Aaron Smolar is a dual Master of Architecture and Master of Critical, Curatorial and Conceptual Practices candidate at Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He graduated in 2020 from Washington University in St. Louis Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in Architecture. He is broadly interested in phenomenology and the nature of human experience, with specific focuses of late on anxiety, atmosphere, and care as manifest in the built environment.