Summer Internship '19
The Inter(n) Disciplinary Experience
RIOS was pleased to welcome five students to participate in a six-week summer internship program. The following interns worked with RIOS designers across all disciplines on a variety of projects. Linpei Cheng (University of Southern California), Wenna Dai (University of Pennsylvania), Clara Gradinariu (Woodbury University), Kayla Houston (University of Texas, Austin), and Aman Johnson (Loyola High School).
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Collaboration
“An important catalyst for collaboration is the process of communication and through communication, comes iteration." – Linpei
The curriculum was designed around collaboration between multiple disciplines, emphasizing the office’s multidisciplinary values and the notion that designers never work alone. Working in a variety of scales, from master planning to site details, the interns grappled with their design tasks while injecting their own creativity and voice into the process.
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Research
“I enjoyed seeing how well-designed, site-appropriate signage made a difference in the overall sense of life being infused into the project by our renders.” – Clara
Interns also participated in ongoing research studying the impacts of climate change. Through a cross-cultural survey of practices that contribute to cooling and multi-sensory comfort, the project’s endeavor is to generate strategies to survive and thrive in a changing climate. Each intern contributed to the larger team dialogue while expanding their own perspectives through iterative research and collective evaluations.
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Site visits
“Conceptualizing a real space and turning it into a two-dimensional representation empowered my understanding on the connection between physical space in our built environment and the plan that informs it.” – Kayla
Visiting sites under construction and recently completed projects were sprinkled throughout the summer. These real-world situations are a great way for interns to gain some knowledge about construction to better understand the translation from drawing to building, as well as get a first-hand experience of the various types of projects our office is involved in.
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experience
“This experience motivated me to rethink the architect’s role and designing for humanity.” – Wenna
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It was a pleasure working with the interns this summer and hope that the values and experiences learned at RIOS carry forth in their future endeavors.