How is Social Media Shaping Architecture? / Ryan Scavnicky

The Archiologist

Ryan Scavnicky is the founder of Extra Office. His work is published in ArchDaily, Architect's Newspaper, SCI-Arc Offramp, UCLA POOL, Archinect, and Hyperallergic. In addition, he has over 6 years of experience in international offices in Beijing, San Francisco, and Vienna. He received his Masters in Design Theory and Pedagogy with distinction from SCI-Arc in Los Angeles. He studied at DAAP in Cincinnati for his Masters of Architecture. Ryan currently serves as the Visiting Teaching Fellow at the School of Architecture at Taliesin, an experimental graduate school located in the Arizona desert. He has previously held appointments at the University of Cincinnati, Kent State University, and SCI-Arc.

In this episode, we talk about teaching and how he unexpectedly got his first teaching job after graduation. We talk about his time at Cincinnati University and at SCI-Arc, where he got a Masters in Design Theory and Pedagogy and how that degree helped him understand how to be a better design professor. We have a conversation about PhDs vs Masters, and how the role of the professor has been changing with time. He talks about his interests that are not architecture-per se, but more related to culture and how people get information and take a position through the Internet. That position being how to communicate architecture in a better way through social media. Instead of putting out pretty pictures, we should be teaching and bringing value to the community. He believes that social media is a public forum, where people can communicate about ideas. He believes it is time to broaden the discourse on social platforms. Finally, he gives great advice to students, saying that they should bring something from outside of architecture into the career, to make it more interesting.

1. To start off the conversation, tell me a little about yourself. Was architecture something you always wanted to do?
2. How was your experience in architecture school? What were some of your interests back then
3a. What did you do in the interim after getting your Masters from Univ. Of Cincinnati?
3b. I saw you have a Masters of Pedagogy from SCI-Arc, tell me about that. I’ve seen it on their website for some time and have found it extremely interesting. What has this second Masters allowed you to do?
4. Were you always into teaching?
5. What are three things that you love the most about teaching, and the three things you dislike the most.
6. How did the idea of journalism/content creation sound to you during your studies? Were you always interested on this or was this something that came unexpectedly?
7. How did you become known as a “meme curator/maker?”
8. Where do you see the profession of architecture going? (What do you believe the future of the career will be like?)
9. Do you believe architecture is a very open profession? In the sense that it does not only entail design, but other forms of communication? (Such as journalism, writing, etc...)
10. How has the internet changed architecture? Or better yet, the world in general?
11. Tell me a little about Extra Office, what is its purpose and how has it given you the ability to do what you love
12. Where will we see you in 5 years?