2023 ArcStart has ended its three-week residential program successfully on Friday, July 28th at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan. 

Initiated in 2019, ArcStart is a three-week architecture summer camp hosted by Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan for both domestic and international high school students;the program costs 3,600 USD in total. 

The program is directed by Julia McMorrough, a faculty director of the Taubman College. 

Due to the pandemic, the program was held online for the past couple of years, but the program could be held face-to-face this year.

Thus, the 2023 ArcStart was the second face-to-face ArcStart since 2019. 

2023 ArcStart began on Monday, July 10th, and had a total of 54 participants from various regions. 

All campers were assigned residential counselor and studio instructor: studio in architecture is similar to a classroom, where a group of architects work together for specific projects. 

During the program, students participated in various programs such as studio works, workshops, individual works, pin-up presentations, and field trips.

On the weekdays, students mostly spent mornings from 9 AM to 12 PM, and afternoons from 1 PM to 5 PM doing workshops, studio works, morning campfires, and pin-up presentations at the Taubman College building.

On the weekends, they went on field trips, planned by residential counselors such as Toledo Museum of Art, Glass Pavilion, State Street, public swimming pool, Kerrytown, Arboretum and so on. 

During the first week, each studio group was assigned a specific building, instructed to make a precedent of it, and did a pin-up presentation on Friday. 

Campers worked individually on building a 3D composition model and drawing it on either isometric or oblique view the following week; they had a pin-up presentation on Friday as well.

Following that, the last task or pin-up project was building a model in 3D forms using platforms such as Rhino, Photoshop, and Illustrator, within the themes that each studio was assigned. 

The themes varied: building a home for an imaginary roommate and for yourself, building an outdoor theater and a house for an artist(s), building a house for a friend in the same studio, and etc,. 

Since the camp ended on Friday, unlike the last two weeks, the last pin-up was on Thursday, July 27th.

Furthermore, colleagues and friends of studio instructors, who work or study in the field of architecture, were invited to the pin-up as well.

Last week had more events than the other two weeks as well.

On the morning of Wednesday July 26th, the instructors and campers visited a nearby architecture firm called Synecdoche Design, and in the afternoon, from 3:00 PM to 4:45 PM, an admission presentation for University of Michigan, especially for the Taubman College, was held in the classroom in the college building. 

After all the campers successfully completed the courses of the program, they received completion certificates and fun awards. 

Moreover, students stayed in Bursley Hall, one of the residence halls of University of Michigan, which is located in the North Campus.

SoYoung Choi
Grade 11
St. Johnsbury Academy Jeju