This is the fourth in a series of profiles of AUD's outstanding graduating students. Also check out our previous installments: profiles of Alexis Winarske (BA '23), Motomi Matsubara (MArch '23), and Shrinethraa Senthil Kumar (MSAUD '23).

Chris Rancourt has taken on a variety of roles and identities in his career–radio host, athlete, digital marketer, record label manager, and, most recently, father.

Somewhere along the way, architecture entered his horizon and never left.

After earning a Master in Architecture with distinction last June from UCLA AUD, he’s realized he’s mainly interested in the journeys toward these identities, settings that allow creativity and projects to evolve.

“I’m still trying to find my place in the profession and develop a point of view that is unique to me and the type of work I’d like to put into the world,” Rancourt says. “That will take time to refine. But I love what I’m doing and couldn’t be happier with the journey that brought me here.”

As Rancourt continues defining his design direction, he draws from a generous palette of inspiration, insight, and context. Reflecting, he relishes the expansive, generous final year of his AUD studies, as well as the many work and life experiences that led him to AUD in the first place.

Rancourt completed undergraduate studies at the University of the Pacific (UoP), where he was recruited to compete in water polo; he’d been named an All-American swimmer during his final year of high school. Dreaming of national championships while also working toward a degree in social sciences, Rancourt took on a hosting gig at the school radio station. His “free time” convened around music, photography, and design; he started an indie record label, produced music, designed album art and published ‘zines.

While swimming and athletics remained core interests, Rancourt’s artistry was starting to blossom.

“It was absolutely the start of my journey toward architecture and design,” Rancourt reflects, “a meandering path of experiences that eventually brought me to the realization that architecture was the best way for me to pursue my goals.”

Rancourt graduated from UoP and settled in the San Francisco Bay Area with a job in digital marketing. He soon traded that in for architecture classes at a community college in Oakland and a string of part-time roles, one of which was at a furniture and design company named Sobu, owned and directed by Alessandro and Laleh Latini. The role allowed Rancourt to explore a new channel for his creative curiosity–and introduced him to architects and other designers and stakeholders.

The Sobu gig made design and creation feel real, Rancourt reflects. Digital marketing had been less tangible; seeing things being created and made was invigorating–a sign that Rancourt was finding direction.

“When I think back on those years, I’m happy that I realized that the path I was on wasn’t for me,” Rancourt says. “I think that realization was pivotal in setting me on my current trajectory. It was a really hard decision at the time. It was humbling, and the struggle of taking a ‘step back’ in life fundamentally changed who I was and gave me the drive and passion to be successful during my pursuit of architecture.”

Those few years of active exploration inspired Rancourt to pursue architecture studies at the graduate level. For someone who didn’t yet know where architecture would lead, Rancourt appreciated the variety of paths that AUD illuminated.

“Looking at the various faculty who were pursuing new and innovative paths within the industry, I felt that I could pretty much navigate to whatever outcome I wanted and find the types of mentors I was looking for,” Rancourt says.

Rancourt especially credits AUD’s Mohamed Sharif, Todd Lynch, Garrett Riccardi, and Ben Freyinger for fostering a deep love of architecture during his early days at AUD. Alongside studio crits, Rancourt would consult them on additional readings, precedents, and information to help the budding architect dive deeper into his own interests and understand architecture more holistically.

“My studies in the social sciences gave me a unique toolset on how to view the world,” Rancourt observes. “I think that those ways of viewing the world allowed me to understand context a bit deeper and enabled me to understand historical, social, and cultural forces acting on a site. I feel like those skills help me to design with a bit more nuance and sensitivity to place as well as find ways to engage broader communities."

Rancourt nourished this mindset during his third and final year at AUD. Studies with Enrique Walker, Heather Roberge, Mariana Ibañez, and Kutan Ayata challenged Rancourt to approach architecture more deeply while questioning its limits and capacities in pursuit of new insight.

“Each one of these instructors brought a different perspective and approach that taught me something new and challenged the way I worked,” Rancourt says. “I couldn’t have asked for a better cast of instructors in that regard, or a better way to close my time at AUD.

“The desire to foster a student's success is why I was interested in working with these faculty in a professional sense as well,” Rancourt continues. “I knew working for them I’d be able to develop in ways I couldn’t have otherwise at a traditional internship or job in LA. I was able to get hands-on right away and ultimately understand how a professional office runs.”

Rancourt also reflects on Heather Roberge’s Winter 2023 advanced topics studio on mass timber, which he credits with inspiring him to think systematically and spatially through structure, and to scrutinize the both opportunities and limits of emerging mass-timber design. See more from Rancourt's mass timber project.

Likewise, Rancourt found design opportunity in Mariana Ibañez and Kutan Ayata’s year-long research studio, “Narratives of Owens Lake,” which compelled students to speculate about the multiple narratives embodied in the vast reality of Owens Lake, from micro to macro, local to regional, from geological to meteorological.

Rancourt’s capstone AUD project was a collaboration with Gabe Saltzman for “Narratives of Owens Lake” that presented a series of allegorical scenarios or short stories that highlight the uncertainties, peculiarities, and challenges of Owens Lake. These scenarios, Rancourt says, varied from simple and plausible to complex and absurd, evoking a range of different and sometimes contradictory reactions from viewers.

While firmly rooted in architecture, the studio and project enabled Rancourt to draw from his range of experiences and education in order to design new narratives–the sort of nuanced, contextualized design that a well-rounded education can enable. In Rancourt’s words: architecture as mediator, not savior.

Immersed in architecture, Rancourt was also navigating another life experience during his final year at AUD: fatherhood. He and his wife welcomed a baby boy in 2022–which, alongside some of the logistical impacts, has prompted a new interest for the architect: design for children and design for play. Rancourt adds that this most recent journey also prompted lots of late nights and coffee during his final year of study.

Rancourt’s AUD faculty mentors offered a runway into new territory, both conceptually and professionally. Since graduation, he’s taken on roles at Ricciardi’s Formlessfinder and GRO.

Now, as he relishes his design projects, Rancourt looks toward new horizons. He aspires to lead a practice and to teach, but as always, he admits a truism: “There’s still so much I have to learn to get there, so I’ll just see where things take me.”

Rancourt is especially interested in global practice; he names Mexico City, London, and Ghent as inspirations.

“I have a deep love for the type of architecture happening in those cities and would love to experience practicing in another country,” he says. “At the same time I’m still trying to find my place in the profession and develop a point of view that is unique to me and the type of work I’d like to put into the world. I imagine that will take a few years to refine.

“Other than that I love what I’m doing and couldn’t be happier with the decisions I made that brought me here.”