Yale School of Architecture

08/12/2026

Great to have Dean Berke visit the 2026 Jim Vlock Building Project site!

Learn more about the Jim Vlock Building Project here: https://www.architecture.yale.edu/academics/building-project and follow on instagram to monitor progress throughout the summer.

06/10/2026

Less than one month left to see “Encounters: Denise Scott Brown Photographs” at the Yale Architecture Gallery! The exhibition runs through July 3, 2026.

In the formative years between 1950 and 1970, Denise Scott Brown found in photography the possibility of looking anew at a fraught world—and of rethinking the architect’s role within it. Presenting a wide-ranging selection of Scott Brown’s photographs, “Encounters” explores this crucial but little-studied photographic practice, and raises broader questions about architectural research, pedagogy, and the social and political obligations of design.

Scott Brown, among the most influential architects of the postwar era, approached photography not as a fine art but as a medium through which architects and planners could be brought into direct engagement with the often-unwelcome complexities of reality. Her deployment of photography as a tool of research, teaching, and design offered a corrective to what she saw as the failures of postwar modernism. And it helped her develop the defining interest in the “ordinary” and the practice of suspending aesthetic judgment made famous in the book “Learning from Las Vegas” (1972), which emerged out of a Yale architecture studio she taught with Robert Venturi in 1968.

“Encounters” is the widest-ranging exhibition to date of Scott Brown’s photography, and involved extensive original research by the Yale School of Architecture–based team that developed, curated, and designed it. A number of the photographs on view have never before been exhibited publicly.

The Yale Architecture Gallery is free and open to the public. It is located within the Yale School of Architecture in Paul Rudolph Hall (190 York Street) in New Haven, CT, and is open 9 – 5 on weekdays and 10 – 5 on Saturdays.

Image 1
A visitor examining Ed Ruscha’s Every Building on the Sunset Strip
© Yaxuan Liu

Image 2
Visitors by the introductory wall
© Yaxuan Liu

Image 3
Photographs of the Bath Crescent in the projection theater
© Yaxuan Liu

Image 4
Visitors in the Las Vegas section of Encounters
Milan Russell © Yale School of Architecture

Image 5
Encounters projection theater
© Yaxuan Liu

06/02/2026

Congratulations to the Yale School of Architecture Class of 2026!

04/10/2026

Congratulations to Andrei Harwell on receiving a 2026 Seton Ivy Award! The Seton Elm-Ivy Awards honor outstanding efforts by individuals, organizations, or programs to enhance the lives of New Haven residents and strengthen the partnership between Yale and its host city.

A senior critic at YSoA, Harwell is also the director of the Yale Urban Design Workshop. The YUDW, established in 1992, collaborates with communities in New Haven and around the world to plan, design and realize projects that enact positive change to make healthier, more vibrant, more resilient, and more inclusive places.

From Yale News:
"Since joining the Yale Urban Design Workshop over 20 years ago, Andrei has facilitated major projects that have reshaped the landscape of New Haven, including the development of affordable housing and comprehensive neighborhood plans. His methodology is defined by deep, sustained collaboration between Yale students and New Haven citizens. Under his guidance, students learn to see the city not as a blank canvas for their own ideas, but as a living blueprint for collective living that requires respect and humility."

https://news.yale.edu/2026/04/09/awards-celebrate-those-strengthening-bond-between-yale-and-new-haven

Photo by John Dempsey

04/06/2026

Thanks for stopping by Rudolph Hall for our spring open house, Handsome Dan! 🦴🧡

03/26/2026

Student-designed ‘Nest’ to complete housing village for local teachers

A design by Yale architecture students recently selected for Jim Vlock First Year Building Project will provide two New Haven educators a home that combines privacy and access to nature and community.

03/24/2026

We are thrilled to share that Deborah Berke, the J.M. Hoppin Professor of Architecture, has been reappointed as the Edward P. Bass Dean of the Yale School of Architecture. Her third term of five years will begin July 1, 2026.

The reappointment recognizes Berke’s success in advancing the school’s impact on students, the Yale and New Haven community, and the future of the architecture profession, President Maurie McInnis and Provost Scott Strobel wrote in a message to the school community.

“It is an honor to continue to serve this great institution,” Berke said. “I am proud of what we have been able to accomplish at the School of Architecture over the past 10 years, and I am looking forward to continuing toward the goal of debt-free architectural education.”

Read more here: https://news.yale.edu/2026/03/23/deborah-berke-reappointed-dean-yale-school-architecture

(Photograph by Winnie Au)

03/18/2026

Urbanism Negotiating Topography: Busan, Hong Kong, Osaka is on exhibition in the North Gallery at YSoA through March 28.

In East Asian cities, rapid urban growth during industrialization is often romanticized as either chaotic expansion or a triumph of industrial technology. Confronted by both the challenges of high population density and difficult geological conditions, this period produced new spatial typologies that reveal deeper narratives of adaptation.

This exhibition examines the peripheral conditions of urban growth in three East Asian cities — Busan (Korea), Osaka (Japan), and Hong Kong — as sites where limits became opportunities for transformation.

Mapping the history of adaptation into spatial narratives reveals how resistance to growth has shaped the urban landscape. Where were the city boundaries before rapid industrial growth? What uses were developed at the urban peripheries of growing cities, and how does the built environment adapt to difficult geological conditions?

Through cartography, topographical models of urban growth patterns and case studies of sectional relationships of cities to its topography, this exhibition attempts to uncover the histories of constraint and gain insight into the future of cities in transition.

Curators and Designers:
Fergal Tse:
Asami Igarashi:
Myungsun Kim:
Hazel Lu:

Special Thanks:
Bobby Galindo-Fiallos
Yi Shi
Alyse Guild
Andrew Benner
Alison Walsh
Zach Wilder

01/16/2026

“Encounters: Denise Scott Brown Photographs” is on view at the Yale Architecture Gallery through July 3, 2026.

In the formative years between 1950 and 1970, Denise Scott Brown found in photography the possibility of looking anew at a fraught world—and of rethinking the architect’s role within it. Presenting a wide-ranging selection of Scott Brown’s photographs, Encounters explores her crucial but little-studied photographic practice, and raises broader questions about architectural research and pedagogy, the profession’s interest in so-called ordinary places, and the social and political obligations of design. In Encounters, these photographs—many of which are shown as slides in a darkened theater—are paired with work by other photographers, as well as materials drawn from several archives, placing Scott Brown’s work in an expanded field and prompting audiences to rethink its significance for the present.

Encounters is based upon the 2025 book of the same name edited by Izzy Kornblatt, which features nearly 400 photographs chosen and sequenced in collaboration with Scott Brown.

The Yale Architecture Gallery is open Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Saturdays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., except major holidays.

01/15/2026

It’s going to be an exciting spring at YSoA! Join us for lectures, symposia, and more.

Find the full calendar of events and livestream registration links at architecture.yale.edu/calendar