POOL is driven by an interest in an expanding definition of architectural work that, in a culture of high volume content exchange, considers curation as a primary form of cultural production. POOL also sees the expanding definition of architectural work as necessitating multidisciplinary and the proliferation of voices normally outside the remit of the architectural publication. Following this, the editors contend that the syllabus, the archive, and the aggregator are all valid forms of architectural work that are welcomed and encouraged in the publication. Events and ongoing digital publication act not only as productive indicators of relevant themes, but also feed into an annual print edition.

POOL is curated by a dedicated team of student volunteers from UCLA’s Architecture and Urban Design Graduate Program. From design to content to distribution, POOL's digital content and print editions are produced entirely in-house by an editorial team of 10-15 graduate students. POOL takes advantage of its position within the institution to both reflect and challenge UCLA’s culture, notable for its ability to reformulate the ways in which design, theoretical discourse, and technology interact.

Founded in 2015, POOL is the student publication of the Department of Architecture & Urban Design at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Architecture and Urban Design's department is a champion of ideas and their articulate expression. Faculty teach students to engage the world around them, to see ideas as productive forms of response, and to leverage design and writing as expressions of newly curated perspectives. These ideas are grounded in a critical engagement with the history and theory of architecture and the future contingencies of contemporary culture. Through rigorous inquiry, the curriculum interrogates contemporary urban issues and propose possible futures with equal measures of expertise, optimism, and vision.