Summary: Dean Amale Andraos speaks with Professor Hilary Sample, who directs the Core Architecture Studios at Columbia GSAPP and is the co-founder of MOS Architects with her partner Michael Meredith. They discuss the lasting influence of Ai Weiwei's Ordos 100 on the firm’s thinking, the role of representation, and how MOS Architects pursues an inclusive way of working and thinking while maintaining a purposefully small office. Sample directs GSAPP’s Housing Studio, which has a long tradition at the School and invites students to think across typologies and scales while considering a range of cultural, geographic, and environmental contexts. Sample speaks of the studio’s travel to Mexico, which coincided with the November 2016 Election, and the importance of considering New York City’s housing legacy in relation to global references.
