What a thesis jury actually asks of you
Today I had the honor of serving as an external jury member for final-year thesis defenses at the School of Architecture, Universidad Anáhuac Querétaro — at the invitation of Fernando Velasco Rivera Torres and Jorge Roberto Javier Tortajada.
Tenth semester. The last formal moment before these students cross into professional practice.
What stays with me after these sessions is never the drawings — it is the quality of the argument. The students who stand most confidently are not necessarily those with the most polished renders, but those who can answer a simple, difficult question: why this, here, for whom?
That triangle — intervention, place, community — is the core of every architectural decision worth making. Teaching students to answer it honestly, before they answer it beautifully, is the quiet work of architectural education.
My thanks to the Universidad Anáhuac Querétaro for the invitation, and to the graduating class of today: the discipline needs the questions you are asking.
