Graham Foundation honors AUD’s student-run journal "POOL" in 2024 awards cycle

The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts has honored UCLA Architecture and Urban Design’s (AUD) student-run POOL its annual cycle of grants and awards. POOL is one of 33 recipients from around the world among the Graham’s Grants to Organizations, joining four other awardees in the Student-Led Publications category. This marks the fifth year in a row in which POOL has earned this honor.

Founded in 1956 and based in Chicago, the Graham fosters the development and exchange of ideas about architecture and its role in other fields, as well as across culture and society. Among its initiatives, the Graham awards annual project-based grants to individuals and organizations and produces exhibitions, events, and publications.

AUD’s student-run journal POOL has been awarded a Grant for Organizations for its forthcoming issue, “No. 10,” alongside entries from Syracuse School of Architecture, Rice School of Architecture, University of the Witwatersand, and University of Illinois at Chicago College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts.

POOL was inaugurated in Spring 2016 with “No. 1: Table,” and seeks to expand the definitions of architectural work and to take up content curation as a primary form of cultural production. The journal fosters events and ongoing digital exchange that feed into its annual print edition, experimenting with the interfaces among these various outputs. The journal is distributed in limited-batch print runs and stocked at select bookstores.

POOL’s most recent edition, Spring 2024’s “No. 9: LOOP,” posits that "One loop we often find ourselves in and one that has become ever more relevant is the cyclical nature of fear and opportunity in the relationship between AI and human labor." The POOL Editorial Board invokes ChatGPT in its opening "Elegy for the Eternal Loop":

"Loops are not mere shapes but the heartbeat of creation, echoing the rhythm of an unseen universe. They are the architects' secret whispers to the world, telling tales of time looping back, of moments reborn in the gentle embrace of continuity..... In this world, the loop transcends geometry; it is a living, breathing entity. It whispers of the cycles of life – birth, growth, decay, and rebirth – weaving through the fabric of existence."

POOL is currently recruiting for its 2024-2025 issue, No. 10, with theme to be selected and announced later this year. Learn more about POOL via its website.

To learn more about the full roster of 2024 Graham Foundation awardees, visit the Graham’s website.