FIU Panthers Walk On Water

Transcript

Okay everyone, now let’s head over to the robotics and digital fabrication laboratory, Matheus is waiting for us there. He’s an architecture major who has used the skills he’s learned at FIU to walk on water. Can’t wait to hear his story, Matheus you are on.

Thank you Alex, and hello everyone. I’m so excited to say that I graduated with a master’s degree in architecture from FIU. See, I was born and raised in a farm in the countryside of Brazil, where I was raised around horses, cows, goats, and emus. And when I moved into a larger city in Brazil, I realized that my life goal had become to get accepted into a university in the United States. And I would not stop studying until I fulfill that. Although I shared that I wanted to become an architect, I had no clue that the next five years would mean way more than just designing buildings. What I learned here at FIU is that the role of the architect is to imagine the world we live in. To design the sonography of the play of life that is constantly performing, the unspoken language between humans and spaces which then informs how we move, how we feel, how we connect with others. And the biggest example of that is the building that we’re in right now. This is the policy of school for architecture designed by Bernard Tschumi, anyone studying architecture my know that Bernard Tschumi is a legend in architecture theory. He designed a school for the future architects by splitting the building to two masses, one to the south for the faculty, and one to the north for the students which is our studios. At the heart of the building is the courtyard around which most of the circulation is arranged. So students and faculty lived in different classrooms and find moments of encounter. So the freshly learned material comes up in conversations and then creates new knowledge. We’re not in the era of deconstructionism though, and FIU is committed to preparing us for the problems and shifting roles of the 21st century. I was first introduced to critical thinking design on my second year, when professor Jaime Canaves gave us an assignment to design a pair of shoes that would allow us to walk on water. This tradition goes back over 30 years and the rules are pretty simple. But working on these is actually so much harder than it looks, my partner and I spent countless nights working on it until we could finally walk without getting wet. It’s always a huge festival and everyone comes around to see architecture students battling and sinking. At the end of my second year, I got invited to participate in the project to inaugurate the robotics in fabrication lab. We spent the entire summer in a tiny room with a huge robot and a team of amazing people developing our own system with 3D printing play blocks for a parametric wall. And that was only the start, we spent the following three years working on amazing projects that defined the boundaries of architecture and design. And I can’t wait to see what FIU has there to achieve. That was a bit of my story, now back to you Alex.

What a fun tradition, your passion for architecture is inspiring, there are a lot of places on campus that are helping you cultivate your creativity. Thanks again for sharing your story, take care Matheus.