Cornell AAP and Ennead's Yimika Osunsanya on Humble Architecture, Journalistic Fiction, and Dreaming Big

By Julia Gamolina

Oluwayimika (Yimika) Osunsanya is a modern-day storyteller who is dedicated to creating avenues and conducive atmospheres for people and objects to act and react. She believes that well designed space affects not only how a user sees but also how one feels and possibly thinks. With this in mind, Yimika invests her time in ensuring that conceptual ideas about space directly translate into well-calibrated vessels which in turn carry the ability to mold and hold peoples' experiences. Currently a designer at Ennead Architects, Yimika obtained an architecture degree with a minor in creative writing from Cornell AAP.

JG: Why did you decide to study architecture?

YO: I made the decision when I was seven years old. I heard someone say in school, in Lagos, Nigeria, that if you liked art, and if you liked science, you should become an architect because that’s a perfect combination of the two. That’s when I first realized it, and then I just stuck with it!

In architecture school, what was your favorite studio project? Your favorite paper? Your favorite extra-curricular?

My favorite project was my thesis. My thesis ended up somewhere very different than from where it started, and I’m really grateful for that experience of discovery, the discovery of my own project. Thesis helped me understand what I was really passionate about - my project started with me looking at water sanitation back home, in Lagos, and with floating settlements and schools and things like this. I was looking at how architecture can play a role in that process, and eventually, my thesis ended up being more about social resource architecture, if you might call it that, and how to blend together the social and economic aspects of living in a water settlement. I call it “humble architecture,” architecture that blends itself into where it is, and the people that are using it.

As for my favorite paper, I was actually a creative writing minor! So my favorite written piece was probably one of my short stories - I dabble in journalistic fiction, and base my short stories on news and current affairs, and the timely things that resonate with me. I also tend to write from perspectives that I wouldn’t necessarily be in, which helps me tell the stories from someone else’s eyes. I ask myself how I can tell the story from someone else’s perspective in the most unbiased way.

Finally, I was actually in a dance group at Cornell up until my senior year. It’s really helpful to be involved in the arts that are extremely separate from architecture. Having that space outside of architecture to further express myself was really great.

What was your favorite initiative that you were involved with in school?

I joined pretty late, but I did join NOMAS at the end of my fourth year. In my fifth year, I was co-treasurer. My time with NOMAS was about experiencing culture in architecture - I had no architectural background before college, so when I studied it, I realized that I was only learning about architecture in a specific way, based on what I was taught, and not based on action or how it actually is. What I was taught was very curated. So, with NOMAS, I was forced to reconcile what architecture really is like in practice, and what the cultural implications surrounding design and architecture are. For example, the last competition with NOMAS during my time at Cornell was based on the transportation systems in Chicago, and looking closely at the culture that is already embedded in a place. How do we honor that in architecture, and create spaces where that culture is accentuated and made to come to light?

Thesis - interior view of “Relax” spaces

Thesis - exterior view of “trade” spaces

You are now at Ennead, but before, when you were searching for internships during school, what were you looking for? What was your criteria?

For me, office and design culture was very important. I was looking for a firm where I felt like I could talk to people. We all hear about firms where there is a hierarchical design system in place, and I knew for sure that I didn’t want to be in that kind of environment. I thrive when I can openly share and discuss design, and where there is an opportunity to chime in. You really learn this during your interviews - you have to look beyond the firm’s website.

What’s important to you right now, in general? What inspires you?

Social change drives and inspires me. Creating not only architecture, but other things that are equitable and open to everyone - no matter their race, or social and economic standing - is important to me. Creating art that can be enjoyed by everyone, for example.

Who do you look up to?

In terms of architects, I do appreciate the architects at Studio Gang. In terms of looking up to people, I’m more into focusing on the best version of myself, and helping other women along the way.

What do you hope to do with your career?

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working in architecture this past year, but I can say that architecture is moving into a different direction and I, along with many of my peers, don’t see myself in traditional architectural roles. Because of that, it’s difficult to say where exactly I will end up, but I do know that I’m interested in the intersection between technology and space. What that means I’m not one hundred percent sure yet, but I’m interested in the display of information in space, and the access of information in space. I hope that in the future, I can find a niche for how to bring that to light. I’m talking to a lot of UX designers, and exploring what it is I’m interested in exactly.

Finally, what advice do you have for high schoolers right now, choosing their field of study?

My biggest advice is to dream big. There are so many streamlined ideas now about what people’s paths should be, but in reality, there is no streamline path or approach - it’s all so unique and individual. There’s not one way to do things right, so just know your interests, explore your interests, and don’t limit how you think about the world and how you think about career.