Priyanjali Sinha

Hometown: India
Education Background: BA Anthropology, Middlebury College
 

How did you get interested in your field?
My decision to study landscape architecture started with an oil painting class that I took as an elective during my undergraduate studies which made me realise that there were many forms of making and producing knowledge other than writing papers, which had been the primary output of all my classes until then. I continued to explore more visual and spatial classes and opportunities after graduating, including a design-build program. While the social sciences and humanities offered the tools for analytical and descriptive methods, I was drawn to landscape architecture as it could also be projective. I was excited by the possibility of imagining alternative spatial conditions and futures through time, material, cultural, and ecological factors.

What was your background prior to coming to Penn?
I studied Anthropology and Arabic at a liberal arts college and worked in museum curation and arts management after I graduated.

Why did you choose Penn?
Penn’s program stood out to me because of its strong identity, wide range of faculty research, and emphasis on theory. I was keen to take classes at other departments at Weitzman, especially the fine arts. I also wanted exposure to other schools and departments across the broader university.

What has been your favourite class so far?
I loved my 501 studio, which is the first studio in the 3-year MLA sequence. I actually began my program during the year that was remote due to Covid-19 and my first experience of a design studio was unconventional but extremely transformative. I enjoyed the experiential component of this studio and it was incredible how we used common methods like physically measuring a transect through our sites, despite being in different locations.

What are you learning right now that will help you in the future?
I am in a class called Urban Ecology this semester and it is very useful as it provides frameworks to understand complex ecological processes and how to decide where to intervene in a system as a landscape architect. Ultimately, being in such an interdisciplinary field means that we must often understand work across many disciplines and be able to synthesise, communicate, and apply that in a design project. This course helps us do exactly that and is a great complement to my current studio, which has a regional cultural landscape focus.

What do you like best about Philadelphia?
I love how you can easily commute by either walking, biking, or using public transport around the city. There are many incredible gardens, parks, museums, food markets, and restaurants to explore. I love smaller parks like Clark Park and also spaces like the Morris Arboretum, which is run by the University.

What kinds of activities and/or organizations are you involved in?
A full course load and a research position takes up most of my time. However, I chose to take a black and white film photography class as my elective this semester in the fine arts department and I get to spend time in the darkroom developing my film and images, which has been very enjoyable. 

What are your career ambitions?
I would like to find a way to combine academics and professional practice in the future. I am keen to explore the relationship between writing and design and I am also interested in how landscape architects can play a bigger role in policy and would love to work on larger public projects in India.