
Most of the content here was originally uploaded to Vimeo as a means to serve my students. Call me cheap, but after maintaining a subscription to Vimeo all this time, I learned the videos all disappear if that subscription is allowed to expire. So, with some help, I’ve pulled all 247 videos down from Vimeo-land and am reintroducing the most relevant ones via Youtube. I will do my best to organize them into pages and playlists that make sense. The more challenging thing is naming the pages in a manner that enables one to find the appropriate series of lessons.
Please forgive the video quality present on some of the older lessons, I started out threading a Flip Video Camera onto a tripod, avoiding the lens of a document scanner. Please, also, keep in mind the original intent of the recordings. You may hear a bit of banter with former students, who may or may not be running the most innovative design departments in the world.
It is a work in progress and will likely move at a snail’s pace over the next . . .
Getting Started
Intermediate Techniques
Intro to Digital Sketching and Rendering
A Short Course on Digital Sketching
As ambivalent as I am about remote teaching and spending so much time on ZOOM.... I love my students and will miss them so much when the term is over.