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2026 Study Architecture Student Showcase - Part VII

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In Part VII of the 2026 Study Architecture Student Showcase, we feature incredible projects centered on housing. From affordable housing and modular structural systems to trauma-informed designs and community-centered policies, these projects explore the expansive ways architecture can be used as a tool to design housing that meets both community and individual needs.

Wall as Commons: Minimum Collective Infrastructures for Informal Domesticity and Growth by Raveena Deshpande, M.Arch. ’26
Rhode Island School of Design | Advisor: Surella Segu

Why Wall? 

As urban populations grow, access to affordable housing declines, pushing certain sections of the population to build informal settlements outside legal and formal construction systems. These settlements often lack access to basic living infrastructure—water, sanitation, and electricity—even as they house a large share of the population in developing countries.

Current models of designing for informality exist as top-down planning approaches that ignore lived realities at the scale of the home. These design models are incongruent with informal lifestyles and undermine the sense of belonging that comes with rituals of self-authorship in space-making that exist in such settlements.

Wall for Domesticity

This thesis proposes an alternative: repositioning design for informal housing as a wall- a tool to articulate growth through collective infrastructure that delivers minimum essential utilities (water, electricity, drainage, sewage) for domestic stability, while facilitating self-building of homes along the wall, preserving inhabitants’ belonging and ownership. Different wall types are explored based on density and the type of growth they could catalyse (doubly loaded/ singly loaded/ alternately loaded for open space), as well as based on the benefactor’s budget for infrastructure investment (low investment versus high investment walls, i.e: wall as plane versus wall as room). Studies of how planning authorities might employ different wall types to organise and plan for informality as part of urbanity and ensure fair and comfortable amenities to all are conducted. 

Wall for More

The thesis also imagines the wall as a way to introduce public amenities such as play areas and work areas that such organically growing settlements lack. These include wall for worship (as circumambulatory paths), wall for work, wall for play, wall for water (common water spouts and WCs).

This project won the Department Thesis Award.

Instagram: @ravwlv, @workingrav, @surellasegu

Right up Your Alley: Integrating Affordable Housing and Walkable Infrastructure to Revitalize Denver’s Neighborhoods by Mason Anchondo, M.Arch. ‘26
North Dakota State University | Advisor: Charlott Greub

This thesis examines how existing single-family neighborhoods in Denver, Colorado, can be transformed into more walkable, socially connected, and affordable communities by reactivating the city’s underutilized mid-block alleyways. Through policy analysis, data-driven spatial analysis, and on-site neighborhood observation, the study identifies opportunities to introduce accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and pedestrian-oriented design strategies that improve connectivity and housing diversity without displacing existing residents.

A multi-scalar site selection process ultimately focuses on the Barnum and West Barnum neighborhoods, where intact alley networks and demographic conditions support a replicable framework for gentle densification. Informed by case studies and interdisciplinary research on walkability, human-scale design, and zoning reform, the project proposes incremental interventions that expand accessible housing opportunities, reduce car dependency, and strengthen neighborhood cohesion. The resulting approach demonstrates how modest, community-centered design and policy changes can reshape aging suburban neighborhoods into healthier, more sustainable urban environments.

This project was selected as a finalist for the McKenzie Award.

The Interflow by Kevin Juarez-Martinez, B.Arch. ‘26
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona | Advisor: Katrin Terstegen

Located at the intersection of South Broadway and Slauson Avenue in South Los Angeles, California, the project responds to a historically and culturally vibrant community through a mixed-use housing project that combines residential, commercial, and communal spaces using mass timber. The project is organized around an elevated courtyard and circulation system that allows for movement to become a social experience amongst residents and visitors. Rather than isolating residents within conventional apartment corridors, the design challenges this concept and introduces terraces, bridges, and outdoor gathering spaces and gardens that encourage interaction between neighbors while also maintaining privacy within individual units. The proposal contains one, two, three bedroom configurations that support various family sizes. 

Mass timber serves as both the structural and design strategy, with members spanning into the courtyard. A repetitive system of CLT panels and columns establishes an efficient, modular framework that supports prefabrication, reduces construction waste, and lowers embodied carbon. Applications of biophilic living conditions, such as terraced gardens, are also supplemented in the exposed timber elements to enhance the residents’ interaction with the building. 

The ground floor is a mass timber grid, supporting the residences above, in a post-and-beam structural design. The structural members are connected with the consideration of disassembly at the building’s end of life. The beams capture the mass timber floor panels, which are also typical throughout the project, to allow for mass shipment through prefabrication of all members. 

The floor-to-floor height of the project is consistent at each level to provide a uniform dimension, simplifying the design and providing an efficient solution that saves material, cost,  and fabrication time. The mass timber grid also extends up through the residential units to consider carbon emissions in the construction process. 

At the ground level, retail and community-oriented programs activate the street and strengthen connections between residents, local businesses, and transit users. By integrating housing with shared public amenities, the proposal creates a vibrant urban ecosystem. 

Click here to learn more. 

Instagram: @kevin_j.m, @katrinterstegen

Domus Ianicula by Alan Watts, BS in Architecture ‘26
University of Virginia | Advisor: Peter Waldman

Domus Ianicula explores the design of a dwelling system on Roanoke Island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina in the form of a multi-generational home fostering an experience of living in the coastal threshold. Sited on a strand of 23 small islands towards the southeast side of the main island, this thesis provides a counter-proposal for the development of this previously protected natural space. 

An individual dwelling on one of these islands faces two ways: the Roanoke Sound and the Atlantic to the east and a protected marsh and the mainland to the west. Those who live in the dwelling share an experience intensified by their relationship to the land as they fish in the sea and garden in the marsh–with no land connection to the rest of Roanoke Island, residents access their dwellings and the community through smaller jon boats on the west side and larger offshore fishing boats from the east side. 

The home begins as a small gathering around a hearth and grows with time and the family via a modular system. A truss system holds a light roof of corrugated metal above the dwelling, protecting the few enclosed living spaces as well as covering shared outdoor spaces. The roof collects water into two cisterns, which is purified, stored, and used by the residents via one central water line running through the dwelling. The main two masses of the building are separated by a central hearth and the intersection of a north-south path which connects dwellings along the strip of 23 islands. This system for housing, once deployed across several of the islands over time, creates a unique anti-urban community for year-round residents that directly interact with the surrounding communities of Wanchese and Manteo.

Instagram: @architectalan.dwg 

Subaltern Alternatives: Reclaiming Agency Through Spatial Articulation by Nadirah Ali, B.Arch. ’26

Kennesaw State University | Advisor: ​​Jade Yang

The concept of the subaltern [was] introduced by Antonio Gramsci to describe populations excluded from political, social, and economic power while still being used to sustain dominant systems. Today, migrant construction workers often occupy this condition: essential to urban growth, yet denied dignity, visibility, and participation in the cities they build. Their housing is frequently reduced to an instrument of control—spaces designed to contain labor rather than support life. This thesis proposes an architectural alternative.

The project examines contemporary cases of labor exploitation in the United States, Qatar, and Singapore, where migrant workers have faced unsafe conditions, wage theft, overcrowded dormitories, and social exclusion. Among these, Singapore becomes the primary site of study. As the city advances new “live-work-play” districts and large-scale redevelopment, thousands of migrant workers are imported to construct this vision, yet remain housed far from the city center with little access to the urban life they create. The thesis asks: when city design decisions are made about who participates in urban life, who is truly at the table?

To answer this, the project studies architecture as a political tool. Precedents such as adaptable collective housing, civic border infrastructures, and hospitals organized through humane circulation demonstrate that space determines who is seen, who participates, and who is excluded. Rather than reproduce another dormitory model, this thesis begins with the everyday spatial practices of the workers themselves. Cultural studies of Indian, Bangladeshi, and Chinese domestic life reveal shared needs: communal cooking, floor-based gathering, prayer, flexible sleeping arrangements, and courtyard-centered social life.

From these observations, the thesis develops a modular kit-of-parts housing system organized around the courtyard as a social and civic core. Kitchens, living quarters, prayer rooms, wash areas, and gathering spaces can be assembled, expanded, or relocated according to changing labor populations and construction timelines. Designed to fit Singapore’s construction grids and transport systems, the kit can occupy vacant urban parcels and active building sites near employment centers.

Tested within Singapore’s CBD fringe redevelopment zone, the proposal repositions worker housing from distant containment to visible urban participation. Subaltern Alternatives argues that architecture must move beyond shelter as control and instead become a framework for agency, citizenship, and dignity. If workers participate in building the city, they must also have the right to participate in living within it.

Click here to learn more. 

This project was selected as one of the Top 5 Thesis Projects for the Niles Bolton KSU Thesis Competition and received an Honorable Mention.

Instagram: @nadirah_ali6_, @​​jadeyjadeyang

Invisible Fragments: Strengthening a Small Informal Settlement within a Transforming Buenos Aires by Camilla Greppi, B.Arch. ’26
Tulane University | Advisors: Ammar Eloueini & Juan Medina

Located in Buenos Aires, Barrio Saldías is a small, often forgotten informal settlement positioned at the edge of major urban transformations. This thesis strengthens the community without erasing its existing fabric or displacing residents. Through selective retrofitting, structurally viable homes are improved with safer circulation, pitched roofs, windows, and doors, while underutilized warehouses are reused for essential programs like education, healthcare, and food access. New incremental housing follows the scale and spatial logic of existing dwellings, allowing families to expand horizontally over time. An abandoned rail corridor becomes a railroad park, creating a public spine that reconnects Barrio Saldías to Villa 31, the port, and the broader city. 

Click here for a closer look. 

This received a Thesis Commendation during the Tulane School of Architecture and Built Environment Diploma Ceremony in May 2026.

Instagram: @greppiarchitecture, @eloueini, @salazarsequeromedina

Teaching TID: Reframing Shelter as a Site of Productive Making by Haley Beverlin, M.Arch. ’26
Lawrence Technological University | Advisor: Scott Shall

Homelessness is a systemic, multi-disciplinary issue that demands collaboration across diverse stakeholders to develop shelter models promoting dignity and challenging the current limitations. While not solely an architectural crisis, AEC professionals serve as the link within the design process to ensure final projects translate the needs of users. Current shelter models perpetuate a simplified generic mass-production model of room design. To serve a universal audience, rooms begin to lack personality and limit personal choice, in turn making each room identical to the one next to it. Each person has different forms of trauma, meaning healing is also multi-layered. These differences highlight that residents may have different ideas of what a space for healing may look like.

The approach of Trauma-Informed Designed (TID) fosters ideas of connection, choice, comfort, and safety (Shopworks, 2025). “Choice, closely tied to the concepts of autonomy and control, emerged as a powerful determinant of the residents’ well-being” and heavily influenced whether residents felt “protected or restricted” (Shopworks, 2025). While choice typically comes in the form of navigating independently on site, there is an opportunity to increase this. Makerspaces parallel these ideas by providing people access to “tap into the unique history, culture, or characteristics of their host communities” (Debowski, 4). For those who have been displaced, this is a chance to reconnect with place and identity (see Figure 1).

This thesis argues that the design and creation of objects can be a means to marry the acts of making and healing, for it places the agency in the hands of the residents inhabiting the space to alter it as they please. The incorporation of a makerspace provides a unique opportunity to explore new skills, build connections, and incorporate vocational training within the architectural programming of the shelter. Reimagining the potential of these spaces aims to empower residents within the realm of choice and enhance this element of TID within the building designs. This all could lead to a truly trauma-informed design; the structure given by the architect, but the details defined by the taught users.

Click here to learn more. 

Instagram: @haleybeverlin, @​​scott_shall

Cultivating Agency in Multi-Generational Co-Housing: Respecting Choice with Spatial Articulation for the Betterment of Aging and Growing Communities by Logan Croghan, M.Arch. ’26
Lawrence Technological University | Advisor: Scott Shall

Current housing options in the U.S. limit how individual and family units operate in their homes and communities by reducing their ability to maintain permanent residence. Each year, approximately 40 million Americans move out of their homes due to financial insufficiencies and physical inflexibility. An estimated 63% of households choose to remain in the same county, citing familiarity in their community, existing social ties, and established routines as primary reasons for staying, despite their unsustainable housing options (Harvard University, 2020).

Of the affected households, older Americans are seeking alternatives to institutional settings that support aging in place and their rapidly changing lifestyles more than ever. The University of Michigan found that 88% of Americans aged 55 to 80 wanted to live in their homes as long as possible but did not believe they had the tools to do so (Institute of Healthcare Policy and Innovation, 2022). Housing options with supportive and adaptable qualities would enable older individuals to remain in their established communities and gain the emotional and social comfort that benefits their overall health and those who interact with them (Sharifi, 2023).

 As an alternative option, co-housing can encourage long-term residence among older populations and growing families alike. An iteration of the model can not only expand to include multi-generational households to increase community support, but also incorporate architectural elements that give residents the power to shift spaces as needed. To further understand the impact of spatial alterations over time, shared and privatized spaces require investigation to articulate how negotiation between neighbors can determine the iterations’ legitimacy in encouraging individuals to work together towards the collective goal of remaining in their forever homes.

Click here to learn more. 

Instagram: @taycroghan929, @​​scott_shall

Building Memory: Constructing Collage Architecture in Outer Urban Spaces by Emily Grimaldi, B.Arch. ’26
Virginia Tech | Advisor: Gonzalo Munoz-Vera

Building Memory: Constructing Collage Architecture in Outer Urban Spaces is an architectural thesis that investigates how new development can engage the layered identities of interstitial urban neighborhoods without erasing their cultural and spatial memory. Centered in Astoria, Queens, the project critiques conventional redevelopment practices that replace existing urban fabric with uniform, commodified architecture, often resulting in visual and cultural disconnection. Instead, the proposal advances an alternative design methodology rooted in “collage architecture,” an additive process that preserves, reinterprets, and builds upon the accumulated layers of the built environment.

The thesis is grounded in the understanding that outer urban areas—unlike iconic city centers—evolve incrementally through human-scale interventions over time. Buildings in these neighborhoods are shaped by diverse occupants, resulting in a heterogeneous architectural language rich in memory and identity. These environments function as living archives, where facades, materials, and spatial patterns act as artifacts of social and cultural history. New construction that ignores these qualities risks not only aesthetic disruption but also the erasure of collective memory.

In response, the project proposes a design framework composed of three primary elements: the artifact, the ghost, and the new mass. Artifacts preserve the most historically significant portions of the existing site—such as facades or structural remnants—maintaining their symbolic and material presence. Ghosts reinterpret less significant but spatially important elements as lightweight, frame-like structures that retain the memory of what once existed while creating openness and new public connections. The new mass introduces necessary program—primarily housing—designed to align with the scale, spatial logic, and social dynamics of the surrounding neighborhood.

Through this tripartite strategy, the project creates a “city within a city,” integrating density with familiarity. Housing units are configured to support social interaction, drawing from the spatial principles of traditional Queens homes, while varied materials and forms reinforce the language of collage at multiple scales. Ultimately, Building Memory argues that sustainable urban growth must be rooted in continuity rather than replacement. By embedding memory into the design process, architecture can foster a more empathetic, connected, and contextually responsive urban future.

This project was one of eleven Fifth-Year Thesis Honors Finalists.

Instagram: @grimaldi_ad, @gmunozvera

Empathetic Architecture: Mixed-Use Housing for Young Adults with Autism by Brooklyn Watson, B.Arch. ’26
Kennesaw State University | Advisor: Robin Puttock

Architecture, by its very definition, is the art or science of building; that is, specifically the art or practice of designing and building structures, especially habitable ones (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). Besides being an art of habitable spaces, architecture influences how people experience belonging, comfort, and autonomy, yet contemporary design often overlooks the needs of all types of people, such as the neurodivergent experience. Despite advances in technology and policy, architectural design continues to lag in addressing the full spectrum of disability needs. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires accessibility in new construction, but is often interpreted through minimal interventions such as ramps, elevators, and accessible restrooms (ADA National Network, 2024). While these measures are critical, they primarily serve visible and physical disabilities, leaving the sensory and cognitive needs of neurodivergent individuals, such as autistic young adults, largely unconsidered. Research has shown that inclusive design practices remain inconsistently implemented across the building industry, with many professionals still defaulting to compliance rather than innovation (Zallio & Clarkson, 2021).

The result is that many built environments remain overstimulating, alienating, or exclusionary. This research redefines accessibility as empathy; an active design approach grounded in human diversity. Through precedent studies, literature, and site analysis, it identifies inclusive tactics such as predictable circulation, sensory zoning, adaptable lighting, and acoustic control. The site at 77 North Park Square in Marietta provides an urban setting where civic and residential systems intersect, fostering both independence and connection. Synthesizing therapeutic, educational, and architectural insights, the project proposes empathetic housing that nurtures comfort, sensory balance, and belonging. Rather than separating neurodivergent and neurotypical users, the design celebrates difference, using architecture as a medium of care, inclusion, and shared humanity.

Instagram: @robinzputtock

Within the Lakou by Bedgid Aurelie Laguerre, Abigail Bauman & Cheyenne Granahan, M.Arch. ’26
Washington University in St. Louis | Advisor: Wyly Brown

This project responds to Haiti’s ongoing displacement crisis by proposing a decentralized housing model for a young professional couple relocating from Port-au-Prince to Cap-Haïtien. Inspired by the traditional Haitian Lakou system, the design combines a compact microhome with a community-oriented framework that promotes collective resilience and mutual support. The proposal reinterprets the spatial and social qualities of the Lakou, including shared outdoor spaces, cultural exchange, and strong social networks, within a contemporary housing solution. By integrating climate-responsive strategies and adaptable construction methods, the project provides safe, dignified, and sustainable housing while supporting cultural continuity and community well-being.

Click here to learn more.

This project was shortlisted for MICROHOME 10 Competition.

Instagram: @B_the_architect, @Dysynchronized, @Cheyennegranahan, @washusamfoxschool

Evolum – Evolving Housing by Antonio Tejeda, B.Arch. ’26
Universidad Anáhuac Querétaro | Advisors: Jorge Javier, Patricia Cutiño, Federico Hernández, Álvaro de los Cobos & Guillermo Márquez

The project emerges as a response to the social, economic, and demographic transformations that have reshaped contemporary ways of living in the city. Today, the largest segment of the economically active population is shared between young adults and established professionals; however, it is paradoxical that younger generations, despite representing one of the most productive sectors of society, face the greatest barriers to accessing a first home. In response to this condition, the proposal introduces an evolutionary housing model based on flexibility, customization, and incremental growth. Conceived as a system of modular vertical-lot towers, the project allows each dwelling to adapt and evolve alongside its occupants. Strategically located in an area with strong connectivity, accessibility, and proximity to urban services, the development promotes efficient land use while ensuring optimal daylight, natural ventilation, and environmental comfort.

Affordability serves as the project’s guiding principle and informs every design decision. To reduce the final cost of housing, underground parking was intentionally avoided, as its construction would have significantly increased the cost per square meter. Instead, parking is resolved at grade alongside the residential towers. Material selection likewise prioritizes durability, low maintenance, and economic efficiency, incorporating exposed three-piece stone-faced concrete block walls that age gracefully without additional finishes, terrazzo flooring that utilizes the structural compression layer as the final surface finish, and permeable linear pavers that facilitate natural groundwater infiltration. In addition, shared amenities are concentrated within outdoor communal spaces, allowing maintenance costs to be distributed across the entire development rather than individual buildings, substantially reducing long-term operational expenses.

Architecturally, each tower is composed of four dwelling units confined by load-bearing walls that provide structural rigidity to the overall system. These units are organized around a central vertical circulation core that opens into a shared lobby, from which each residence is accessed.

The modular structural system is a key element in making this growth strategy feasible.

Instagram: @antoniotejedaa, @arquitectura_anahuac, @arqwave

Stay tuned for Part VIII!

2026 Study Architecture Student Showcase - Part VI

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Today’s edition of the 2026 Study Architecture Student Showcase explores the intersections of education and design. Part VI features adaptive learning centers, modular kits for adaptable classrooms, education centers for vulnerable adolescents, and research spaces. These outstanding projects also use design as a tool to interrogate and address nuanced topics in education, including preserving student creativity in today’s digital age and how architecture can bridge and facilitate workplace integration for community college students.

Reframing the Learning Landscape by Valeria Lemus, M.Arch. ‘26
University of Florida |  Advisors: Eugene Damaso, Albertus S. Wang & Stephen Bender

Reframing the Learning Landscape explores how outdoor learning environments can become an essential component of education in Florida. Located in an urban context adjacent to Parramore, [a neighborhood] in Orlando, the project challenges conventional school models that prioritize indoor, standardized learning environments and instead proposes a campus that integrates nature, health, community, and education into the daily learning experience.

The project is informed by research on whole-child development, environmental psychology, experiential learning, and adaptive educational environments. Findings from literature reviews, case studies, and educator feedback identified four primary design drivers: connection to nature, adaptive learning environments, experiential learning, and long-term adaptability. These drivers informed a series of spatial strategies that blur the boundary between indoor and outdoor learning.

The proposed school organizes classrooms, community spaces, activity zones, nutrition gardens, and outdoor learning environments around a network of shaded transitional spaces that encourage movement, exploration, and social interaction. Native landscapes, productive gardens, water-focused learning environments, and passive climate-responsive design strategies support both environmental stewardship and student well-being. Building orientation, shading systems, landscape buffers, and outdoor classrooms respond to Florida’s climate while reducing dependence on conditioned space.

Rather than treating outdoor space as a recreational amenity, the project positions nature as educational infrastructure. Learning landscapes become places for discovery, collaboration, physical activity, and environmental awareness. The design demonstrates how schools can simultaneously address educational outcomes, community health, ecological resilience, and climate responsiveness while creating more meaningful connections between students, their environment, and the communities they serve.

Instagram: @valelemus1, @stephen.bender

Extraction, Control and Permanence of Memory by Jack Allison, BS in Architecture ‘26
University of Virginia | Advisor: Peter Waldman

This thesis uses the existing Bingham Copper Mine as a site for an environmental institute that examines limits to extraction, control, and permanence within Utah’s Salt Lake Valley by reclaiming an architectural understanding of the desert that defines it. With this reading of the place, the thesis becomes a critique of Latter-day Saint settlement patterns that sought to superficially “make the desert bloom.” In their taming of the Desert, they became apathetic to the existing landscape, creating a disconnection from ‘The Place,’ most profoundly seen at the Bingham Copper Mine. 

By unraveling the extent of environmental destruction produced by the mine over its 120-year lifespan through a network of cultural, ecological, and research spaces, this place of extraction becomes a site for understanding the histories that shaped it and the future that reimagines it. Reclamation, connection, and memory bring the locale closer to the neglected environment, prioritizing experiential contact and aesthetic retrospection.

With the Bingham Mine’s lifespan extended through 2040, the future remains unclear regarding what will happen after it is discontinued. This thesis seeks to answer the question of ‘what next?’ for the mine and future extraction in the Salt Lake Valley.

The thesis uses a multidisciplinary program that will reclaim, reconnect, and remember the site in its own way. Environmental research laboratories analyze the progression of ecological health at the site. Art studios frame views, using the landscape’s expression to define an aesthetic experience, preserving moments of destruction, stagnation, and rejuvenation. Exhibition space creates an experiential, physical narrative journey through the mine’s history, while public classrooms and workshops showcase professional humanities skills to be passed down. 

This project uses architecture as a medium to access and understand the mine and the process of healing its ecologies. By using architecture to bridge the gap between the urban and the landscape, we can learn the importance of our roles within a larger ecological order, thereby reinforcing a local commitment to it. Understanding it by observing and then connecting to the landscape physically by working within and for it.

Logged Inside the Box: The Replacement of Childhood Imagination by Digital Content and Its Effect on Creative Development  by Joangelisse R. García-Rivera, B.Arch. ‘26
Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico | Advisor: Pedro A. Rosario-Torres

In a time marked by rapid technological growth, digital devices have become essential to daily life, profoundly changing how children learn, play, and experience the world around them. While technology provides endless access to information, games, and entertainment, its excessive use during childhood raises growing concerns about the decline of creativity and imagination. As screens increasingly replace traditional forms of play, exploration, and hands-on activities, children risk becoming passive consumers of content rather than active creators and problem-solvers. This shift raises an important question: how does constant exposure to digital media impact the natural development of creativity and the ability to generate original ideas?

Research by Kyung Hee Kim, through her study of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), shows a steady decline in creative performance among younger generations, even though today’s children often score higher on intelligence measures but are less creative. These findings suggest that while technological advancements expand knowledge and efficiency, they may also unintentionally limit imagination, originality, and creative development, especially during formative years when curiosity and play are essential.

This research examines how digital content replaces childhood imagination and its effects on creative growth. It considers multiple frameworks: theoretical, sociocultural, ecological, economic, and regulatory. It also investigates how design can help restore balance between technology and imagination, exploring how environments and educational systems influence creative potential. Understanding this relationship is crucial for preserving the human spark of creativity and invites reflection on whether modern progress truly nurtures or unintentionally constrains the minds of future generations.

This project was nominated for the Francisco Luis Porrata-Doria Medal for Excellence in Design.

Overcrowding to Opportunity: Reinventing the Portable Classroom by Evan Lehner, M.Arch. & MRED ‘26
University of Maryland, College Park | Advisors: Michael Kleiss, Peter Noonan & Tanya Bansal

As schools across the United States grapple with overcrowding and chronic underfunding, many turn to portable classrooms as a cheap, quick, and temporary solution. Despite widespread usage, this typology is largely neglected by architects. Portables are critical for many overpopulated and underfunded schools to operate. Consequently, when schools are unable to afford new buildings or extensive renovations, these “temporary” structures become permanent. Numerous studies reveal that these portables often do not meet adequate standards to foster a productive learning and teaching environment. Their antiquated design renders them difficult to transport and a financial liability for their schools. This project asks, “How might portable classrooms be reinvented to be more adaptable, flexible, and reliable learning environments?”

Methods of analysis included interviews with school administrators, facilities managers, portable classroom distributors, students, and teachers, a review of existing literature, and a site visit to a portable prefabrication facility to understand both stakeholder and producer perspectives.

The resulting “Adaptive Modular Classroom” (AMC) utilizes a prefabricated, modular “kit of parts”, all of which can be shipped on a standard flatbed. The AMC can be programmed to provide additional space for other much-needed common areas, including gyms, libraries, and makerspaces. The kit is designed for flexibility. Spaces can expand or contract, and facades can quickly be interchanged. High-performance envelopes made from carbon-sequestering materials embody sustainable principles. Care was also given to imagine how the outdoor spaces between AMCs could contribute to a school’s sense of community.

Although designed to be deployable anywhere, a site was selected to test how the AMCs could be deployed on a real school campus. Careful siting and arrangement demonstrate that the AMC is not merely a better portable, but a replicable framework for rethinking how schools grow, adapt, and invest in their learning communities over time.

Click here to get a closer look.

Instagram: @evan_lehner12

Anti-Gang Architecture: Youth, Labor, and Spatial Agency in Mexico by Arturo Resendiz, B.Arch. ’26

Kennesaw State University | Advisor: ​​Ehsan Sheikholharam

This project responds to the lack of safe public spaces for young people in Matamoros, Mexico, a border city where many teenagers are vulnerable to gang recruitment. As opportunities for youth continue to diminish, architecture has the potential to offer alternatives by creating spaces that encourage learning, work, and community engagement. Rather than functioning as a conventional youth center, the project proposes a place where education, art, and vocational training come together to support long-term personal growth. The site is located between existing schools and adjacent to a public park.

The project provides a place for after-school activities, giving high school students an alternative to returning directly home or spending their afternoons without meaningful opportunities. It offers a range of programs that channel students’ talents and energy toward skill development, community service, the arts, and sports.

The design is grounded in the belief that architecture can strengthen connections between generations. Inspired by Giancarlo Mazzanti’s understanding of architecture as a tool for social inclusion, the project creates spaces where young people can build confidence, develop practical skills, and eventually return as mentors for future generations. In this way, the center becomes part of an ongoing cycle of community development.

A central challenge was balancing safety with openness. My design addresses this through a sequence of thresholds and a circulation system that accommodates different users while maintaining clear visibility throughout the building. Along the perimeter, heavier massing and compressed volumes establish a clear threshold from the uncertainty of the street. As visitors move deeper into the building, spaces gradually become more open, and ceilings rise, creating a stronger sense of safety and belonging. Clear circulation, visible gathering spaces, and flexible programs encourage interaction while minimizing isolated areas, allowing the architecture itself to support security, trust, and community life.

Click here to get a closer look.

This project received an honorable mention in the 2026 Niles Bolton Thesis Competition.

Instagram: @arxuro

Bridging Campus and Career by Farshad Beheshti, M.Arch. ’26
Academy of Art University | Advisor: Eric Reeder

This thesis investigates the role of architecture in facilitating the transition from education to the workforce, with a focus on students and graduates of Canada College. Community colleges serve a highly diverse and often non-traditional population, many of whom balance education with employment and face limited access to professional environments, networks, and career opportunities. This project responds to the gap between academic experience and workforce entry by proposing an integrated spatial framework that supports learning, professional development, and community engagement within a shared environment.

Situated in Redwood City, the project extends the role of the campus beyond its conventional boundaries, positioning it as an active interface between students, graduates, and the broader community of San Mateo County and the Bay Area. The design introduces a range of adaptable spaces that accommodate individual and collaborative work, mentorship, networking, and engagement with industry. By embedding opportunities for interaction with employers and entrepreneurial initiatives, the project fosters a dynamic ecosystem that supports both career entry and ongoing professional growth.

The research explores how architecture can mediate social and economic challenges related to accessibility, affordability, and workforce inclusion. Emphasis is placed on creating an environment that is welcoming to users of different backgrounds, ages, and levels of experience, while maintaining a strong connection to the values of the community college system. Through spatial flexibility, inclusive design strategies, and a focus on user experience, the project aims to redefine the educational campus as a civic and professional infrastructure that supports long-term development and economic mobility.

Instagram: @ericreeder.architect

TADI – Craftsmanship, Design, and Identity Workshops by Valeria Martínez, B.Arch. ’26
Universidad Anáhuac Querétaro | Advisors: Jorge Javier, Patricia Cutiño, Federico Hernández, Álvaro de los Cobos & Guillermo Márquez

TADI is an architectural proposal located in Querétaro, Mexico, conceived as a platform for the preservation, empowerment, and evolution of local craftsmanship. The project responds to the growing challenges faced by artisans, including economic precarity, lack of adequate workspaces, limited access to markets, and the gradual loss of traditional knowledge due to globalization and changing production systems.

Rather than functioning solely as a production facility, TADI is envisioned as a multidisciplinary hub where artisans, designers, students, and visitors can interact through making, learning, exhibiting, and exchanging knowledge. The program integrates workshops for different craft disciplines, educational spaces, collaborative design studios, exhibition galleries, retail areas, and administrative facilities that support cultural and economic development.

The architectural concept is grounded in the idea of dignifying craftsmanship by making the creative process visible and accessible. Spaces are organized around shared courtyards and public circulation routes that encourage interaction between makers and visitors, transforming the act of production into a cultural experience. The project seeks to strengthen the connection between heritage and contemporary design while creating new opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship.

Beyond its physical form, TADI aims to redefine the role of craft within contemporary society. By fostering direct relationships between artisans and consumers, promoting co-design practices, and providing infrastructure for education and commercialization, the project contributes to a more sustainable and equitable creative economy. TADI ultimately serves as a catalyst for cultural preservation, social inclusion, and regional identity, demonstrating how architecture can support both community development and the continuity of intangible cultural heritage.

Instagram: @valemartinnez, @arquitectura_anahuac, @arqwave

Stay tuned for Part VII!

2026 Study Architecture Student Showcase - Part V

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Part V of the 2026 Study Architecture Student Showcase shines a spotlight on innovative designs in agriculture. From the Prairie to home gardens, these projects propose design methodologies that integrate architecture, community engagement, ecology, sustainability, construction, and climate-responsive programs to cultivate strong agricultural practices.

Between Earth and Sky by Jane Grant & Jack Taliaferro, M.Arch. ‘26
Kansas State University | Advisor: David Dowell

Founded as a nonprofit organization in 1976, The Land Institute (TLI) is committed to researching and developing food production methods that sustain the land and soil, a precious resource in an increasingly precarious state around the globe.

“The history of Earth-abuse through agriculture has been horrendous. Essentially, all of nature’s ecosystems are perennial polycultures. Agriculture reversed that. Consequently, soil erosion became a problem. The wilderness has to become a standard against which we judge our agricultural and cultural practices.”

–Wes Jackson, co-founder, The Land Institute.

In this fast-paced, intensive and collaborative studio, we were asked by The Land Institute to reimagine the original implements barn, hand-built by Wes, as a New Event Barn to host TLI’s annual Prairie Festival and as a Welcome Center to acknowledge TLI’s increasingly important role as a destination and public gathering place for people seeking inspiration in regenerative agriculture best practices. Prairie Festival is currently on hold and will reemerge in September 2026. The work of this studio helps define what that looks like, as a direct application of ideas generated this fall and as a longer-term vision.

This is a real project, located in native mixed-grass prairie north of TLI’s research facilities. Our work started in August 2025 with understanding context – history, site environmental conditions, barn vernacular, innovative material and structural systems. We worked with environmental consultants, architects, landscape architects, scientists, contractors, TLI staff and leadership to program, design and prototype multiple visions for this important new facility, for a groundbreaking institution. TLI’s executive director, Rachel Stroer, challenged us to create an architectural approach and model that parallels The Land Institute’s ethos of regenerative problem solving.

This booklet, a shared production from graduate architecture students at Washington University in St. Louis’s Sam Fox School and Kansas State University’s College of Architecture, Planning and Design, contains evidence of our diverse responses to this challenge. Organized collaborations between universities ebbed and flowed throughout the semester.

It’s been an eye-opening semester for a host of reasons, not the least of which is processing the challenge of what constitutes regenerative architecture, what stories materials offer both in terms of what’s currently given and where design and construction industries could and must evolve. The core problem The Land Institute has in its crosshairs is ten thousand years in the making. To have a chance for architecture to both participate in problem solving with TLI and to embody their core values, we have to look not only at what is, but also imagine what will be.

Our event barn design for The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas, is conceived as a direct exploration of the dialogue between two fundamental planes: earth and sky. By treating these planes as active, shifting surfaces rather than static boundaries, the building

becomes a mediator between the natural and the built, allowing visitors to experience how architecture can heighten their relationship to the prairie landscape. Upon entry, the earth and sky planes merge, where visitors ascend into the skyline plane and gain a new vantage point over the surrounding tallgrass prairie. The ground plane, shaped by the site’s natural slope, turns into a grass amphitheater that invites gathering and immersion in the prairie. We utilize steel in our design to maintain a light touch on the land while also offering longevity and flexibility for future uses. Together, these elements create a space that is both rooted and elevated, aligning closely with The Land Institute’s mission to immerse individuals in landscapes. Designed to host a broad range of community events, our barn becomes not only a functional venue but also a space that encourages visitors to feel the land and participate in their community.

Instagram: @taliaferro._.9, @jane.k.grant, @ksudesignmake

Soil Rites: Cultivating a New Perennial Commons by Samantha Agostinelli & Ellis Donahue, B. Arch. ‘26
Pratt Institute | Advisors: Evan Tribus, Cathryn Dwyre & Saul Anton

Industrial agriculture has pushed Midwestern soils to the brink of collapse, and no technical fix can restore what a deeper cultural rupture has broken. Soil Rites proposes that architecture, working intimately with living soil systems, can do more than mitigate ecological crisis—it can reorganize collective life around the act of ecological care. By treating soil as a public agent rather than a passive ground, our project argues that regenerative land stewardship can become the basis for a new perennial commons. Can architecture, working intimately with soil-based strategies, perform both ecological work and produce common meaning? What spatial and tectonic frameworks allow communities to cultivate land stewardship as a shared cultural practice rather than an extractive obligation?

A second Dust Bowl—driven by accelerating soil degradation, aquifer depletion, and the eastward shift of the 100th meridian—is no longer a speculative future but an emerging design condition. In response, this project proposes a regenerative farming collective and eco-community on 80 acres in Ionia, Nebraska, structured as a Community Land Trust. Using the compost cycle as a design methodology, three interdependent systems—landscape, architecture, and ritual—work simultaneously to build soil, form space, and produce collective life, yielding a habitable windbreak, an earth-built community, and a ceremonial framework through which ecological labor becomes culture.

This project won the 2026 Best Degree Project and the 2026 Michael Hollander Drawing Excellence Award (Honorable Mention). 

Instagram: @samamam._, @ellis.donahue, @pressg5, @pneumacat, @saulanton1

Built From Permanence and Return: Pre-Engineered Metal Building (PEMB) by Carlos Baez, Aidan Cannon, Keyshawn Lewis & Ty Blumberg, M.Arch. ‘26
Kansas State University & Washington University in St. Louis | Advisor: David Dowell

Founded as a nonprofit organization in 1976, The Land Institute (TLI) is committed to researching and developing food production methods that sustain the land and soil, a precious resource in an increasingly precarious state around the globe.

“The history of Earth-abuse through agriculture has been horrendous. Essentially, all of nature’s ecosystems are perennial polycultures. Agriculture reversed that. Consequently, soil erosion became a problem. The wilderness has to become a standard against which we judge our agricultural and cultural practices.”

–Wes Jackson, co-founder, The Land Institute.

In this fast-paced, intensive and collaborative studio, we were asked by The Land Institute to reimagine the original implements barn, hand-built by Wes, as a New Event Barn to host TLI’s annual Prairie Festival and as a Welcome Center to acknowledge TLI’s increasingly important role as a destination and public gathering place for people seeking inspiration in regenerative agriculture best practices. Prairie Festival is currently on hold and will reemerge in September 2026. The work of this studio helps define what that looks like, as a direct application of ideas generated this fall and as a longer-term vision.

This is a real project, located in native mixed-grass prairie north of TLI’s research facilities. Our work started in August 2025 with understanding context – history, site environmental conditions, barn vernacular, innovative material and structural systems. We worked with environmental consultants, architects, landscape architects, scientists, contractors, TLI staff and leadership to program, design and prototype multiple visions for this important new facility, for a groundbreaking institution. TLI’s executive director, Rachel Stroer, challenged us to create an architectural approach and model that parallels The Land Institute’s ethos of regenerative problem solving.

This work, a shared production from graduate architecture students at Washington University in St. Louis’s Sam Fox School and Kansas State University’s College of Architecture, Planning and Design, contains evidence of our diverse responses to this challenge. Organized collaborations between universities ebbed and flowed throughout the semester. Presented here are a range of proposals organized around core constructive materials – rammed earth, dimensional lumber, stone, steel, reclaimed barns, mass timber and pre-engineered metal.

It’s been an eye-opening semester for a host of reasons, not the least of which is processing the challenge of what constitutes regenerative architecture, what stories materials offer both in terms of what’s currently given and where design and construction industries could and must evolve.

The core problem The Land Institute has in its crosshairs is ten thousand years in the making. To have a chance for architecture to both participate in problem solving with TLI and to embody their core values, we have to look not only at what is, but also imagine what will be.

The use of a Pre-Engineered Metal Building (PEMB) system represents a sustainable and contextually appropriate material choice. PEMB structures are highly material-efficient, minimizing waste through factory fabrication and precise sizing of structural components. The steel system is durable, recyclable, and designed for long life spans with minimal maintenance. Additionally, the large clear-span capability reduces the need for interior supports, allowing flexible program use while optimizing material performance. In a prairie environment such as Salina, the PEMB system responds effectively to climate, wind loads, and expansive site conditions, making it both an environmentally responsible and pragmatic construction solution.

For the second material strategy, straw bales were introduced to help define and organize interior spaces within the PEMB event barn. Rather than functioning as permanent walls, the straw bales are envisioned as modular partition elements that can be manipulated, rearranged, and reconfigured based on the needs of different events. This approach allows the interior to remain flexible while maintaining the openness of the primary structure. In addition to spatial definition, the use of straw bales provides on-site storage when not in use as partitions, reinforcing the building’s agricultural character while supporting adaptability, material efficiency, and reuse.

Instagram: @c_los1812, @keyshawn._, @ksudesignmake

Tandem – Agri-Food Innovation Centre by Regina Ortega, B.Arch. ’26
Universidad Anáhuac Querétaro | Advisors: Jorge Javier, Patricia Cutiño, Federico Hernández, Álvaro de los Cobos & Guillermo Márquez

Located in Los Olvera, Corregidora, Querétaro, Tandem addresses an activity deeply rooted in the region’s economic and social identity: meat production, processing, and commercialization. While the meat industry is vital to Mexico’s agri-food sector, fragmented processes often limit growth for local merchants, producers, and entrepreneurs.

Tandem proposes a new architectural typology that unifies innovation, education, and production within a single infrastructure. Rather than operating as a conventional, specialized building, it serves as a knowledge-exchange platform where butchers, producers, students, researchers, and industry partners collaborate to strengthen this regional economic pillar.

Crucially, the facility is not a slaughterhouse; it does not involve animal sacrifice. Pre-certified meat arrives from authorized facilities for reception, sanitary inspection, cold storage, processing, research, and commercialization. This operational shift allows Tandem to focus on professionalizing the production chain through technical training, process certification, value-added product development, and technology transfer.

The architectural program includes meat-processing facilities, laboratories, innovation workshops, training classrooms, coworking spaces, an auditorium, and commercial areas. The spatial organization balances educational and sanitary requirements, separating clean from contaminated zones to guarantee food safety while distinguishing productive areas from learning environments. The layout of the building volumes visualizes the synergy between production, innovation, and education, transforming architecture into a tool for knowledge transfer.

Tandem aims to boost the local economy by supporting sector formalization, driving entrepreneurship, and fostering collaboration between producers, academic institutions, and specialized corporations to enhance regional competitiveness.

Structurally, the project features glued laminated timber (GLT) made from radiata pine and exposed concrete. This material combination balances industrial efficiency, sustainability, and spatial quality. 

Ultimately, Tandem offers a replicable model of productive infrastructure that transforms a traditional trade into a platform for innovation, economic development, and social cohesion in Querétaro.

Instagram: @regina_ortegaz, @arquitectura_anahuac, @arqwave

Celebrating the Prairie, Modular Heavy Timber by Pony Alongkornvilai, Abi Bauman, Aleah Delgado, Cheyenne Granahan & Lindsay Miller, M.Arch. ’26

Kansas State University & Washington University in St. Louis | Advisor: David Dowell

Founded as a nonprofit organization in 1976, The Land Institute (TLI) is committed to researching and developing food production methods that sustain the land and soil, a precious resource in an increasingly precarious state around the globe.

“The history of Earth-abuse through agriculture has been horrendous. Essentially, all of nature’s ecosystems are perennial polycultures. Agriculture reversed that. Consequently, soil erosion became a problem. The wilderness has to become a standard against which we judge our agricultural and cultural practices.”

–Wes Jackson, co-founder, The Land Institute.

In this fast-paced, intensive and collaborative studio, we were asked by The Land Institute to reimagine the original implements barn, hand-built by Wes, as a New Event Barn to host TLI’s annual Prairie Festival and as a Welcome Center to acknowledge TLI’s increasingly important role as a destination and public gathering place for people seeking inspiration in regenerative agriculture best practices. Prairie Festival is currently on hold and will reemerge in September 2026. The work of this studio helps define what that looks like, as a direct application of ideas generated this fall and as a longer-term vision.

This is a real project, located in native mixed-grass prairie north of TLI’s research facilities. Our work started in August 2025 with understanding context – history, site environmental conditions, barn vernacular, innovative material and structural systems. We worked with

environmental consultants, architects, landscape architects, scientists, contractors, TLI staff and leadership to program, design and prototype multiple visions for this important new facility, for a groundbreaking institution.

TLI’s executive director, Rachel Stroer, challenged us to create an architectural approach and model that parallels The Land Institute’s ethos of regenerative problem solving.

This booklet, a shared production from graduate architecture students at Washington University in St. Louis’s Sam Fox School and Kansas State University’s College of Architecture, Planning and Design, contains evidence of our diverse responses to this challenge. Organized collaborations between universities ebbed and flowed throughout the semester. Presented here are a range of proposals organized around core constructive materials – rammed earth, dimensional lumber, stone, steel, reclaimed barns, mass timber and pre-engineered metal.

It’s been an eye-opening semester for a host of reasons, not the least of which is processing the challenge of what constitutes regenerative architecture, what stories materials offer both in terms of what’s currently given and where design and construction industries could and must evolve. The core problem The Land Institute has in its crosshairs is ten thousand years in the making. To have a chance for architecture to both participate in problem solving with TLI and to embody their core values, we have to look not only at what is, but also imagine what will be.

Keeping The Land Institute (TLI) principles in mind, we propose a space designed to celebrate the prairie through thoughtful design in terms of environment, form, and material. We strive to develop a relationship between building and prairie, while accommodating

the diverse range of programming that the building will support throughout the year.

The project proposes a modular construction method where systems are composed of standardized and repeatable components. There are many benefits to this construction process.

Cross-Laminated-Timber (CLT) is the proposed structural material. CLT provides two directions of structural reinforcement. It additionally has environmental, sustainable, and atmospheric qualities that achieve the goal of the overarching driving concept of the project.

A prairie green roof is proposed to camouflage the built structure into the landscape, alongside environmental benefits. Along with recognizing some of the values of TLI, we

have also incorporated the six design principles identified by TLI Masterplan author, MASS Design Group:

Establishing the Commons

Deepening Roots

Designing for a Public Threshold

Solving for Service

Phasing Campus Evolution

Designed with and for the Land

Instagram: @poniebuoy, @aleahdelgado, @cheyennegranahan, @dysynchronized, @lindsay_miller4045, @ksudesignmake

House & Garden by Lola Garvie, BS. in Arch. ’26
University of Virginia | Advisor: WG Clark

A radical transformation of the suburban home has been in order for decades. The current house-and-yard model provides little more than a place to sleep, while sprawling development continues to consume land and reinforce dependence on centralized food systems. Yet the immense infrastructure supporting American suburbia makes wholesale restructuring impractical, and displacing residents would be both unethical and unnecessary. Instead, meaningful change can begin at the scale of the individual home.

House & Garden proposes a new suburban housing typology that integrates the house and yard into a productive garden, drawing from successful models of urban agriculture. On a standard suburban lot, this deployable single-family housing system challenges conventional suburban planning and capitalist food markets by combining domestic living with highly productive farming.

The house is pushed to one edge of the site, freeing up to 80% of the lot for in-ground agricultural production. A single scaffolding-like superstructure contains all the systems necessary to support both the family and the farm. After the superstructure is assembled, housing and farming components are installed according to each family’s needs. A living room might sit near the entrance for families who frequently host guests or farther back for greater privacy. As families grow, the home can expand within the superstructure, which may be sized in anticipation of future needs.

This adaptable system allows individual families interested in sustainability and reform to have responsibility in the production of their own food while remaining rooted in their communities. For some, the garden remains a private extension of the home; for others, it becomes a shared neighborhood resource. While one family may adopt the model independently, entire streets could gradually transform, creating communities that live, cultivate, and grow together. Rather than replacing suburbia, House & Garden reimagines it from within, offering an economically viable framework for a more sustainable and resilient American dream.

Instagram: @lola_garvie, @aschool_uva

Old Barns, New Roots by Quinn Adam, Krista Gerstner, Carter Grothusen & Zach Toth, M.Arch. ’26
Kansas State University & Washington University in St. Louis | Advisor: David Dowell

Our initial meetings with TLI revealed a sensibility with the land that must be kept paramount in our intervention. The existing is the landscape, and the dichotomy of old against new must be made as a backdrop towards the greater landscape. The material for the semester chosen was reclaimed timber, initially as a strategy of salvage and on-site construction within the prairie, embracing the carbon neutrality benefits that emerge with an active reuse of existing wooden structure. But, as the course progressed, the strategy morphed into one of true adaptive reuse in the preservation and readaptation of two historic barns found available on the market. We propose that the barns can be readily moved onto the site, stripped of their old weathered cladding, braced with new structural interventions, and made new with simple but dynamic design decisions that continue to frame the existing landscape. The barns should support each other in anticipation of the Prairie Festival, but also set a tone for a surprisingly cost-efficient method of building that could potentially be expanded upon for the future of the Land Institute’s mission for the site. We are living in the age of the Anthropocene, and as such, we need to crystallize solutions that rethink our traditional methods of building, which align with the disruption that TLI hopes to create in the perennial agricultural industry.

Instagram: @quinnadam_design, @z.othhh, @kristagerstner, @cartire_31, @ksudesignmake

Stay tuned for Part VI!

2026 Study Architecture Student Showcase - Part IV

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The materials that make up a building tell a story. From mass timber and aluminum to masonry and polycarbonate, building materials play a large role in the functionality and sustainability of a space. Part IV of the 2026 Study Architecture Student Showcase features projects that explore materiality in great detail. Each featured project demonstrates how materiality plays a large role in the built environment.

Scroll below to take a look!

F[3] by Daniela Cantu, Staci Collins, Timotei Dudas, Ana Gaytan, Robert Guerrero, Steve Gutierrez, Luis Horcasitas, Samiha Mahzabeen, Moises Pereyra, Garrett Rodriguez & Alfredo Sanchez, B.Arch. ‘26
University of Texas at San Antonio | Advisor: Armando Araiza

F[3] was designed for the entrance of a design studio, the moment before a visitor reaches a reception desk, where the space needs to do one thing immediately: signal what design, at its best, is capable of. It’s meant to be intriguing and inviting from the first glance.

The project was approached as an open question: how far could a single material be pushed before it told you what it wanted to become? The installation is a statement about the next generation of designers, showing what students can produce when they’re given the license to experiment with material, craft, and technology.

That experimentation started with understanding the material. Before any geometry was fixed, a materials board took shape: reflective dichroic film, aluminum composite and honeycomb panels, mirrored acrylic, woven textiles, faceted and wave-relief surfaces, twin-wall polycarbonate, each one tested on its own terms, for its color, its stiffness, its rigidity once folded, with a set of tests built around whatever qualities that material actually offered. The built project is positioned beside three large south-facing windows, the twin-wall polycarbonate had to do more than fold well, it had to carry and diffuse daylight, letting sun stream through its faceted surfaces and animate the space over the course of a day. Out of that process, the material stood out, for its structural rigidity once folded, for the quality of light it let through, and for how that same rigidity let individual modules interlock with one another directly, with minimal hardware. That discovery, not a predetermined shape, became the generative logic of the project. The faceted form of F[3] is a direct expression of what that material wanted to do once bent along a channeled crease.

Instagram: @armando_araiza

From Seeds to Architecture: Reducing the Carbon Footprint Through Bio-Based Materials – Hemp Innovation & Research Center by Adrián Vargas-Galloza, B. Arch. ‘26
Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico | Advisors: Luis V. Badillo-Lozano & Pedro A. Rosario-Torres

Conventional construction is one of the main contributors to environmental impact, significantly increasing carbon emissions, natural resource consumption, and waste generation. This approach relies on standard methods and materials that have been widely accepted and used for many years. However, these materials are often non-renewable, require high energy consumption for their production, and have a considerable environmental impact. In this context, bio-based materials are presented as a sustainable alternative to reduce the ecological footprint of buildings and promote more responsible practices in the construction industry.

As environmental regulations become stricter and social awareness about climate change increases, the construction industry is faced with an urgent need to adapt. In this sense, bio-based materials provide an opportunity for the sector to evolve towards a more sustainable future. These initiatives not only mitigate the negative impacts of construction, but also promote a positive change in the way architects design, aligning construction practices with global sustainability goals.

The creation of research centers dedicated to studying and developing new solutions based on these materials is essential to face current environmental challenges. These centers can become key platforms for innovation and the advancement of technologies that not only reduce environmental impact, but also promote more efficient and responsible construction practices.

It’s very important to mitigate the climate change that has affected humanity so much, by developing new ways of constructing buildings in a more sustainable way. This is where the future of construction lies, and being a pioneer in it provides the tools to take and create the first design rules of a new emerging style that is responsive to the problems that are experienced in the present and that will continue to affect the future. Now is the time to detect the peak of this immense wave that is approaching and to position correctly in this new industry of bio-based materials that is approaching.

myBRIC: Structural Characterization of Mycelium-Reinforced 3D-Printed Clay with Embedded Recycled Brick Debris by James Hoppe, M.Arch. ‘26
Lawrence Technological University | Advisor: Scott Shall

Masonry construction and demolition debris represent two of the largest offenders of embodied carbon loss in current waste streams. Fired clay brick, despite its durability and material value, has only a 12% reintegration rate into the built environment due to economic and logistical barriers associated with removing intact units from a mortared masonry assembly (EPA 2020). As a result, the most common and viable method of brick reclamation is when it is in a debris form, usually used as concrete aggregate and road subbase (Christen et al. 2022; Fořt and Černý 2020).

Fortunately, recent technological innovations are increasing our ability to reclaim masonry rubble in more varied and sophisticated ways (Dodampegama et al. 2024). In particular, 3D clay extrusion and mycelium material technology pose a great potential to effect a change in the practice of brick reconstitution (Pasupathy et al. 2023).

This research investigates the material feasibility of reconstituting brick demolition waste through the gradual substitution of virgin clay with pulverized reclaimed brick in 3D clay extrusions. A controlled series of printed clay modules is produced by incrementally replacing virgin clay content with recycled brick material to investigate embodied

energy, cost, and time in their production while achieving a baseline module strength. Building upon prior work in digitally manufactured mycelium-ceramic composites, the study further examines the capacity of mycelium growth within these modules to restore cohesion and structural performance lost through recycled content substitution (Jauk et al. 2022). By coupling recycled masonry content with mycelium reinforcement strategies, this research proposes a fabrication workflow that repositions brick debris as a viable feedstock for sustainable architectural materials.

Click here to take a closer look.

This project received the 2026 LTU CoAD Dean’s Award and the 2026 LTU CoAD Alumni Award.

Instagram: @scott_shall

Autophagic Sacrifice – The Self-Consuming Host by Anderson Qi Han Zheng, B.Arch. ’26
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | Advisor: Ryosuke Imaeda

As social beings, we value reciprocal effort. We attempt to apply this to the relationship between buildings and inhabitants, but it often falls into pure functionalism. Instead of seeing them as host and guest, what if architecture is to be self-consumed? In this framework, the material lifecycle is inadvertently promoted by human activities acting as a catalyst. This project examines material reutilization as autophagy, a system consuming its own substance to maintain its presence.

The project framing draws from two theoretical references. Stanley Cook evaluates voluntary sacrifice as a moral and social tradition guided by logical reasoning. Harvey Whitehouse addresses the irrational and emotional side of self-inflicted harm. One embraces the logical necessity of a small loss for greater gain, while the other suggests that the loss itself is a means of realizing one’s identity.

This project takes a position of self-consumption as not a permanent loss, but a way to reactivate the field through material exchange. Located within Idumota Market in Lagos, Nigeria, the project proposes a market structure that absorbs and repurposes plastic waste circulating in its surrounding environment. The host here is not limited to the architectural structure but also includes the vendors who maintain and associate their lives closely with the market. Discarded plastics, primarily plastic bags, are collected by vendors from nearby streets, gutters, and waste areas as part of routine maintenance rather than being intentionally returned by shoppers to be reused as construction materials in the market. Through a process of controlled heat, the plastic shrinks and binds carved wooden joints together. This allows the host to continuously and locally reconstruct itself without external materials. The design utilizes a modular joint system that gives individual vendors autonomy while maintaining structural consistency, apparent through the undulating canopy system, uncovering the structure while enriching spatial circulation from descending drapings. As a circular system, what is once lost may return and be metabolized into another form, gradually rejuvenating the neighborhood, while passively making the day-to-day users aware that such a loss- a transformation cycle- has been occurring seamlessly amidst the bustling streets of the outdoor market.

This project was awarded the Architectural Research Centers Consortium’s (ARCC) King Student Medal for Excellence in Architectural + Environmental Design Research. 

Instagram: @aqhz.architecture, @ryoimaeda 

THE TIMBER STAGE: Design Proposal for Virginia Tech’s Mass Timber Theater by Z. A. Saleh Zebermai, M.Arch. ’26
Virginia Tech Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center | Advisors: Ezgi Isbilen, Paul Emmons & Susan Piedmont-Palladino

This thesis is a design proposal for a theater complex for Virginia Tech’s extended campuses in the Washington, D.C. region. Despite Virginia Tech’s growing footprint and increasing student numbers in Northern Virginia, the school does not have space for graduation ceremonies. [This] proposed project matches the need and Virginia Tech’s presentation in this area as a forerunner of innovative sustainable practices. 

Consequently, the project investigates the potential of mass timber as a structural and building material for a large space like a theater. The thesis begins with finding the appropriate site through an analytical urban study of the City of Alexandria. Comparing access, distance, relevance, future projection and other factors, the proposed site is at Potomac Yard, near the metro station and Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus. Then, a detailed study of the site investigates its urban potential and the observations are translated into design strategies for further development about the building form, urban spaces, orientation and directions.

Investigation of mass timber as a building material revisits the study of ancient timber roof building techniques of the Norwegian Churches, searching for the relationship between the shipbuilding techniques and the large-span timber truss system, which can be interpreted to modern buildings along with the latest technological development in the mass timber industry. Timber can be used for both technical and aesthetic purposes. The comparative study showed how mass timber is the appropriate material for the context considering sustainability, carbon footprint, material quality, sourcing, etc.

Although a large part of the program of the proposed design is the Commencement Event for Virginia Tech, there are other flexible functions of the building which serve the community on a regular basis. A high-performance building facing a large open Public Plaza creates a dialogue between the current innovation campus building through an axis of pedestrian movement.

Additionally, this project explores solar gain through a double-layered exposed timber screen, modular timber construction and joining details, Biophilic indoor shadow patterns, smooth circulation for a large gathering and the technical aspects of a high-performance theater space. Combining all the design considerations, the thesis proposes a meaningful public building which serves Virginia Tech as well as the local community.

This project received an Honorable Mention for the 2026 WAAC Thesis Prize.

Instagram: @saleh.zebermai, @vt_waac, @e_isbilen

Phong Nha Karst Gallery by Tai Le, M.Arch. ’26
Carnegie Mellon University | Advisor: Laura Garofalo

Tai Le’s Phong Nha Karst Gallery integrates visitor services at the entry of one of the most historically significant and complex karst environments in Asia. The Phong Nha Karst Gallery is located along the Son River at the threshold of Phong Nha–Kẻ Bàng National Park in the Quảng Bình region of Vietnam. These environments are formed by the dissolution of soluble bedrock, creating multi-scalar linked caverns. The building is conceived as a set of blocks linked to create interconnected spaces through a soft flowing volume, translating the dissolution logic of karst formation into a rhythmic sequence of compression and expansion within a clearly manmade form.

Following a set of material explorations of aggregation and erosion, the exterior of the blocks is also manipulated, revealing a softer skin of 3D-printed terra cotta modules set back into the concrete volumes. Composed of bespoke ventilated blocks, this softer layer diffuses the tropical sun and allows for natural ventilation, improving thermal comfort and reducing the thermal load of the mechanical systems. This bioclimatic filter of light and air also hosts vegetation, allowing the building to evolve into an extension of the biome. 

You can learn more about this initiative here and here. 

Instagram: @taile.just.arch, @lauragarofalo

Stay tuned for Part V!

2026 Study Architecture Student Showcase - Part III

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Part III of the 2026 Study Architecture Student Showcase features projects that demonstrate how design can advance sustainability in creative ways. Each design highlights the connection between architecture, the environment, and wellbeing. From sustainable frameworks for building, deconstructing, and designing to self-sustaining ecosystems and climate-resistant crops, these outstanding student capstones will inspire generations to come. 

Take a closer look below!

How the Strategic Integration of Biology and Architecture Can Help Us Generate an Ecological Balance Between the Built Environment, Natural and Social Systems by Francisco J. Monroig-Torres, B. Arch. ‘26
Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico | Advisors: Pedro A. Rosario-Torres & Ligia Saldaña-Martorell

Although many of us see architecture as an isolated object, the reality is that architecture is not separate from nature; every building we create changes the environment around it. This interaction can support balance or cause damage. Today, cities grow fast, often without planning, and as a result, ecosystems are fragmented, air and water are polluted, and biodiversity declines. These issues show that the way we design and build must change. To move forward, we need strategies that connect biology and architecture in a clear and functional way.

Biology studies how life systems work, adapt, and stay in balance. Architecture organizes human activity into space. When these two fields are combined, buildings and cities can function more like living systems. Concepts such as Ian McHarg’s ecological overlays, Richard Forman’s urban ecology, Edward O. Wilson’s biophilia, and Ken Yeang’s eco-architecture all show how design can respond to natural processes instead of working against them. Each framework highlights that human well-being depends on the health of ecosystems. Architecture that integrates light, vegetation, water, and natural flows not only reduces harm but also restores connections between people and nature.

In Puerto Rico and in cities across the world, the impacts of pollution and urban growth show the cost of ignoring ecological limits. By using biology as a guide, architecture can create solutions that reduce energy demand, protect biodiversity, and improve public health. This research explores how the strategic integration of these two disciplines can generate ecological balance, ensuring that the built environment supports both natural systems and human communities.

Reframing Waste by Tom Stankowski, M.Arch. ’26
University of Utah | Advisor: Valerie Chang Greer

This project showcases the potential reclaimed waste material can have in the built environment by creating an architectural design from almost entirely reclaimed and waste materials. [Reframing Waste examines] how design can adapt to available materials rather than dictate them, reframing the architect’s role from one of selection to one of stewardship. The work ultimately seeks to demonstrate how waste-based construction can promote sustainable practices and reimagine material waste as a source of architectural innovation rather than environmental degradation. To expand upon the research, the design aims to be a vessel to study the building’s performance and the upside waste usage in architectural design can have on overall performance. In turn, this can be used to help promote more sustainable demolition and deconstruction practices that help to mitigate the amount of waste that ends up in landfills on a yearly basis.

This site is located on campus that pushes creativity and material testing, and allows for exploration outside the standard and conventional construction methods. As a programmatic component of this thesis, a zero waste center offers a direct extension of the research agenda by transforming the campus’s existing surplus of construction scrap and reclaimed materials into an active site of architectural experimentation, education, and stewardship. Rather than treating waste as a byproduct to be removed, the center positions material recovery, sorting, and reuse as visible and integral processes within the built environment.

This project won the Faculty Award for Best Final Studio Project.

Instagram: @tps.arch, @valeriechanggreer

Designed for Demolition, Rethought for Reuse by Pauline Barsegyan, B.Arch. ‘26
New York Institute of Technology | Advisor: Farzana Gandhi

Designed for Demolition, Rethought for Reuse critiques the waste generated through demolition, as well as the facilities used to process that waste, and incentivizes reuse through design for material reuse, design for adaptability, and design for disassembly. This project builds on rigorous research of innovative systems by proposing a new connector that reduces reliance on material penetration and tests it in a new facility that encourages public engagement with these processes in the neighborhood of Sunset Park, Brooklyn, NY. 

Demolition is one of the greatest global contributors to waste generation in the construction industry. Most of that debris could have been repurposed or reused, but is instead combusted, landfilled, or downcycled. 

The facilities used to manage this debris are generally not designed to engage with the public in a meaningful way. Localized efforts at reusing building materials are more successful at doing so while facilitating reuse, but are less impactful because of their local nature. 

Another important side to the issue is building design. Modern buildings are designed with complex envelopes, systems, and connections, making it difficult to take them apart and reuse their materials. 

One design strategy that has emerged to challenge this pattern is design for disassembly. Buildings designed in this manner can be easily taken apart and their components reused in a new building. Another is designing for material reuse, sourcing waste, excess, or salvage materials for a project. Designing for adaptability is a third strategy that challenges the notion of designing for obsoletion by facilitating programmatic flexibility through design.  Combining these approaches at different building scales can magnify the impact of waste reduction, and this is the line of inquiry I pursued with this project. To accomplish this, I designed a reuse campus in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, NY, centered on an addition bridging two existing buildings.

Most of the addition is held together with non-penetrating connectors designed for reused wood, inspired by many other connectors previously designed for disassembly. I hope this project will inspire more designers to incorporate material reuse and design-for-disassembly strategies into their projects, and to help mitigate the effects of demolition.

Instagram: @fg_architecture

Roots of Resilience by Ana Sofia Botero & Sandy Cruz Falcon, B.Arch. ’26
Cal Poly Pomona University | Advisor: Pablo La Roche

[In Roots of Resilience,] culture activates the grounds by embedding Mayan roots of ecology, community and traditions and creating a bridge between people and landscape. Through everyday civic life, this project creates a space that transforms into a living system of learning, collective strength and healing. 

Instagram: @sandyyycruz, @anasofia_botero, @pmlaroche

Hale Hanauna by Gabriel Argote, B.S. Arch. ’26
University of the District of Columbia | Advisor: Dr. Golnar Ahmadi

Hale Hanauna — “Home of Generations” — is a multigenerational living community designed for the University of Hawai’i at Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawai’i. Rooted in Hawaiian cultural values and a deep respect for the land, the project fosters connection, learning, and well-being through shared spaces that bring students and the broader community together across generations. The building is organized in a push-and-pull design centered around a series of landscaped courtyards, with breezeways and open corridors that weave together indoor and outdoor life. Public and communal programs are distributed across all floors, while residential units — warm, flexible studios finished in natural materials — sit primarily on the second floor for privacy. Passive strategies shaped by the Hilo climate, including cross-ventilation from trade winds, deep roof overhangs for rain and sun protection, generous daylighting, and careful solar orientation, create a durable, low-energy framework. Fully accessible and built from a palette of natural, locally resonant materials, Hale Hanauna offers a resilient model for culturally grounded, intergenerational living.

Instagram: @Golnarahmadi

KAMP-BU: Climate-Resilient Regenerative Kampung Design in Curug, Indonesia by Devabhadra Haridas, Hana Checketts, Jamie Van Etten, Enoch Salvo, Bunga Assipa Wulandari & Muhummad Irsyad Ariaputra, B.Arch. ’26
University of Florida | Advisors: Aoife Houlihan Wiberg (Studio Lead) Beta Paramitha (UPI), with input from Ulfa Kun Aulia (PhD Researcher); Ryan Amsel (Masters student)

Climate change is intensifying pressures—floods, heat waves, sea-level rise, and land subsidence—on vulnerable communities worldwide, often resulting in compounding, cascading effects such as three times-a-day flooding in some villages. This is the context for the 2026 ZERO Indonesia Design studio, a joint UF-UPI Indonesia collaboration fostering Global North-South knowledge exchange, and part of PARCS (Participatory Approaches for Regenerative Climate Solutions), an internationally funded research project co-creating climate resilience strategies in three living labs: Medellín, Port Arthur, and Indramayu Regency, Indonesia.

The studio focused on Khandanghaur, on Java’s north coast of Indonesia, and ran in two phases: knowledge-building through global case studies and design sprints, then design deployment, where joint teams created Zero Emission Neighborhood plans incorporating vernacular design, local cultural traditions, embodied carbon analysis, and regenerative principles.

The featured student project, Kamp-Bu, is sited in Curug, an inland rice-farming village destabilized by El Niño/La Niña-driven droughts and floods that disrupt planting cycles and threaten food security. Kamp-Bu extends the existing Farmer’s Association into a climate field school teaching weather-data literacy, while promoting diversified land use—drought-resistant Palawija crops, jackfruit trees, and bamboo—to reduce reliance on water-intensive rice.

The design is organized into three zones: a Production Zone with a bamboo fabrication workshop for construction training and upskilling; a Transitional Zone with a guesthouse for residential course students, social pavilion, and local food stalls; and a Domestic and Sacred Zone featuring a Qibla-oriented Musholla (for praying) and local residences. Construction varies by typology—earth walls for thermal mass in some buildings, bamboo framing with traditional techniques for lattice walls and Javanese Joglo roofs in others—enabling passive cooling and natural ventilation. Foundations use rice husk ash concrete, repurposing locally available agricultural waste.

Kamp-Bu offers a spatial and material response to agricultural instability in Curug, integrating climate education, diversified land use, and locally sourced construction within a kampung framework. By extending the Farmers Association into a production-transitional-domestic/sacred sequence, the project creates a gradient of learning, making, and living that supports both agricultural resilience and community exchange. Bamboo and earth serve as primary materials for their environmental performance and their role in building a local economy tied to cultivation and craft—fostering a self-sustaining system responsive to long-term climate instability.

You can learn more about this initiative here and here. 

Sac Actun Research Library by Sergio Grajeda, B.A.A. ’26
University of New Mexico | Advisor: Karen J. King

In 2018, Mexican President Manuel Lopez Obrador announced that before the end of his presidency, the Yucatán Peninsula would see a rail network with the aim of modernization, connectivity and economic growth. Section 5, which spans the length from Cancun to Tulum, runs through a fragile underground cave system and the largest underground river in the world, Sac Actun. This meant that viaducts would be needed to sustain an elevated foundation to avoid the fragile ecosystems underneath. Obrador promised that “not a single tree would be cut down” and that every proper testing procedure was taking place. The project was met with immense criticism and opposition; injunctions were filed and a judge ordered to stop construction of Section 5 until proper testing was done. Obrador felt the pressure and turned the project into a matter of national emergency, which helped the project avoid testing and transparency while continuing construction. In August 2025, biologist and cave diving expert Roberto Rojo navigated the cave systems beneath the Tulum Train Station and discovered that 80’ tall Steel Pillars with a diameter of 4’ were penetrating the fragile Karst Limestone and polluting the pristine underground river. It’s estimated that 15,000 Steel Pillars are deployed across the peninsula to support the train infrastructure. Additionally, an estimated 25,000 archaeological pieces were destroyed along the way during construction. Coverage of the issue was censored. 

The Sac Actun Research Library will house water samples collected by eco-tourists and expert divers, exposing the disinformation campaign. The collection will serve to bring the pollution of the Sistema Sac Actun to light. 

This project won the UNM SA+P Undergraduate Excellence in Design award. 

Instagram: @sgc_arch, @conundrum63

Cohabiting the Air: The Aerie as Architecture for Human–Drone Interaction by Lianbin Xu, M.Arch. ’26
Virginia Tech Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center | Advisors: Paul Emmons, chair, Susan Piedmont-Palladino, Ezgi Isbilen

Throughout history, new systems of mobility have transformed not only cities but also the ways architecture organizes space and human experience. Railways redefined urban growth, elevators enabled vertical living, and automobiles reshaped patterns of settlement and circulation. As drones introduce a new aerial dimension to everyday movement, architecture is once again confronted with questions of access, spatial hierarchy, visibility, privacy, and social interaction.

While drones have been widely discussed as logistical tools and technological infrastructure, their architectural implications remain largely unexplored. Unlike previous transportation systems that occupied streets, rail corridors, or enclosed circulation networks, drones operate within a shared aerial realm that is simultaneously visible, dynamic, and difficult to define through conventional architectural boundaries. Their presence introduces new relationships between ground and sky, public and private space, human activity and autonomous systems.

Located in Tysons, Virginia, this thesis asks how architecture might respond when aerial space becomes an active layer of everyday life. Through the design of a high-density mixed-use tower combining residential, retail, and telehealth programs, the project investigates how aerial mobility may reshape amenities, public and private boundaries, and new forms of interaction between people, technology, and space.

Ultimately, The Aerie proposes a framework for understanding drones not simply as tools of efficiency, but as agents capable of reshaping patterns of inhabitation and social life. The project argues that architecture should actively shape how technological innovation is experienced, fostering new forms of coexistence, community, and everyday engagement in an increasingly connected future.

This project was a finalist for the 2026 WAAC Thesis Prize. 

Instagram: @lianbin2024, @vt_waac, @e_isbilen

Stay tuned for Part IV!

2026 Study Architecture Student Showcase - Part II

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How can technology and AI transform architecture? Today’s installment of the 2026 Study Architecture Student Showcase explores how technology and AI can evolve the future of architecture and design. These outstanding projects feature innovative building technologies, proposals for adaptive digital systems, generative AI frameworks, and more.

Alpine Assembly: Research, Rescue, and Dwelling in Exposure by Sarah Carpenter, M. Arch. ‘26
Wentworth Institute of Technology | Advisor: Anne-Catrin Schultz & John Ellis

Survival has shifted in the contemporary world to be intensely dependent on unseen systems – communication networks, emergency services, supply chains – while denying the authenticity and poetics of experience in the natural world. While the contemporary design world prioritizes rapid development and aesthetic qualities over site integration, weatherproofing, and passive design strategies, designing through the lens of a hostile site reveals how architecture’s role shifts from serving merely as a shelter to becoming a dwelling that withstands intense exterior elements. Mt. Washington’s Presidential Range has the highest fatalities per vertical foot in the world, experiencing the most hostile environmental conditions in the world in an isolated, resourceless geography. Through a system of adaptable, modular layouts and an additive catalog of prefabricated assemblies responsive to site conditions and predicting changing hostility, architecture becomes reactive and adaptable to a changing climate while exploring the role of controlled systems in isolated environments.

Click here to take a closer look at the project

Instagram: @sarahcarpenter_design

Formation by Rachel Truong, Kevin Sheth & Mathew Shaji Kuzhimannil, M.Arch. ’26
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Advisor: Yun Kyu Yi

Advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence have introduced generative tools in the visual arts that can produce images from simple text prompts, challenging long-held assumptions about creativity and expertise. As these technologies mature, they raise critical questions about authorship, agency, and the future role of architects in the design process. This studio engages these questions by investigating how AI might function not merely as a representational aid, but as an active design generator, and by examining how the role of the architect may evolve in response.

Within this broader inquiry, our work focuses on Susung-gu, and more specifically on the Deulan Art Village—an area currently undergoing efforts toward renewal and transformation. Guided by this year’s biennale theme, “The Living Ground of History, Culture, and Existence,” we approached the site as a layered cultural landscape shaped by time, memory, and everyday life. Through an AI-driven design process, we sought to identify and interpret local identities embedded within the area, translating them into architectural form. These identities became generative forces, informing building shapes that are both distinctive and deeply rooted in their context.

Rooted in the site yet expressive in character, the resulting architecture aspires to serve as an inviting landmark and gathering place—one capable of drawing people not only from the local community, but from across the country and beyond, while supporting the Deulan Art Village’s long-term sustainability and its potential to serve as a model for future cultural revitalization.

This project received an honorable mention for the UIUC School of Architecture Graduate Design Excellence Award.

Instagram: @ral_isoa

Data Body Hacking Towards the Construction of the Everyday by Emily Lavoll, M.Arch. ‘26
University of Tennessee – Knoxville | Advisors: Catty Dan Zhang (Advisor), Carl Lostritto, Avigail Sachs, Jennifer Akerman (Committee Members)

Data bodies are constructs of a continuously surveilled world that act as instruments that cast subjective circumstance through the lens of objectivity. In that casting, a parafiction is produced. A blurring of fact and fiction in which the constructed knowledge of a sensing system is mistaken for truth invades the senses as reality itself. Historically, designers and those in power have leveraged this condition to establish enforcement regimes that define the experience of our everyday, collapsing the complexity of bodies, spaces, and behaviors into categorical systems that benefit those who administer them rather than those who inhabit them.

With the rise of artificial intelligence, which claims to reduce this highly nuanced process to a single operation, it has become imperative for designers to interrogate the objectivity these systems assert. No sensor sees the world the same way, and each sensing device constructs its own particular portrait of reality. While a robot vacuum navigating a porch reads its environment through lidar, its body is simultaneously assumed to be a domestic instrument of comfort through human perception. While video feed footage of a doorbell’s sight claims inciting events, its averaged footage retains only the architecture against which every transient body is measured and ultimately dissolved into noise. These devices do not produce reality; they are portals into the particular fantasy each system was designed to maintain.

At the end of the day, however, we trust them. We welcome these systems into our most intimate thresholds, inviting them to resolve our problems in the aim of producing a domesticated comfort. Through this welcoming, we relinquish the autonomy of our own data, allowing it to be absorbed, averaged, and returned to us as a parafiction we did not author. Where these systems produce noise, we have an obligation to interrogate it, hack it, and produce a new parafiction of reality. In this process, we take back that which was relinquished and return intention to it, developing a reality from which those who live in this everyday are the very same in control of it.

This project was awarded the Robert B. Church III Graduate Thesis Award (Architecture, Best Project) and the Faculty Award of Design Excellence for Graduate Final Project. It was also selected as the representative of the 2026 graduating M.Arch class for inclusion in the “2026 Honors Exhibition,” where it was exhibited in the Ewing Gallery, 1715 Volunteer Boulevard, Knoxville, TN (May 11-15, 2026).

Instagram: @emlavoll, @cattydanzhang, @lostritto, @j_akerman, @avigailsachs

less siteless by Grace Hunt, Brad Machado & Nathan Blaim, M.Arch. ’26
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Advisor: Yun Kyu Yi

Advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence have introduced generative tools in the visual arts that can produce images from simple text prompts, challenging long-held assumptions about creativity and expertise. As these technologies mature, they raise critical questions about authorship, agency, and the future role of architects in the design process. This studio engages these questions by investigating how AI might function not merely as a representational aid, but as an active design generator, and by examining how the role of the architect may evolve in response.

Within this broader inquiry, our work focuses on Susung-gu, and more specifically on the Deulan Art Village—an area currently undergoing efforts toward renewal and transformation. Guided by this year’s biennale theme, “The Living Ground of History, Culture, and Existence,” we approached the site as a layered cultural landscape shaped by time, memory, and everyday life. Through an AI-driven design process, we sought to identify and interpret local identities embedded within the area, translating them into architectural form. These identities became generative forces, informing building shapes that are both distinctive and deeply rooted in their context.

Rooted in the site yet expressive in character, the resulting architecture aspires to serve as an inviting landmark and gathering place—one capable of drawing people not only from the local community, but from across the country and beyond, while supporting the Deulan Art Village’s long-term sustainability and its potential to serve as a model for future cultural revitalization.

Instagram: @3grace3, @bradleymachado, @ral_isoa

Details and Innovation (ARC 6624-New Tech of Building Enclosures) Anaya Britt, Darien Lawrence, Flor Carty, John Williams, Jalyn Lee, Xiaohua Carter & MaryAnn Miller, M.Arch. ’26
Florida A&M University | Advisor: Mahsan Mohsenin

The goal of this project is to enhance students’ understanding of detailed design and technological aspects of building enclosures. This project asks students to make a detailed physical model of ARC Design Integrated Studio, after comparing different enclosure and assembly systems. The students will build a detailed physical model at the scale of 3/4”=1’ of the foundation-to-roof design that was previously explored in the axonometric drawing. The model should present one bay of the building in two directions. 

Instagram: @famusaet

Parametric Patternmaking: Cultural Codes and Contemporary Fabrication by Abbas Ghaffari & Seyedeh Delaram Khoshhal Ziabari, M.Arch. ’26
Tulane University | Advisor: Ammar Eloueini

This thesis explores how Iranian architectural heritage can inform contemporary wearable design through computational fabrication. The project reinterprets muqarnas, a centuries-old system of geometric vaulting, as a generative framework for creating body-scaled structures. 

Drawing on the evolution of Iranian corner-making techniques, the research translates architectural principles into wearable forms using parametric design tools. A recursive symmetry method developed in Grasshopper generates geometries tailored to the human body, balancing complexity with wearability. 

The final collection includes a 3D-printed bodice, a folded skirt inspired by Rasmi-bandi patterns, and a mask, proposing a new dialogue between cultural heritage, digital fabrication, fashion, and architecture. 

You can take a closer look here.

This project received the Outstanding Graduate Thesis Award at the Tulane School of Architecture and Built Environment Diploma Ceremony, May 2026.

Instagram: @abbas.ghaffari, @delaramkhoshhal, @eloueini 

Thermal Bodies by Zachary Barnes, M.Arch.’26
Wentworth Institute of Technology | Advisors: Antonio Furgiuele & Anas Sofan

Across the contemporary built environment, thermal comfort is sustained by concealed mechanical infrastructures that stabilize interior climates while distancing architecture from atmospheric engagement. This condition is particularly pronounced in American suburban housing, with its thermally innate envelopes and intensifying climatic pressures such as rising temperatures, prolonged drought, and environmental instability. This thesis investigates how the operational logics of mechanical conditioning can be reinterpreted as spatial, ceramic-printed systems embedded within existing architectural elements. By reclaiming environmental regulation from concealed equipment and re-situating it within architectural form, the research positions architecture as an active mediator between inhabitants and atmosphere, generating gradients of thermal experience that reshape domestic life.

Through site-specific suburban analysis, thermographic imaging, thermodynamic modeling, and iterative clay fabrication, mechanical principles are translated into passive architectural infrastructures inspired by historical forms such as Persian Badgirs. These investigations evaluate airflow modulation and temperature differentials to construct interior climates through spatial and material means, positioning climate mediation as both a technical and social condition. Applied to existing suburban typologies, the thesis considers framing retrofit as a precise and scalable intervention rather than total replacement, positioning the proposed system not only as a mediator between atmosphere and interior dwelling but also as a cultural and educational tool for the future of the built environment and existing housing stock.

This project won the Edward Allen Student Award and the Design Excellence Award (University Recognition). 

Instagram: @Zachtrist_123, @wentwortharchitecture 

Cohabiting the Air: The Aerie as Architecture for Human–Drone Interaction by Lianbin Xu, M.Arch. ’26
Virginia Tech Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center | Advisors: Paul Emmons, chair, Susan Piedmont-Palladino, Ezgi Isbilen

Throughout history, new systems of mobility have transformed not only cities but also the ways architecture organizes space and human experience. Railways redefined urban growth, elevators enabled vertical living, and automobiles reshaped patterns of settlement and circulation. As drones introduce a new aerial dimension to everyday movement, architecture is once again confronted with questions of access, spatial hierarchy, visibility, privacy, and social interaction.

While drones have been widely discussed as logistical tools and technological infrastructure, their architectural implications remain largely unexplored. Unlike previous transportation systems that occupied streets, rail corridors, or enclosed circulation networks, drones operate within a shared aerial realm that is simultaneously visible, dynamic, and difficult to define through conventional architectural boundaries. Their presence introduces new relationships between ground and sky, public and private space, human activity and autonomous systems.

Located in Tysons, Virginia, this thesis asks how architecture might respond when aerial space becomes an active layer of everyday life. Through the design of a high-density mixed-use tower combining residential, retail, and telehealth programs, the project investigates how aerial mobility may reshape amenities, public and private boundaries, and new forms of interaction between people, technology, and space.

Ultimately, The Aerie proposes a framework for understanding drones not simply as tools of efficiency, but as agents capable of reshaping patterns of inhabitation and social life. The project argues that architecture should actively shape how technological innovation is experienced, fostering new forms of coexistence, community, and everyday engagement in an increasingly connected future.

This project was a finalist for the 2026 WAAC Thesis Prize. 

Instagram: @lianbin2024, @vt_waac, @e_isbilen

Stay tuned for Part III!

2025 Study Architecture Student Showcase - Part IV

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Part IV of the 2025 Study Architecture Student Showcase spotlights architecture in public health. These student projects feature architectural responses to topics, including amputee rehabilitation, incarceration reform, sober living homes, and maternity care. By incorporating holistic, biophilic elements and utilizing various building typologies, each project fosters a supportive and healing environment based on a wide range of community needs.

Browse the projects below for more details!

Rehabilitation and Empowerment for Amputees by Bryan Feliciano-Torres, B.Arch ‘25
Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico | Advisors: Manuel De Lemos-Zuazaga & Pedro A. Rosario-Torres

“R.E.F.A.” is about how architecture can help rehabilitate the lives of limbless people for both upper and lower limb amputations. The research aimed to explore better solutions for prosthetic patients’ recovery, from initial physical therapy until a full recovery. The project expanded on the typical prosthetic clinic program, with three main objectives:

– Prosthetic manufacture and physical rehabilitation for patient care

– Prosthetic research and development for scientific innovations

– Lodging program for traveling patients who seek quality care

Prosthetic patients require a series of training in order to achieve full control over their limb, especially for those who have been amputated for a long time. Not only do they have to go through the process of fitting and adjusting sockets, but they also train their muscle strength, resistance, and balance. This average time spans from one week to three weeks, depending on the patient’s capability and physical condition.

Most prosthetic clinics provide limited space with the essential programs: manufacture, socket fitting, and basic gait training. The patient is then encouraged to train outside on their own terms, only to return later to make changes if needed.

This research sees an opportunity to improve on this by providing all their needs in a single space. These programs are divided into zones:

– Prosthesis: Workshops, storage, and fitting areas

– Physical/Psychological therapy: Aquatic therapy, gym facilities, and therapists’ offices

– Public areas: Gait training, running track, commerce, and restaurant

– Research: Office spaces for rent, laboratories, and conference rooms

– Lodging: Extended stay rooms and lounge

Amputations are becoming more prevalent as time goes on, whether from incidents or diseases. Taking this into account, along with technological improvements, prosthetic clinics have to improve drastically in order to provide everything an amputee needs in order to live independently.

THE TRANSLUCENT FORTRESS by Owen Phillips, B.Arch ’25
Kennesaw State University | Advisor: Robin Puttock

THESIS QUESTION:

How can the architectural typology of women’s shelters be reimagined to more effectively provide support, safety, and healing for domestic violence victims in rural Homerville, Georgia?

DESIGN HYPOTHESIS:

The design of domestic violence shelters in Homerville, GA, can be improved by combining the warmness of a home, the freedom of a meadow, and the strength of a fortress to create comfortable, tranquil, and safe spaces that provide support, safety, and healing for the residents and staff inhabiting them.

SOLUTION:

The building typology of a women’s shelter will be reimagined to better apply to a modern stage using qualitative research from an architect-conducted survey that has been compared to similar existing research. This new typology will be tested on a site in Homerville, Georgia, to address the psychological and spatial needs of victims, the most important of these needs include the feeling of being protected (secure architecture), a sense of community (social spaces), access to medical assistance (operating/examination rooms), and appropriate design to accommodate living spaces for both women and/or their children (Eastman et al, 2007). Construction of this project must be efficient and cost-effective as to not diminish the already limited financial resources available to public services, but still secure enough to provide a safe space for rural victims of domestic violence.

METHODOLOGY:

Research for this thesis will be broken up into multiple different sections. To give the architect a better understanding of the victim’s condition and needs, surveys and interviews were conducted during the summer of 2024 at women’s shelters in rural Georgia with both the residents and shelter staff, and literature reviews were done to compare collected data with similar research. This provided an updated set of data to be used and compared with older information (pre-COVID-19). To determine the site for the project, mapping was used to locate a site in Georgia with the least access to domestic violence crisis centers. Finally, construction methods and building design will be studied through precedents that share the scope of being low-cost, remote, secure, and inhabitant-friendly design for the purpose of applying efficient design methods.

Click here to learn more.

This project was a finalist for the ARCC King Student Medal.

Instagram: @owen_p02, @robinzputtock

REIMAGINING RECOVERY: The Role of Architecture in Sobriety by Teagan Littleton, B.Arch ’25
Kennesaw State University | Advisor: Robin Puttock

This thesis explores the design of a sober living house in Atlanta, focusing on integrating choice architecture and biophilic design to enhance the mental well-being of its residents. Choice architecture, a concept rooted in behavioral economics, aims to influence decision-making by altering the environment (Thaler & Sunstein, 2010). Biophilic design seeks to connect occupants with nature to improve overall health and well-being (Terrapin, 2014). The design of the sober living house incorporates elements such as natural light, green spaces, and views of nature to create a sense of calmness and connection to the environment. Choice architecture is applied through the layout and design of the space to encourage positive behaviors and discourage relapse triggers. Through the integration of these design principles, the sober living house aims to create a supportive and healing environment for individuals in recovery, promoting long-term sobriety and well-being.

Click here for a closer look.

This project was selected as a Thesis Semi-Finalist (Top 20 of 90+).

Instagram: @teagan.littleton02, @robinzputtock

KOSOVO BORDER-BASED MENTAL HEALTH RECOVERY PROGRAM Healing Across Borders: Addressing Trauma and PTSD at Entry Points by Fisnik Kraki, B.Arch ’25
New York Institute of Technology | Advisor: Jonathan Block Friedman

The program leverages landlocked Kosovo’s border crossings as transitional spaces, turning points for individuals struggling with post-war trauma, PTSD, and mental health challenges. Each border will host a Trauma Recovery Hub, blending accessibility, symbolism, and practicality. These hubs will act as the first step toward healing, offering both immediate care and pathways for long-term recovery. Services provided include emergency counseling, psychological evaluations, and individual/group therapy.

The architecture offers a poetic transformation for both individual returnees and the country as a whole. Local materials and cultural elements provide familiarity and safety. A spectrum of enclosures, from narrow passageways to wide open spaces enhance healing gardens, quiet zones, and reflection halls. Tailored programs support displaced individuals, war survivors, PTSD therapy for civilians, and ex-combatants. 

Each mountainous entry portal provides a sequence of three multi-week healing experiences in carefully wrought architectural responses to both the inner needs of the struggling returnees and the power of each succeeding resonant landscape. The progression of section relationships highlights the potential for group and individual personality reintegration.

The new group first finds a shared lodge perched on a cliffside lookout above a rushing mountain stream. Here are paths for private walks, but also shared meals, as well as group therapy sessions.  

Then the group moves to more gently rolling hillsides, where now the cohort breaks into smaller subgroups who share modest “family houses” as they re-learn how to interact together, and with the other “families” in a more dispersed community setting. A spillway and small dam provides a lake for beginning to embrace a return to self-awareness. 

For the third and last month, each person in the group finds their own dwelling for the hard work of private meditation, complete with eating, sleeping, a fireplace, and physical exercise spaces, and a garden for them to contribute to the collective needs for food production. The site is flat, with a small pond of still water at its center as a geographical eco-environmental mirror for the soul as they look beyond healing, seeking purpose, meaning, and new horizons. 

This project received the Chair Design Award, awarded by the department chairs and faculty of the School of Architecture and Design to a graduate who has achieved distinction in architectural design.

How Can Facilities Contribute to the Mental Health of Cancer Patients and Their Families Within Their Treatment in Architecture? by Nelson L. Quirindongo-Rodríguez, B.Arch ’25
Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico | Advisors: Pedro A. Rosario-Torres & Pilarín Ferrer-Viscasillas

Cancer is one of the main public health crises in Puerto Rico, with more than 303,000 people diagnosed in 2020. This disease not only affects the body, but also profoundly alters the emotional and mental health of patients and their families. Emotions such as fear, anxiety, sadness, and uncertainty constantly accompany the oncological process, and often do not receive the necessary treatment or attention.

This work proposes a comprehensive and humane approach to cancer, recognizing the importance of mental health at all stages of treatment. The incorporation of interdisciplinary strategies is key, including therapeutic architecture and connection with nature. In particular, it highlights the value of biophilia, a movement that recognizes the innate link between humans and nature.

The design of spaces that integrate natural elements such as gardens, natural light, and cross ventilation can significantly contribute to reducing stress, improving mood, and fostering resilience in patients. This includes views of the sea, for example, which offer a multisensory experience that calms the mind, relieves tension, and promotes introspection and hope.

In addition to treating cancer clinically, it is necessary to address emotional suffering in a conscious and compassionate manner. The physical environment plays an active role in this process, and by including biophilic elements and visual or direct access to nature, a more complete healing environment can be created.

In conclusion, coping with cancer requires a holistic approach that combines medicine, mental health, and design. In this way, not only is the disease combated, but the person is accompanied in a process of deep, dignified, and hopeful healing.

Instagram: @nlqr.arch

Addressing the Shortage of the Veterinarian Profession in Puerto Rico and Its Effect on Animal Care by Alejandra M. Quiñones-Velázquez, B.Arch ’25
Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico | Advisors: Jesús O. García-Beauchamp & Pedro A. Rosario-Torres

Veterinarians play a crucial role in taking care of animal health and welfare, public health, environmental protection, food safety, and medical research. However, a global shortage of veterinarians has emerged, exacerbated by increased pet ownership and insufficient capacity to train professionals. Puerto Rico only has 300 veterinarians, facing a shortage outside the metropolitan area, where the center of the island lacks veterinary services. With over 643,000 households owning pets, this scarcity has tangible consequences for animal welfare and public health.

This research proposes an integrated architectural solution: a comprehensive veterinary education and care facility in Mayagüez, strategically located near the former zoo and a natural lake. The site was chosen for its potential for growth, semi-isolated setting, zoning compliance, and opportunity to merge architecture with nature. The proposed facility houses a veterinary school, research laboratories, a clinic for small and large animals, equine stables, and on-site housing for students and faculty. Designed to meet American Veterinary Medical Association accreditation standards, the center will allow students to complete their training locally and expand access to quality veterinary care across Puerto Rico.

Design strategies focus includes segregation of species, articulation of the landscape to foster connection and interaction, connection of spaces with nature, and noise control. Design thinking in the site is organized around a central axis and a lake that forms the heart of the project—creating an articulated space where landscape and built environment interact harmoniously. Outdoor areas will serve as peaceful, shaded environments for interaction and learning, while architectural consistency across buildings ensures a cohesive and professional atmosphere.

By combining education, clinical care, and research in one facility, the veterinarian shortage will be addressed, creating a new generation of professionals and enhancing animal and community well-being in Puerto Rico.

Click here to learn more. 

This project was nominated for the Francisco Luis Porrata-Doria Medal for Excellence in Design.

Instagram: @alemar1347

Building Wellness: Integrating Nature and Design to Prevent Diabetes by Daniela M. Ruiz-Rosado, B.Arch ’25
Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico | Advisors: Pedro A. Rosario-Torres & Pilarín Ferrer-Viscasillas

Diabetes is one of the most pressing public health issues in Puerto Rico, where nearly half a million people live with the disease—equivalent to one in every six residents. Type 2 diabetes, in particular, is closely linked to lifestyle factors such as physical inactivity and poor nutrition. This research explores how architecture can become a proactive tool in the prevention of this chronic illness by promoting healthy behaviors in the built environment.

This project proposes the Integral Diabetes Prevention Center, located in Río Piedras, within the grounds of Hospital Auxilio Mutuo and adjacent to the University of Puerto Rico’s Sports Complex. The selected site offers a strategic opportunity to serve two target populations: young adults between the ages of 15 and 28, who are at a key stage for adopting preventative habits, and diabetic patients in need of ongoing care and wellness support.

The architectural strategy is rooted in the promotion of an active lifestyle through design. The program includes student residences, extended-stay units for patients, a wellness center with a gym, medical consultation areas, educational spaces, and health-focused commercial areas. A central plaza connects the hospital and the sports complex, acting not only as a circulation node but as a social and interactive public space that fosters movement and community engagement.

The design encourages physical activity through accessible, walkable, and open layouts while also integrating green areas that support mental and physical well-being. By embedding health education, fitness, and healthcare into the spatial experience, the project aims to create an environment that not only treats but actively prevents illness. This research demonstrates how architecture can serve as a catalyst for healthier communities by shaping behaviors and daily routines through intentional, health-centered design.

This project was nominated for the Francisco Luis Porrata-Doria Medal for Excellence in Design

Instagram: @druizrosado00

Birthplace – proposal for an alongside birthing place in Hackney, UK by Sophie Martin, M.ArchD ’25
Oxford Brookes University | Advisor: Francesco Proto

This project seeks to create spaces to support and celebrate birth as a rite of passage, through the development of a new paradigm in maternity care: a worked example of a design for an alongside birthing place for physiological birth in a fragment of natural setting, with views to natural landscapes of water, sky, and moon. Birthing places surrounded by natural/human-scale materials of reed and brick, in urban surroundings close to a hospital.

Focusing on creating an atmosphere to support physiological birth, a route of pavilions to mark each stage in the rite of passage is proposed, using metaphors from popular culture to drive the design. These pavilions will incorporate references to the cycles of the moon to mark the profound transformation of the birthing woman from maiden to mother, and offer a connection between the woman to her place in the cosmos at this liminal time.

The task is a fundamental one: to investigate the effects of form and space on childbirth, families and caregivers. How can the rite that is giving birth once again play a richer central role in communities with a myriad positive outcomes? The incentives to explore this approach would also lead to cost savings – ditch an outdated focus on infection control – pregnancy is not a disease in and of itself. The rates of Cesarean birth and obstetric interventions could drop, and money would be saved if there were a greater proportion of physiological births. (But not through imposing some vaginal birth doctrine from on high, but as a symptom of women and midwives feeling well supported by the place).  

This is not a panacea – wonderful spaces will not impact directly upon staffing levels, maternity budget, political agenda and outdated non evidence based hospital protocol – but begin to give women and midwives a sense of value in their experience, sense of occasion, sense of the gravity of the greatest physiological event for our species, coming as the finale of the greatest feat of human endurance, is an event worth marking. What a fantastic space this would be. 

Instagram: @studio_malmaison, @oxfordschoolofarchitecture

Shelter for Homeless Children in a Farm in Waimānalo by Jessica Aellen, M.Arch ’25
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa | Advisor: Yasushi Ishida

This project proposes a mixed-use residential and therapeutic shelter for homeless youth ages 14 to 24, located on a farm in Waimānalo, Oʻahu. It supports RYSE, a nonprofit organization serving youth experiencing homelessness in Hawaiʻi, where rates are among the highest in the U.S. Many of these teenagers face mental health challenges, and this project aims to provide not just shelter, but healing, dignity, and connection to nature.

The building is designed for a small community and blends with the surrounding farmland through soft, horizontal forms that echo the nearby mountain landscape. It includes therapy and gathering spaces, private rooms, communal kitchens, and outdoor areas that support reflection and social connection.

Key features include a raised outdoor terrace, curving interior corridors that promote privacy and comfort, and the use of natural materials such as wood-fiber insulation. The structure is made of lightweight metal framing and wood components, chosen to reduce environmental impact and allow flexibility in construction.

The architecture prioritizes openness, safety, and well-being through passive design and biophilic principles. By fostering both physical and emotional healing, this project demonstrates how architecture can play a meaningful role in helping vulnerable youth reconnect with themselves, with others, and with the land.

This project received recognition at the Hawai‘i Architectural Foundation (HAF) Awards. 

Instagram: @yasushi_ishida_arc

Center of Hope by Arushi Singhal, M.Arch ’25
Boston Architectural College | Advisors: Russel Feldman & Ian F. Taberner

“The Center for Hope” explores how architecture can serve as a catalyst for emotional and psychological healing in the context of palliative cancer care. Situated overlooking the Jamaica Pond in Boston, the healing center merges the therapeutic qualities of nature with innovative design to support patients, their families, and caregivers. Unlike traditional hospital environments that prioritize clinical and programmatic efficiency, the project focuses on creating spaces that evoke hope, foster introspection, and build community. The central idea of this thesis is to investigate how architecture transcends physical form to influence emotional resilience. Grounded in phenomenology, the project investigates how spatial layouts, material tactility, light, and biophilic elements contribute to the healing process.

A hybrid program of contemplative spaces, therapy rooms, community courtyards, and meditative gardens, these spaces are designed to accommodate a diversity of needs and emotional states, offering agency to users through choice and comfort. Importantly, the center opens itself to the neighborhood—welcoming local residents to participate in communal activities, wellness events, or moments of pause along their daily routes. This act of inclusion not only normalizes the presence of illness within the city but transforms the Center into a reciprocal civic gesture—an anchor of care that gives back to its urban surroundings. As part of Boston’s Emerald Necklace, the design becomes a threshold between healthcare and everyday life, offering both a contemplative refuge and a socially engaged urban insertion.

This project received “Commends for Thesis.”

Transformative Architecture for Incarceration Reform by Methusela C. Mulenga, M.Arch ’25
Boston Architectural College | Advisors: Ralph Jackson & Ian F. Taberner

This thesis explores the potential of architecture to facilitate transformative reforms within the incarceration system through human-centric design strategies, specifically focusing on youth demographics. It highlights the pressing need for intervention, as many young individuals are often held for non-criminal offenses or are awaiting trial. By examining the unique challenges faced by these youths, the project envisions architectural spaces that promote hope and healing, allowing for improved mental health and a sense of purpose while they transition back to society. To underpin this exploration, the research begins by analyzing statistics regarding youth incarceration. By identifying this specific population, the thesis emphasizes the importance of integrating appropriate resources and technology within the building typology. It argues that providing detained individuals with educational tools and a supportive environment can significantly enhance their mental well-being and self-improvement opportunities, ultimately aiding their reintegration efforts.

The design approach prioritizes essential elements such as natural light, access to nature, privacy, and educational opportunities that contribute to an environment conducive to healing. The thesis outlines architectural interventions that incorporate calming colors, recreational spaces, and vocational training facilities, proposing that these features can prepare youths for successful reintegration while reducing the risk of homelessness. The goal is to create welcoming and inclusive transition spaces that foster community connection and emotional support. 

Lastly, the thesis investigates global prison systems, defining “transition spaces” as environments that improve the experience of those incarcerated. It emphasizes the significance of architectural design reforms that promote rehabilitation and community connections while addressing safety and well-being for both inmates and staff. By proposing a building typology that is accessible and connected to the community, this research aims to demonstrate how thoughtful architectural considerations can reshape the landscape of incarceration into spaces that offer a renewed sense of belonging and purpose for youth in transition.

This project received “Commends for Thesis.”

In Between by Polina Korolkova, M.Arch ’25
Washington University in St. Louis | Advisor: Julie Bauer

“In Between” is a holistic housing and education project designed specifically for young mothers and pregnant teens navigating a transitional moment in life—in between adolescence and adulthood, dependency and independence, challenge and potential. The project aims to provide not only shelter, but dignity, stability, and opportunity through architecture that nurtures growth and support.

The program integrates residential units with an educational facility and community services, creating a safe and empowering environment. The school component, located on the ground floor, features multiple accessible entrances to accommodate daily routines with strollers, caregivers, and young children. Classrooms, counseling rooms, and communal kitchens are woven into the educational wing, ensuring support extends beyond academics to life skills and wellness.

Above, modular housing units made from precast Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) offer sustainable, warm, and efficient living. Each unit includes a private balcony, natural daylight, and a small courtyard connection—spaces that support healing, reflection, and parenting. Flexibility in the module layout allows for varying family sizes and future adaptability.

Shared gardens, childcare areas, and lounges are dispersed across the site to create a soft rhythm of private and communal life. These in-between spaces encourage informal connections, peer support, and a sense of belonging—turning a temporary stay into a place of pride and transformation.

Structurally, the project employs a hybrid system: the concrete ground floor provides acoustic isolation and structural strength for the learning and gathering areas, while the lightweight CLT units above minimize embodied carbon and construction disruption. The material palette is intentionally soft, natural, and restorative, echoing the project’s core values.

In Between is not just a building—it is a framework for second chances, built with care, strength, and the belief that architecture can be a partner in healing and growth.

This project received the Book Award.

Instagram: @k.poli.na, @julie.e.bauer

Return to Earth, End of Life Care in Northern St. Louis by Hannah Grau, M.Arch ’25
Washington University in St. Louis | Advisor: Julie Bauer

Research in Northern St. Louis reveals a need for palliative and end-of-life care. The project proposes a place [where] those who are at the end stages of life may experience tranquility, celebration, remembrance, spirituality, and a connection with nature. In this program, domestic-scale housing is an active departure from medical room typologies, instead inviting warmth, comfort, rest, respite, and space. Outside of the residential grain of the program, there are spaces to gather, celebrate, commemorate, pray, meditate, nap, bathe, sit in the sun, feel the air, and be surrounded by caregivers and loved ones. The space is accessible, welcoming, and easy to navigate. It is situated along the Mississippi River and looks to bring back communal retreat by creating public garden spaces of memorium, celebration, and gathering. The materiality, textures, nourishment, and outdoor observance will provide connections with nature, connections with memory, and connections with healing. Focusing on the small moments of high-touch, high-interaction, and deep rest, the space will offer permeating peace in both the built and unbuilt environments.

This project received a Book Award.

Instagram: @grauhannah, @julie.e.bauer

RE-ENTRY RE-IMAGINED, Transitional Housing & Support for Previously Incarcerated Young Men by Abigail Fonville, M.Arch ’25
Washington University in St. Louis | Advisor: Julie Bauer

“They said it was a revolving door. But I always asked, did anyone ever take the time to figure out why the door kept revolving?” —Ta’janette Sconyers, Former St. Louis Juvenile Detention Center Employee

A transitional housing proposal designed to support young men, ages 12 to 21, as they transition from juvenile detention toward self-sufficient adulthood. The program spans four buildings and offers a campus-like setting that maximizes the site’s potential, encouraging daily movement and fresh air, luxuries absent in the St. Louis Juvenile Detention facility. At its core, the program focuses on housing. Residents live in minimally furnished units that promote a sense of ownership and autonomy over their space. These units are organized into pods of 2 to 4 individuals, each sharing a communal living space that encourages connection and support. Beyond housing, the campus includes a woodshop and a training kitchen where participants gain hands-on experience and develop practical skills for future employment. Located in the Grand Arts neighborhood, a vibrant mix of cultural, commercial, and residential activity, “Re-entry Reimagined” emphasizes the importance of being a part of the community for a successful reintegration. For young men who have served their time and have nowhere else to go, this is a place to call home.

This project won the Widmann Prize. 

Instagram: @bigail_fonville, @julie.e.bauer

Stay tuned for Part V!

Study Architecture Student Showcase - Part X

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For Part X of the Study Architecture Student Showcase, we take a look at projects that focus on cultural and research spaces. From government research facilities to recreational spaces for music and exhibits, these projects all share a common idea that architecture can be multifaceted; serving a genuine need while also engaging the community and visitors with information and history to create a rich experience.

Incase you missed past installments, check out Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII and Part IX.

The Carve: A Center for Urban Ecology by Mark Davis and Maya Mulé, BS. Arch ’22
University of Maryland | Advisor: Michael Ezban

The Carve is a public and private research facility for the study of urban ecologies. The design strategy includes carving as a means of creating engaging indoor and outdoor at an urban site. The Carve is sited adjacent to the Georgetown Reservoir in Washington DC.

The building is an angled L-shaped massing that is carved into two masses by a new public Discovery Trail, which links the lowland of the site to the dramatic peak of the berm of the reservoir. The main gallery of the building is elevated above the ground, and visitors can look through apertures in the floor to a constructed wetland that flows beneath the public space.

The site and building are interconnected to create an engaging promenade throughout the site. Along the trail, which takes on many forms and spatial configurations as it engages the topography of the site, is signage that educates visitors regarding historical and contemporary urban ecologies and site histories.

EQUIVALENT VOLUMES “The Flattening of hierarchy” by Lingjia Wang and Yunbin Wang, B.Arch ’22
Southern California Institute of Architecture | Advisor: Kristy Balliet

The thesis advocates for equivalent volumes that flatten the hierarchy of civic and cultural spaces. In this project, designed volumes interact and negotiate boundaries, diminishing individual qualities in favor of combined characteristics and configurations. The project is a Philharmonic Hall located in Prague. As part of a larger development, the site, a new cultural center located along the Vltava River, extends the cultural and historic center while connecting to existing and new transportation infrastructure. The project lands in between these conditions and offers significant opportunities to test the thesis, including internal program and urban planning. By having three off-centered massing and figural plazas, it creates more edges for the city to interface with different programs.

A philharmonic program tends to center the primary volume (Hall), while support volumes (foyers, backstage, etc) fill in the gaps. In this project, a series of figured volumes and surfaces are coordinated and balanced to define the building as well as the civic plaza. To the City of Prague, it as a whole, is a support system that connects the past, present, and future.

Instagram: @yun_bw,@adammmmn_wang, @conescubes

Delaminating the Real: Unpacking the physical expression of ideology in government buildings by Lawrence Boyer, B.Arch ’22
Syracuse University | Advisor: Lawrence Chua

Delaminating the Real is an investigation of the ways that national governments use architecture as a tool of national identity, narrative, and the dissemination of ideology. Using case studies of Skopje, North Macedonia, and Washington, DC, this thesis uncovers a genealogy of the use of classicism in government buildings and the ways in which ornament has been adapted and appropriated throughout historic regimes to different (or similar) ends.

Both Washington and Skopje share their use of primarily two internationally recognized architectural styles: Brutalism and Classicism. While these styles are used in a way to claim national identity, these styles are used and recognized across the globe and carry complex meanings and heritage accumulated throughout their uses in different contexts. The interest of these governments in the appearance of their cities results in the privileging of aesthetic appearances to express national identity to an international audience; these choices create architectural tension between universal recognition and regional idiom.

This project asks questions such as: “Why is Moses on the pediment of the Supreme Court?”, “Is a Doric column still a Doric column if it’s proportions are wrong and it’s made of plaster on steel substructure?”, or “Why are most government buildings white when the buildings they imitate were polychromatic?”

Using photography, collage, drawing, diagramming, and model-making, the project found that regimes rely on classical vocabulary in image only and not in structure. Recognizable architectural forms allow governments to communicate power across countries, ideologies, and regimes. The result reveals that authoritarian and liberal regimes often use the same vocabulary and as a result, that they share more in common than they might care to admit.

Shape Shift by Heff Jin, B.Arch ’22
Southern California Institute of Architecture | Advisor: Maxi Spina

The thesis explores the idea of making circulation space excessive in a bureaucratic building, challenges the remnant of history in which bureaucratic building has always been about efficiency, and falls back as a background in the urban space. The project is developed based on the New Salzburg town hall competition, which asks to demonstrate a new possibility of government and public relationship. Hohensalzburg is an icon of the institutional building at Salzburg. It represents the remnant relationship of the public and government. With very restricted accessibility, a fortress lifted and isolated from the ground and stood still in the background of the cityscape. And the project tries to count-er those qualities.

Projects like Netherland Embassy by OMA, Vitrahaus by Herzog de Meuron, Cabrillo Marine museum by Frank Ghery, Jewish museum by Daniel Lebskin are versions of this discussion. By introducing extra circulation spaces to allow more public spaces, more accessibilities, and more interactions between the government and the public and instead of falling into the city’s background, becoming a flatform of the city to create an integrated relationship, not segregated surveillance.

Instagram: @heff_jin, @rntarchitects

Sisyphus’ Theater: LATTC Construction Lab: and Recreation Center, an eternal exhibition of labor by Noah Mora, B.Arch ’22
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona | Advisor: Robert Alexander

The project is a concoction of private-educational and public amenities consisting of a precast concrete fabrication lab, public plaza, and recreation space. The precast fabrication lab not only serves LATTC’s demand for an intensified fabrication pedagogy, but it also serves the project’s more ambitious agenda: the design of a never-ending building. This project, in concept, will never be truly complete and aims to be a never-ending theater of architectural events, a building that is perpetually reconfiguring itself while educating others in the process. Because of its visibility and role as a project that is continuously building itself, the project acts as a theater that hosts present and future architectural events, the cast and crew being the students of LATTC, the audience being the people of Southeast Los Angeles. Its “incompleteness” is its means of remaining timeless while refraining from becoming site-less.

Situated in Historic Downtown, a district in Los Angeles neighboring Downtown and University Park, the project will still bear the responsibility of responding to its context amidst the backdrop of a rapidly evolving city. While high rises continue to infiltrate Downtown LA’s skyline, the project will undergo an evolution of its own while remaining tethered to its site and contextual obligations. Located across the street from LATTC’s Northeast corner, the ground floor acts as the anchor to the project’s site and serves as a physical and figurative foundation for generations of students to design and build upon. The ambition of this project is to be flexible enough to the extent that the project will never have one set identity.

Instagram: @noahmora_ , @rbrtalxandr

Introvert Architecture by Jack Hache, M.Arch ’22
Toronto Metropolitan University | Advisor: Colin Ripley, Scott Sorli, Carlo Parente

The rise of the modern world of capital produced and exploited the paradigm of the extrovert as an essential characteristic of the modern man. In architecture, contemporary practice embodies its own extrovert ideal. Buildings have become extroverted in line with a late phase of capitalism that is focused on global communication and the power of the image. In contrast, an Introvert Architecture resists monumentalization and the reduction to a mere image. Comparable to the introverted man, Introvert Architecture is built from character and contemplation. It is rooted in deep introspective theory, desiring to produce rational, well-organized spaces that are inherently tied to the fundamental relationships that architecture has with context and occupants. This thesis aims to distinguish an Introvert Architecture from the extrovert ideal and illustrate the properties of Introvert Architecture in the genuine process of building making.

Collectively, the concepts and theories developed throughout this thesis are used to build an Introvert Architecture Equation. This equation acts as the conceptual synopsis for an Introvert Architecture. The design project, the Allan Gardens Temporary Exhibition Museum (The Museum), attempts to illustrate the equation’s application to architecture and the process of building making. The Museum considers an architecture that is not created from a desire for monumentation or recognition, but rather, uses its relationships to site, context, and occupants as the governing body for the architecture. The building is born from its context and its relationships with the act of an exhibition. Collectively, the Introvert Architecture Equation, and the Allan Gardens Temporary Collections Museum design project, attempt to demonstrate the power of non-extroverted architecture, the Introvert Architecture.

Instagram: @jack_hache

The Adaptive Reuse of Parking Garages: Increasing Vitality in Urban Centers by Janeth Boza, M.Arch ’22
University of Florida CityLab-Orlando | Advisor: Lisa Huang and Frank Bosworth

This research develops a design framework for adaptive reuse of parking garages and proposes guidelines for redevelopment to create diverse public spaces that promote connectivity within the urban fabric and improve urban vitality.

Historically, the evolution and innovations of automobile technology have changed the urban fabric and pedestrian activity in the cities. Current research with driverless and ownerless cars will inevitably impact real estate, land use, and especially parking facilities. This paradigm shift in personal mobility will result in fewer individually owned vehicles and reduce demand for parking in the future. In the United States, two to eight parking spaces are constructed for every privately-owned car (Meyboom 2019). Driverless technology may reduce the need to one space per car, freeing up much valuable urban space.

When comparing parking facility types, surface parking is the easiest to repurpose. Parking structures are a significant challenge since they are concrete or steel multistory constructions. They are distributed across a city’s urban core and contribute to the volumetric form of the city fabric.

If parking garages were not needed, the easy solution would be to demolish them. This is, in some cases, the economical solution but not the most sustainable one; it is essential to consider the energy costs of demolition pollutants, landfill waste, and carbon emissions. Adaptive reuse of existing parking structures will extend the productive life span of the buildings and reduce environmental impact by conserving resources and avoiding the large, embodied carbon production in new construction. These parking garages provide substantial building structures that can be the foundation for a new type of public use building. What is the potential of these parking spaces and garages in redefining the urban environment?

Empty parking garages are incompatible with dynamic city living and self-driving potentially induces more urban sprawl and supports longer commutes: thus decreasing activity and live-ability in cities. This research will develop strategies for repurposing these structures to increase attractiveness, and connectivity in the urban centers of medium-sized cities.

Study Architecture Student Showcase - Part IX

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Welcome back to Part IX of the Study Architecture Student Showcase! This week we focus on production systems in the built environment and how architects can reimagine those infrastructure systems to improve not just our economy but also the climate crisis. As we consider how to improve our rail systems, meet a nationwide housing demand and address the issues globalization has created around the globe, this week’s contributors shed light on solutions and areas that need our attention.

Incase you missed past installments, check out Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII and Part VIII.

Post-Industrial Landscapes: Amplifying Existing Food Systems in Chicago’s Chinatown by Juanita Li, M.Arch ’22
University of Maryland | Advisor: Brittany Williams

Cities have long grappled with how to feed their populations. Globalization allowed cities to supply food and grow beyond ecological limits. During Industrialization, global networks expanded in capacity with the advent of rail, eroding a city’s tie to surrounding agricultural land. Rail was the genesis of Chicago’s expansion into a major urban center. When the rail system was elevated, rail lines and yards spanning many city blocks scarred and carved the city. One neighborhood bounded and constrained by active and remnant rail structures is Chinatown.

This project proposes a contextual response for a productive, post-industrial urban site, drawn from an historical review of Chicago’s rail history, Chinatown’s identity, and a typological food system analysis. Food is central to Chinatown’s identity as a destination, since food generates economic activity as a raw and crafted, cultural good. The neighborhood is food rich despite high poverty rates. Chinatown’s immediate spatial context is constrained by active rail lines, idle container yards, and major expressways, obstructing neighborhood growth.

An idled rail container storage yard severs Chinatown. Extending for over 3 city blocks within Chinatown, this 18-foot-high concrete embankment sees active commuter rail activity. The low-rise residential area to the east has no visibility of the low- and mid-rise mixed-use area to the west. Viaducts through the embankment are 445 ft long tunnels, creating a further spatial separation. The challenging edge and tunnel conditions emphasize the spatial separation and require design solutions that soften and blur the division. The proportions of the site do not suggest that a rails-to-trails proposal is a viable solution.

Extending Chinatown’s robust food system becomes an opportunity to amplify the existing conditions, provide needed green space and economic opportunities, and create additional points of connection for the neighborhood outside of its boundaries. An 18-foot-high concrete, idled rail container yard spanning three-and-a-half city blocks is transformed into a place where Chinese food culture cultivates community and connection through its craft and consumption. The solution preserves the industrial and cultural identity of the site, maintains active rail, and can serve as a model for a diverse urban food system at multiple scales.

A Fabrication Process: Form from Assembly and Material Culture by Erin M. Paul, M.Arch ’22
Hampton University | Advisor: Carmina Sanchez-del-Valle & Marci Turner

If we put aside building types and formal styles, to consider the material culture and the ways in which we make, we will encounter forms that break with the traditional. Those that we impose now respond to a perception of a world preserved by rules that maintain a kind of aesthetic stasis. In architecture, designing for the materials and for construction, will deliver forms that will be more representative of who we are, than if we work by imposing them. Materials, ways of building, and the conditions of the digital can generate new forms.

This research is driven by the exploration of form through small scale physical models. The study models varied depending on the size of the base used to generate form – the site. Forms were also determined by the dimensions and qualities of modeling materials and their joints.

The research plan consisted of three phases. The first “Methods of Building” explored the structure for form. 2D and 3D grids and meshes were used to define boundaries. The second “Material Value” investigated shaping materials using gravity, applied loads, tension and compression, in both wet and dry conditions. The third “Contextual Domains” transposed a selection of the physical forms created into the digital adding scale and mass, and defining architectural components.

The design research made it possible to “see” gaps found in the representation of building components and their assembly into wholes. We make intricate drawings and struggle to translate them into the buildable. There is a disconnection between what we illustrate, and what is actually built. The research made tangible that what seems as very simple physical form, when transposed into the digital, becomes extremely complex and geometrized. Also, new forms appear. Building “know how” connects assembly possibilities to material potential. Form is always affected by the qualities of material.

SNAP! homes by Simon Needham, B.Arch ’22
University of Cincinnati | Advisor: Whitney Hamaker

SNAP! homes reimagines the Case Study house as a catalogue of precast modular systems of home components that ship on-site in addition to a mobile pod system which snaps to host structures and moves among sites. 3 options are given, allowing for a range of lifestyle choices for the consumer at varying scales. The whole proposal is streamlined with a website that users can order their home from.

The H-01 and H-02 homes are constructed from multiple precast concrete modules sandwiching a layer of insulation. Each module encases a programmatic element that the user may purchase or omit from their home. After the modules are chosen, users may swap the layout orientation of the modules, creating customized living spaces tailored to the user’s preference. Once the modules are chosen, the user picks the interior partition wall colors, adding another layer to the customization of the home. After the home is ordered, it is trucked to site and assembled quickly, as all of the interior elements have already been installed. The H-01 and H-02 homes range from just over 400 sq. ft. up to 1750 sq. ft.

The P-01 option from the SNAP! homes catalogue is the host module and mobile pod. The host module is again formed from precast concrete modules. This will contain the necessities for living (not found in the mobile pod) such as access to water, electric, bathrooms, a kitchen, and living area. This structure gives the ability for 6 pods to be hosted at once by easily snapping them into place. The mobile pod contains the user’s sleep and work spaces with ample personal storage in the thick wall. The exterior is clad in corrugated metal, while the interior walls contain CNC-milled sanded plywood panels that aid in dampening sound from the exterior. This allows for a peaceful interior as a quiet space is necessary for work sessions and sleeping. With the mobile pod, the user may choose to move their pod to a new host location as they please, not getting tied down to the same scenery or setting.

Instagram: @needham_arch, @daapsaid

Make Fashion Make Sense by Adriana G. González, B.Arch ’22
Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico | Advisor: Pedro A. Rosario and Juan Emmanuelli

Fast fashion consumption has led to companies making new items more frequently, which has proven to lead to a higher percentage of discarded clothes accumulated in landfills, making the fashion industry the second largest polluter in the world. The approach of the industry to today’s increasing amount of consumption has weakened its own sustainability.

Therefore, the goal was to create a production network through a program that covers all the stages of the life of a garment (from design, to fabrication, to retail, to recycling the materials, and so on). This way, a circular cycle is created to reduce the costs of importation, and the amount of waste generated, to promote local sustainable clothing, and to enable accessibility to all spectrums of consumers.

The project, located along New York’s Garment District, consists of eight floors that showcase each phase with framed extrusions that are visible from its exterior. Its visitors start the journey with a display area that demonstrates through art the reality of the fashion industry. A level dedicated to retail follows. The third floor has a double-height runway area, which is the main focus of the East elevation with its lit up space being front and center for the pedestrians to admire the show from afar. An open activity area on the fourth floor creates a transition between the public levels below and the private ones that commence from that point on. The fifth floor has the fabrication/manufacturing area with another double-height open space for the workers to be comfortable and receive a considerable amount of natural light. The remaining floors are used for research, processing, educational and administrative purposes. Transformed into an outdoor area, the roof includes extensive gardens and solar panels placed to create smaller roofed spaces at the top. Lastly, a perforated mesh envelope clothes the structure with a weaving-like pattern. With buildings like this, hopefully a safer and healthier setting is generated for the fashion industry to make sense.

EVERYDAYLAND: Living within Disney’s Chemical Spectacle by Rocio Crosetto Brizzio, M.Arch ’22
Columbia University | Advisor: Mark Wasiuta

Chemicals and spectacle are indivisible elements in Disney World. Despite the persistent image of “purity” and “cleanliness” that Disney projects, it depends on and adds to the chemical components that shape contemporary life. Disney is part of our chemical modernity.

So, what if instead of hiding its chemicals, we render them visible?
Then, what would it be like to actually live within Disney’s fireworks? To be consciously part of that chemical experience?

Everydayland is a housing project at the center of Magic Kingdom, at Disney World Florida. It is a tower for long-term life at the center of Disney’s entertainment.

Everydayland rearranges Disney’s fireworks, so that they become a crucial component of everyday life, and through this it exposes their chemical condition and its presence in our culture.

By associating the fireworks with the castle, Disney makes chemical entertainment a fantasy, like Tinkerbell’s magic dust. Everydayland Tower both allows Disney fans to live this fantasy by literally making the castle a home. But at the same time it also shifts the chemical dimension of the fireworks from the world of fantasy into the real world – so it provides a fantasy and “de-fantasizes” at the same time.

Everydayland is formed by 5 main elements:

1- The Castle is Everydayland’s Lobby.
2- The Roller Coaster is its Real Estate best-selling machine.
3- The Atrium is a high-rise attraction
4- The Facade is the new fireworks launching site
5- The Domestic Life is completely immersed in the fireworks’ spectacle.

Fireworks, chemical entertainment, toxicity, fantasies, utopias, dystopias, bodies and materials configure a complex network in which Everydayland emerges as a radical way of living that acknowledges that chemicals and toxicity are part of our life – and they keep us entertained.

The dream to live in “the happiest place on earth” is now possible. If fantasy becomes real, would it still be fantastic?

Instagram: @rocrosetto, @balsa.crosetto.piazzi

Grids as a foundation by Jing-Ying Su, M.Arch ’22
Cranbrook Academy of Art | Advisor: Gretchen Wilkins

The grids: a set of horizontal and vertical lines. “The Grid Book” tells the story of the evolution of each grid from the handmade brick through the ethereal Internet in the language of a generalist to modernist boxes of architecture. The persistence of grids demonstrates that once a grid is invented, it never disappears.

Grids are the foundation of our understanding. We identify things in the world by building a line between me and the object. When things start to get complicated, the grid becomes a network that recognizes myself and various objects. The moment people realize the existence of the grid triggers our desire to understand.

In my project, I built a subtle grid in nature. The grid system in nature is unimportant to the viewers, but the project questions this unimportance by constructing a subtle grid foundation to reveal the uncertain relationship between nature and human existence. During the observation, the viewers disassociate with themselves, wandering in the grids as the mediator to arise their awareness of the movement of shadows, the reflection of sunlight, and the sound of wind. We exist in that moment. The hereness.

Instagram: @su780213, @grtnwilkins

Laves Twist by Gelmira Gourgel, Peiyao Guo, Allissa Gonga, and Chase Gasser, B.Arch ’22
University of Cincinnati | Advisor: Christoph Klemmnt

The Laves Twist is a bipartite capstone project which explores and researches the possibilities of the grid-based design by computational algorithms and its prospects of allowing for the repetition of componential geometries. (I) Using the Plesiohedron Laves Grid, which is a cluster of the 17-sided module that by a 4-rotational gesture allows for its multiplication and growth in all 17 directions, creating infinite possibilities on its aggregational exercises. Further, through the voxelization of the Laves Grid, the Laves Twist was born. In which translates to the elaboration of a precast concrete component that was derived within the 17-sided module. As a result, the generation of the growing structure entity. (II) Thus, with this connection system created using the Laves grid technology, each team member was to proceed to the next part individually to explore this connection system within different architectural programmatic exercises. With the Laves Twist connection system + the problem of how to infer its application to different programs, algorithms were developed to explore the potential of the system in the creation of whole structures, façade systems, architecture interventions, and cite climatic impact. Opening thought for growing entities grid systems as a design architectural medium.

The Laves Twist team won the Director’s Choice Award at the University of Cincinnati School of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning’s DAAPWorks 2022 showcase under the B.S. Architecture Group Project category (https://daapworks.uc.edu/2022/directors’-choice). It was also displayed in the Reed Gallery Director’s Choice Award 2022 Summer Exhibition. (more of the Laves Twist project in this video) https://youtu.be/OahLyaSw1Gw

Instagram: @gourartch, @chaseg25, @gpei.yao, @alissa_gonda, @orproject

Data, Interstellar & Romance / The BIO-TECH Facility in the Universe in 2069 by Man Shu, M.Arch ’22
Southern California Institute of Architecture | Advisor: Damjan Jovanovic

In 1969, humans landed on the moon for the first time. In 2069, humans established the first BIO-TECH facility that simulates the cosmos’s environment, preparing for their colonization of other planets in the universe. This BIO-TECH facility is no longer a conventional building on the earth. It is a scientific center for data collection, processing, and research. It is a process of translating data into cultural artifacts of architecture.

Scientists collected data on the earth and brought them to other planets, storing them in the innumerable Bio-Module units, which were densely distributed on the façade of the building. Data is of great importance for humans. It includes the entire history of human beings for richness, diversity, variety, and ability to express cultures, languages, places, times, customs, methods, processes, and every other element of our ecosystem and civilizations. The future of architecture is to give sensibility to a multitude of voices and data, often invisible or underrepresented and yet crucial for our global survival. These Bio-Module Units are also the decomposed structure of the double-layer enclosure, which are considered as shields to protect the interior living space from the harsh environment of other planets. Also, The program of a BIOTECH building will represent the interconnected interests of multiple stakeholders. As a building for research and laboratories, where individuals with similar infrastructural needs convene, it will be programmed as a negotiation place for various points of view.

We should consider what kind of habitat we want to live in on other planets in the future 2069. We no longer want to live in cold building machines which are everywhere on today’s earth. We are humans. We have hearts, alive hearts, beating hearts, warm hearts. We can feel the fragrance of flowers, the beauty of diamonds, and the coldness of stones and metals. Our hearts fear death and yearn for freedom, love, and romance. That’s what makes us different from machines, robots, AI, etc. Therefore, the future habitat on the other planets we will live in should be filled with emotion and romance instead of cold machines.

Instagram: @sookie_man_shu, @d4mjan

Stay tuned for next week’s Student Showcase series!

Study Architecture Student Showcase - Part VIII

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Part Eight of the Student Showcase series this week focuses on student work that brings to light different aspects of sustainability. The concept of reuse is at the core of being sustainable. Each of these projects discusses a unique angle of what it means to be sustainable in both space and matter. Whether it is a ceramics studio in Chicago or green spaces in Los Angeles and Beirut, each of these projects recognize the importance of stewardship in architecture.

For recaps on prior installments, check out Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI and Part VII.

Nan/nang/: Earth and Us by Zahra Sharifi, M.Arch ’22
University of Manitoba | Advisor: Lisa Landrum

My thesis is focused on the potential of using and re-using local soil and modernized primitive vernacular strategies. I grew up and was educated in the historical city of Yazd, located in the largest desert of Iran, famous for its integrated earth urban fabric and climate adaptive structures. My interest in vernacular methodologies using soil became a starting point for questioning the lack of commitment towards earth construction in cold climates. As abundant and pliable materials, soil and mud are sustainable resources that have been used in construction for thousands of years, yet they have been replaced by harmful substances. By consuming all our natural energy resources, we will eventually reach a stage where manipulating and managing soil will become one of the leading global building strategies, and I believe inherited knowledge of traditional teachings is a starting point for all earth-based research.Focusing on cold climates originated from my experience of living in Winnipeg and the city’s lack of earth awareness. Even though the area endures heavy winter snow, which requires thick waterproofing, insulation, and durable building envelope systems, there is a historical and geological connection between the city and mud. The muddy land of Alexander Docks next to Red river in central Winnipeg, intrigued me to think about the re-use of deposited mud from the river for earth construction. I am proposing an adaptive rejuvenation of the old warehouse adjacent to the docks, by mimicking the natural qualities of mud and adding new insulated exterior earth walls inspired by my own research, previous earth strategies conducted in Manitoba such as Sod houses and traditional Persian earth structures such as Karbandi. The building will act as an earth reconnection center in the heart of downtown inviting the locals and international researchers to engage in earthly thinking.The simplicity of the construction process is in direct relation to the simplicity of the structure which allows us to implement local common labor and on-site preparation. Low-tech earth strategies provide the opportunity for community participation in annual spring maintenance for example reapplying mud plaster on earth walls. By considering the excavated site soil and deposited mud from the river as the main building material ( processed and separated into silt, clay and sand) and reusing existing building waste such as bricks, concrete and steel for reinforcement, there is a possibility of neutral carbon construction.

Instagram: @z.sharifi74, @faumanitoba, @lisalandrum.arch

Terra Studios: A Center for Ceramics Production and Residency in Chicago, Illinois by Faith Primozic, B.Arch ’22
University of Notre Dame | Advisor: Sean Patrick Nohelty, AIA

The city of Chicago has a rich history of ceramics as an art and industry that remains a core part of its architectural identity. Much of this industry existed along the northern branch of the Chicago River where factories produced ceramic building materials for some of the city’s most renowned architects. As this industry declined with the advent of more modern building materials and methods in the early part of the 20th century, the city lost both part of its intricate fabric as well as a part of its unique identity. Through my undergraduate thesis project, I imagine how a pair of buildings to serve craftspeople situated within an urban redevelopment along the north branch of the Chicago River can begin to reestablish a connection between the city’s architecture and its people.

The design for these buildings embodies the idea that architecture should reflect both the occupants that it serves and the society that it inhabits. Structures for artisans and craftspeople who contribute creatively and constructively to our society must therefore be beautiful and enduring reflections of their work — living representations of how both tradition and innovation in their craft enhances the sustainability and livability of the built world. Intertwined with a city’s unique history, this architectural narrative creates a sense of place and allows a city to grow and improve without losing touch with its identity

The proposed buildings exist in an entirely permeable arrangement that allows a pedestrian to pass freely through a new passage under the existing elevated railroad tracks all the way to the river’s edge. The larger of the two proposed buildings serves as a center for ceramics production and includes a large studio, kiln room, research center, gallery, and ballroom. The smaller building is intended as an artists’ residence and shop building, adding a component of living and working to the production of the ceramics. Together, they embody a celebration of the craft of ceramics, from the brick and clay block that support and insulate the walls to the porcelain tile and terracotta relief that lend to its character and beauty.

Instagram: @faith.primozic

Altra Volta: A Neighborhood Hub for the Self-Sufficient City by Samuel Owen, B.Arch ’22
University of Arizona | Advisor: Elena Cánovas

The following capstone project is a community co-op focused on self-sufficiency, in which members grow their own food and fabricate their own products to support themselves and to sell to the community. All waste produced on-site is recycled – solid waste is separated by material to be reused, repurposed, or recycled, and liquid / food waste is sent to an anaerobic digestor to produce energy and fertilizer for an on-site farm network.

This co-op is located in the Provençals del Poblenou neighborhood of Barcelona, the former epicenter of Barcelona’s Industrial Revolution. This area has a long history of industrial co-ops where members could share equipment for collective benefit. Today, the city is trying to develop the neighborhood into a “Technological Innovation District” known as 22@. Unfortunately, most construction following this initiative has done little more than gentrify the community and destroy its historic factory remains.

As an alternative to the aggressive development practices of 22@, this project embraces Provençals’ history and traditions, proposing a return to a circular economy model where daily food and material needs are handled through local collaborative effort, and waste from any one resource flow becomes the raw input for another. Through education, the community is empowered to participate in all steps of the production cycle.

“Altra Volta” – a Catalan phrase meaning both “to have another go” and “another vault” – is a repurposing of Poblenou’s endangered industrial fabric. It consists of two parts – the conversion of still-standing warehouses (into workshops, kitchens, a daycare, cooperative housing, and waste-processing facilities), and the reuse of historic factory foundations for the central marketplace.

On a broad scale, the project utilizes the empty land between blocks to create a “passeig nou” (new promenade) where the community can stroll and relax beneath orchard groves and observe the self-sufficient ecosystem all around them.

Instagram: @samowenarc, @canovas_elena

The Fold by Mark Davis and Ethan Ratliff, BSArch ’22
University of Maryland | Advisor: Michael Ezban

The Fold is a new Resiliency Hub for College Park, Maryland, that focuses on passive strategies to create ventilation and shading that ultimately improves the user’s experience within the building. To achieve these systems, the building is wrapped in a multifunctional and adaptive skin that is mounted to the outer layer of the building. This skin is perforated metal, creating shade and also bending in such a way to allow for better airflow.

Not only does this skin function sustainably, but it can also be adjusted to allow for better views to a lively urban corner of the city. The panels can also shift to allow for daylighting into major public spaces. The building is intended to entice the people of College Park, and show them what creative and sustainable building strategies could look like.

Green Air Rights by Myriam Abou Adal, B.Arch ’22
American University of Beirut | Advisor: Makram Al Kadi

Beirut is overcrowded, yet there is a large number of abandoned buildings and vacant apartments; Beirut is living a social and economic collapse; Beirut suffers from an absence of green and public spaces.

How to best activate the urban vacancies to create a network of multi-scalar micro-economies and green spaces?

I translated my readings of existing literature and case studies into my own glossary of vacancy and response typologies. I then started my fieldwork with rapid appraisal through on the ground measurements, interviews with residents to understand their needs, and immersion in the life and culture of the neighborhood I chose.

I am proposing a network of multi-scalar interventions that relies on a strategy of micro-economies centered around the communal life of the many users I met, while respecting nature and maximizing green spaces. I identified a variety of vacancies typologies and revived them favoring adaptive reuse, parasitic architecture, and placemaking. I translated the building code into a green building code to optimize the allowed buildable area and the gabarit, that guided my massing and choice of materials.

The ground floor vacancies are connected to create large and inviting lobbies that act as a continuation of the public space to drive the community in. The upper floor vacancies and abandoned buildings are treated using adaptive reuse methods and bridged to connect educational, cultural, entertainment, and service programs. On the roofs, A-frame steel structures host the necessary infrastructure for urban farming, water harvesting, and energy production.

This project may be viewed as a pilot intervention as part of a bigger strategy to green the city of Beirut, to introduce a culture of self-sustainability.

Instagram: @myriamabouadal, @ard_aub

Dust To Dust: Embracing Entropy Through Organic Building Materials by Ryan Muir, M.Arch ’22
University of Maryland | Advisor: Michael Ezban

Architecture has had a complicated relationship with this agent of time. Some modernists sought to “overcome” time by turning buildings into machines. And today we’re very much concerned with keeping up with the times. Through commercialism, buildings became commodities or machines for profit. Throughout this time, innovators have striven to and succeeded in inventing building materials that are inert or permanent. However, the problem is that our society doesn’t treat buildings as permanent. They go out of style or can’t keep up with our changing needs. This has bred a practice of planned obsolescence that may reflect the dynamic, living organism of society, but fails to see buildings themselves as organisms. Perhaps the issue is with identifying our buildings as machines, building them for longevity and durability while simultaneously attributing to them an inherent disposability.

Per Leon Krier’s diagram “Civitas”, a city is made up of two parts: res publica and res economica. Res publica is made up of monuments and monumental buildings. Res economica is made up of the streets and the auxiliary buildings. In other words, res publica represents the permanent, consistent nature of a city, while res economica is impermanent, subject to change and adapt to the needs of the city. Each part of the city represents a different opportunity to reshape our view of buildings. Res publica should be built to last and have its effect on the city for generations, slowly and subtly acquiring a patina that conveys wisdom and experience. On the other hand, Res economica could be constructed to be deconstructed, to have change affected on it, to evolve.

This thesis set out to test architecture’s ability to embrace the process of entropy through organic materials and explore these methods at three scales within the “res-economica” of Washington, DC. My approach to these different scales was to determine the viable materials, design each wall section assembly, and design the exterior and interior expression of these materials at the human scale. Then I dove into greater detail, beginning with the smallest scale as the furthest potential adoption of this theory.

Trades Tower: an Ode to Service Space by Daniel Vazquez, B.Arch ’22
Cal Poly Pomona | Advisor: Robert Alexander

Is architecture inextricably linked to its function? Can a building’s function vary, not just from one building to the next, but from person to person? In this project architecture’s role becomes one of user relevancy and contextual activation, things that are in constant flux on a college campus. The question then becomes: Can you make a building re-usable? Can you design a project that is in flux? Making a lliminal space where the public and private functions blur and where the project provides spaces to use that are activated instinctually. The formal program then becomes a catalyst and a framework that activates but does not dictate use. The project thus strays away from a “totalization,” opting instead to embrace and broadcast the variability of daily life.

As the city of Los Angeles continues to densify, issues such as public space and identity become increasingly urgent. Los Angeles Trade-Tech College, located directly south of the Santa Monica freeway (I-10) on Flower St. and Washington Blvd., exemplifies this dilemma as it expands and attempts to carve a place amongst the South LA urban fabric. Here, a disparate set of buildings create a hard perimeter around the college, with all buildings locked to the same datum rendering the campus invisible to the public. Despite opportunities such as proximity to the A-Line train station and direct visibility from the 10 freeway, a sense of destination is squandered by anti-pedestrian access and lack of identifiable elements. The character of LATTC and the education it provides are not advertised or readily legible.

Next installment coming soon!