2025 Annual UVA Arts Welcome Picnic
Come learn about curricular, extra-curricular, programmatic, and volunteer opportunities from the Visual & Performing Arts & Architecture departments, programs, and community.
Architecture
Through teaching, research, and service, the UVA School of Architecture designs, preserves, and plans sustainable, beautiful, and vibrant communities.
Explore Architecture Events
Architecture Stories
UVA Alumna Artist is Big into Miniature Artworks
Jill Orlov is a cave-diver of sorts. “I go what I call ‘spelunking in junkyards,’” Orlov, a graduate of the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture, said. “I collect interesting things, just odds and ends.” Those odds and ends make their way into Orlov’s miniature sculptures – often miniature recreations of indoor spaces like game rooms, libraries or an artist’s studio. Her work has appeared in exhibitions at venues including the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., and the Museum of Miniatures in Tucson, Arizona.
UVA Students Build Tiny Worlds to Tell Big Stories
When Matthew Rusten first read the play “A Number” aloud with his University of Virginia classmates, each voicing a different character, the 2022 British drama’s sparse and fractured language stuck with him. He decided his scenic model set should feel the same way. The fourth-year architecture major is enrolled in Scenic Design, a course that challenges students to transform a script into a fully realized physical world. Over the semester, students complete three increasingly complex projects, taking them through script analysis, visual research, sketching, rendering and building small-scale scenic models.