If you’ve seen the cardboard model of Italy’s Palazzo Vecchio sitting next to the couch in the Honors College office then you’ve noticed the work of architecture senior Adam Fogel.

Adam is the model architecture student. Last semester, he received a total of four accolades at the Honors Induction ceremony. He was awarded two scholarships, the Robert D. Riley Scholarship and the Nancy C. Sommerman Memorial scholarships. He also received the Alan and Bonnie Petsche Award for Honors Study Abroad. Plus, he encourages prospective UTA students to join the HC as an Honors College Advocate.

More recently, Adam has been working on designing structures that will be built for use. A part of his work is displayed in the architecture building on campus. Essentially, the structure is a wall for a building the size of a small apartment. The finished product would be two small rooms connected by a floor. He and his team built it from scratch, including the electrical wiring.

Adam’s love of architecture stems from his appreciation of engineering, mathematics and the arts. He attributes this drive to his family. His grandfather as well as her parents worked in engineering.

“I’ve always had an analytical design-based family. I love math, physics and science and I’m also a huge band geek,” he said.

In high school, Adam played bass clarinet and the bassoon, which he genuinely enjoyed. He also participated in theater and choir, so he’s always been an artist.

Now focusing on his studies, Adam has found that the process of architecture is more than just putting things together — it’s understanding the systems that makes a good structure.

“The way the studio works is you are presented some sort of design problem and you have to come up with a solution to the problem,” he said.

Proportional structures are tools and techniques to establish order to a project. These tools to begin to establish order project because, “without order there is only chaos.”

“You can’t design architecture that way, I mean you can. We see a lot of [chaos] nowadays,” he said. “It’s very kind of sculptural architecture called deconstructivism. But in order to get to that point you have to know what rules you’re breaking.”

Adam said he’s not sure exactly what he’s going to do after he graduates in May but perhaps he’ll have time to play his favorite instrument.

“That’s the only bad thing about architecture school, I don’t get to practice bassoon and don’t have the money to afford it right now,” he chuckled.