Made in New Mexico: Design Education Is Preparation, and It Is Production
At McClain + Yu Architecture & Design, early design education is not a warm-up. It is infrastructure. Through the Made in New Mexico paper, Kristina Yu and Sasha Adams argue that the first two years of studio must engage material, labor, and construction realities from the start. Modeled on the urgency and clarity of the Bauhaus, periods of constraint can create real opportunities for development.
Set within the University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning, the work positions studio as a site of consequence, grounded in the economies and making culture of New Mexico. This is not preparation alone. It is production. The paper was presented at the National Conference on the Beginning Design Student in February 2026.
As this work continues to develop, Sasha Adams will begin the next phase of her academic path this fall in a Master of Architecture program at University of British Columbia. We look forward to her continued growth and contribution to the field.