Đorđe Bulajić and Matija Pogorilic (BUMP Studio): Exhibition 5M3

Exhibition 5M3 presents the outcome of a summer design studio led by Đorđe Bulajić and Matija Pogorilic (BUMP Studio) at the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture, The City College of New York, and supported by the Capacity Initiative.

Over the course of five weeks, 20 first- through fifth-year students developed four full-scale installations, each conceived, designed, and constructed within a single week. Working with exactly the same set of 5,000 floral foam blocks (7.8 × 3.5 × 2.4 inches), each installation explored a distinct methodological approach while operating within an identical material and spatial constraint. The studio treated drawing and “construction” not as sequential stages but as a single, continuous act of thought. Drawings, diagrams, and 1:12 scale models were pursued alongside full-scale building, each feeding back into the other, offering a study of how architectural ideas are tested, transformed, and translated across different scales of representation and construction. The first installation investigated architecture as sculpture, focusing on form through a series of interventions developed in groups of four. The second examined the notion of interior, shifting attention from the object itself to the design of boundaries, spatial organization, and the relationship between inside and outside. The third expanded these investigations into a collective 80 × 20-foot megastructure, exploring how individual architectural gestures might cohere into a shared spatial system. The fourth and final installation, presented in the exhibition, brings together the accumulated experiments into a three-dimensional assemblage that synthesizes the formal, spatial, and organizational questions developed throughout the studio.

The exhibition opens on July 22 at 3pm in rooms 217 and 218 at the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture, The City College of New York. It will remain on view to the SSA community through August 13, Monday through Thursday, 8am–8pm (closed Fridays and weekends). Visitors who are not part of the SSA community are kindly asked to arrange their visit by contacting BUMP Studio via Instagram.

Students who participated in the design studio and the development of the installations are Abigail Bangari, Emily Chen, Joshua Tolbert, Yinglan Lao, Noah Lettrick, Cynthia Luna-Marcelino, Saul Martinez, Eliana Saquicili, Madelyn Sow, Taz Sultan, Amy Taveras, Le Ngu Phuc Xuan Hoa Tran, Jeshua Nunez, Christine Pang, FNU Rahima, Kavindya Widanagama, Howie Wong, Zi Leng Wong, Xiang Zhuang, and Zamia Zannat.

About the authors
BUMP Studio is a cross-disciplinary, New York–based studio specializing in architecture, set design, and research, founded in 2025 by Đorđe Bulajić and Matija Pogorilic.

Đorđe Bulajić is an internationally awarded architect and academic based in New York. He is a PhD candidate in Architecture, Urban and Interior Design at Politecnico di Milano, conducting doctoral research in collaboration with the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, TU Delft and Parsons School of Design, The New School. He currently teaches in the Department of Architecture at the New York City College of Technology and at the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture. His research has been funded by the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science, and Technological Development (2019–22) and the Italian Ministry of University and Research (2022025), and he was awarded the IDEA League Grant in two consecutive years (2024 and 2025). He is the recipient of the annual Aleksej Brkić Award (2019), the UnIATA 20 World’s Best Graduation Projects Ever Created Award (2020), and the LINA Writing Award (2025) for his book Spectres of the Concrete Atlantis (2026). His work has been published in peer-reviewed journals including Vesper. Journal of Architecture, Arts & Theory, Urban Design International (Springer Nature), Fuoco Amico and Serbian Architectural Journal and has been featured in exhibitions and conferences across Europe and the US including Venice Architecture Biennale 2025.

Matija Pogorilic is an architect, designer, and researcher operating between New York and Zagreb. He holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Zagreb and an M.S. in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia GSAPP, where he also worked as a researcher. His work has been presented at the French Biennale of Architecture and Landscape in Versailles, Columbia University, Citygroup Gallery, the European Capital of Culture programme, TU Delft, and Pratt Institute, among other venues. He is a Principal at Related Works, an independent studio for applied arts, research, and development. His recent work includes exhibition design and curation in New York, alongside architectural, research, and cultural projects in Croatia. His ongoing research project, The Post-Contemporary, explores how technological, ecological, and cultural transformations are reshaping architecture and contemporary creative practice.

About the hosting institutions
As New York City's flagship public architecture school, the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at The City College of New York offers programs for students at every stage of their architectural education, from those with no previous experience to professionals seeking to deepen their expertise. Through its rigorous and accessible degree programs, students engage with topics ranging from affordable housing and building materials to climate science. They develop advanced technical skills in the school's digital media labs, fabrication shop, robotics lab, and urban farm, while experiencing architecture firsthand through New York City's built and natural environments. The school's faculty comprise practicing architects, landscape architects, critics, and scholars who are deeply engaged with the city and its evolving architectural culture.

The Capacity (Career Awareness and Pathways at City College) initiative is a workforce development program at The City College of New York (CCNY), funded by a multi-million-dollar grant from the US Department of Education. The program provides undergraduate students with personalized mentoring, career counseling, and professional development workshops designed to prepare them for successful careers after graduation. Developed in collaboration with the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture, the initiative bridges rigorous architectural education with professional practice by connecting students with licensed architects, faculty members, and industry professionals. Through individualized guidance, students in architecture, landscape architecture, and urban sustainability gain the skills, experience, and professional support needed to transition successfully into practice.