Chris Hazel is a student in his fifth year at the University of Pittsburgh studying Architectural Studies-Design and Civil Engineering. Throughout his five years at the university, Chris has participated as a teaching assistant in multiple classes and is currently a research assistant with Professor Mina Rajagopalan. He has also participated in several local, national, and international design competitions including the Imagine Art and Urban Connectivity competition where he won second place in summer of 2012. He has also been active in the Pitt AIAS chapter—serving as a board member in the 2012-13 school year and currently leads educational workshops for the program. For the past 8 months, Chris has also worked as an intern architect at Renaissance 3 Architects in the South Side. Over the past school year, Chris has been pursuing his independent research as part of his honors thesis. Chris's research deals with space and architecture as a way of defining social hierarchy. Through examples of contemporary architecture and his own design, Chris is hoping to find the connection between physical form and social definition by way of defining an architecture of equality that stands for the society as well as the individual.
Chris will be presenting his paper, "Re-Thinking Architecture: A Call for a New Social Space" at HAAARCH!!! 2014. He will also be presenting his Senior Design Studio Portfolio.