Riya's Riyaaz

The Fall 2021 Urban Design studio was focused on developing a district scaled framework for Newark's civic center. The project included working in collaboration with the United States General Service Administration (GSA), the City of Newark and local stakeholders. The district consists of an "urban ensemble" of buildings including the Rodino Federal Building, the Lautenberg Post Office, the MLK Courthouse, Newark City Hall and two privately-managed housing towers.  Our work was also featured on Archinect -  https://archinect.com/features/article/150291080/njit-s-hillier-college-of-architecture-and-design-fall-2021-super-review-showcases-civic-engagement-and-climate-action The studio was divided into three phases. The first phase included urban analysis, site assessment and stakeholder visualization. We began by taking a site tour with the members of the GSA around the civic center. The use of term 'civic center' mainly because of the fact that these buildings fall

All the books I have made and used during my undergrad years

  Maps produced using GIS(Geographic Information System) © Riya Parekh

The first master's design studio was based in the Dayton neighborhood in Newark. We were put into teams by Justine Shapiro Kline, our studio professor and assigned topics based on our preliminary research interests at the beginning of class. This is the first time I would know the meaning of team effort. Apart from the group work, there was important base work to be done for the class, for which students volunteered happily.  We began by modelling our site on GIS(Geographic Information System) and Rhino, two software's that I was unfamiliar with but eventually got a hang of. The semester was structured in a way that we get plenty time for research in the beginning, create a narrative for our future goal, work at a larger scale to understand the context of the site, which would transition into familiarizing ourselves with the site, discussing various stakeholders and precedents; the knowledge of which would help us design and work towards our stated goal. Our group - The Data an

 Is being indifferent boring? D oes it seem rude?, when I say, "No longer do I care about human life". Humans forget that we are a part of a larger universe, so large that from far far away we are the size of atoms, invisible to the naked eye. We are fighting over issues of land, boundaries, resources and using war as means of power over our intellect. It is beyond me, what this human mind is capable of, beautiful and pure evil at the same it. For some context, I am thinking of Global Warming, of capitalist and communist countries, of people in Afghanistan and Palestine, of animals and sea creatures, of religion and science; of my own hypocrisy and tied down hands.  Is technology genderless? While I have always been asked  asserted the question, "tu toh ladki hai tuje thodi cricket k bare me pata hoga (You are a girl, you wouldn't know anything about sports)" or your brother being favored over you, for a software related question by your Uncle(not because he is

Everyday I find myself spending "just a little more" time on Instagram. How that "little more" eats up a major lot of my day, is a mystery. This is true for many users across the globe. We are seduced by images one after another. Our mind is engulfed into Meme culture, Celebrity gossip, Tik-Tok videos, Instagram reels and new trends of the social media universe. We can not stop scrolling. There is always time for just one-more-post, or is there? How many things can you remember at one glance? As I come across more interesting people/pages on Instagram to follow, these days, I find it is hard to catch up with every event. By the time I have finished watching 30 Instagram stories, I can hardly remember whose story I saw first and for the matter, what was the content of it? How am I suppose to remember the content of 300 people that I follow? I am fortunate to have lived in the pre-mobile era because it provides me a strong base for an argument, a comparison between th