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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!

2025 Study Architecture Student Showcase - Part XII

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Part XII of the 2025 Study Architecture Student Showcase features exemplary projects that explore housing-related topics and address challenges ranging from gentrification to high costs. These award-winning designs demonstrate how architecture can promote inclusive housing models rooted in local community, cultural heritage, equity, and affordability.

stacks + studios by Arshia Nikseresht-Ahaki, B.ArchSci ’25
British Columbia Institute of Technology | Advisors: Jody Patterson & Michel Labrie

The City of New Westminster, BC, faces a number of current urban challenges. Housing affordability concerns have caused many local residents to experience housing alienation, while the rising cost of commercial properties and redevelopment pressures are increasing the cost of renting or maintaining creative spaces, pushing artists out of the area. These issues are early signs of gentrification – especially within the historic downtown – threatening local culture and identity. New Westminster is one of several historic downtowns in the Greater Vancouver Area forecast to become “a city without art” in the near future.

This project addresses four key problem areas:

  1. Rising housing costs
  2. Renovations and redevelopment
  3. Shift in housing stock
  4. Changing demographics and community identity by proposing an affordable housing project on a vacant lot, with a public library and artist studio/maker spaces at grade.

With the city of New Westminster emphasizing the importance of preserving the local community identity alongside its culture and heritage, this proposal aims to maintain and enhance this vision. Library and art facilities at grade engage with the greater public and create a vibrant community hub, while residents form a tight-knit network with one another through shared spaces. The project aims to foster interaction and a vibrant community between users who experience social, environmental, and creative alienation, while preserving and enhancing New Westminster’s arts identity. 

To further revitalize this urban fabric, the project aims to increase biodiversity within the building by incorporating green spaces, gardens, and native plant species. These features enhance natural habitat, support local ecosystems, and contribute to a healthier environment, promoting both ecological balance and the well-being of residents and the public.

New Familiar by Negin Sabouhi, M.Arch ‘25
University of Southern California | Advisor: Ryan Tyler Martinez

This thesis explores a speculative design methodology that recontextualizes both architectural typologies and everyday building materials through a game-like system inspired by the mechanics of a Rubik’s Cube. The project investigates the potential of ready-to-buy hardware store materials and modular housing forms to challenge conventional construction practices and spatial expectations.

By reorienting and juxtaposing iconic Los Angeles housing typologies—rotating, combining, and transforming them through a semi-cube modular system—the design generates hybrid typologies that address contemporary urban conditions with adaptability and creativity. This modular framework enables a range of spatial outcomes, where each unit is distinct yet formally related, expanding the possibilities of housing through combinatory logic.

Simultaneously, the use of off-the-shelf materials in unconventional roles—structural, non-structural, and purely spatial—problematizes the ordinary and opens new aesthetic and tectonic dialogues. Through acts of reconfiguration and reapplication, this thesis questions: What is the 21st-century version of recontextualizing everyday materials in architecture? How can reorienting common elements redefine their architectural agency?

The interactive game, featured in the “Ready to Build” section of the website, demonstrates this novel framework in action—showing how a single system can yield multiple, speculative housing proposals. In doing so, the project proposes a new design approach that is both accessible and generative, redefining how we might engage with material, form, and typology in the built environment.

Click here to learn more.

This project was awarded a Distinction in Directed Design Research from the University of Southern California.

 Instagram: @Negin.sabouhi, @ryantylermartinez

SITE-LINES by Maylin Rosales Martinez & Ian Rivera, B.Arch ’25
The City College of New York | Advisor: Damon Bolhassani

The site and its existing conditions are the true architects of our project. Our massing is primarily informed by the natural sightlines and levels of visibility across the site, while also carefully considering environmental factors such as sunlight and wind patterns. When thoughtfully integrated, these elements not only enhance family connections but also promote energy efficiency and simplify long-term maintenance through design construction practices.

This project won the Faculty Award for Academic Excellence in B.Arch Core, 3rd Year.

Instagram: @spitzerschool_ccny, @damon_bol

33/45: Mixed-Use and Architectural Recycling in Querétaro’s Historic Center by Daniela Rivera Ruiz, B.Arch ’25
Universidad Anáhuac Querétaro | Advisors: Guillermo Márquez, Patricia Cutiño, Jorge Javier

“33/45” is a mixed-use architectural recycling project located in the historic center of Querétaro, México. It addresses two urgent urban issues: the lack of affordable housing and the increasing gentrification of the area. In recent years, working-class residents have been pushed out due to rent prices up to six times higher than the average monthly income in the city.

This project proposes an alternative: a dignified, inclusive housing model rooted in cultural heritage and community resilience. The property is owned by the government, allowing for rent regulation and fair, affordable prices. This strategic intervention offers high-quality living spaces that help stabilize and counterbalance the rising costs in the area, making it possible for local people to remain and thrive, restores five abandoned historic houses—protected by the INAH (National Institute of Anthropology and History)—and transforms them into 14 housing units and 20 commercial spaces. These ground-level homes and businesses aim to rebuild the urban fabric while ensuring affordability and accessibility for the local community.

Built with traditional Mexican construction techniques, such as brick vaults and modular layouts, the design honors its architectural heritage while remaining efficient and replicable. The materials—warm, familiar, and deeply rooted in Querétaro’s identity—create inviting, cozy spaces that feel like home. Every detail was considered to enhance comfort, daylight, and ventilation, crafting spaces where people can live with dignity. The ground floor becomes a shared threshold between public and private, offering patios and semi-open areas that invite connection and community. The layout draws from urban theories like in-between and rich order to create spatial richness and intimacy within a compact footprint.

“33/45” is more than a housing project—it is a social statement. It challenges speculative urban development and defends the right to stay, belong, and build a future in the place one calls home.

Instagram: @arqui_en_progreso, @dani_riverar, @arquitectura_anahuac, @arqwave

MUTUA collective housing by Jimena Borbón de la Torre, B.Arch ’25
Universidad Anáhuac Querétaro | Advisors: Guillermo Márquez, Patricia Cutiño, Jorge Javier

This project presents a cooperative housing model in the heart of Querétaro, designed to adapt to the changing needs of its residents over time. The homes are built with the possibility of expansion, allowing families to grow and modify their spaces as their needs evolve. A key aspect of this model is the active participation of residents in the construction process. By working directly with materials such as wood, participants not only build their homes but also acquire valuable construction skills, opening up opportunities for self-sustainability through this new trade.

At the heart of the design are the shared spaces, which foster a sense of community and connection. These common areas promote interaction, mutual support, and shared responsibility among neighbors, creating a vibrant and inclusive environment. This project goes beyond housing—it’s about building community, empowering residents, and creating a space where everyone feels a part of it.

Mútua is aimed at all those living in Querétaro who have limited financial resources, own no other property, face difficulties accessing housing in the traditional market, and are willing to join a cooperative. The target audience is people between 20 and 40 years old, interested in living in a strategic urban environment like downtown Querétaro, with immediate access to services, transportation, and commerce. People are willing to commute without a car and use alternative means of transportation.

The project is aimed at those seeking a compact and flexible first home, who are willing to share common areas such as the kitchen, living room, laundry room, and workspaces.

Instagram: @jb_arq_, @arquitectura_anahuac, @arqwave

Home in Flux: Reclaiming Homes for Co-Living by Jennifer Nguyen, M.Arch ’25
University of Toronto | Advisor: Karen Kubey

The single-family home is dying; but the single detached home is ready to be reborn. “Home in Flux” reclaims Toronto’s detached homes as adaptable spaces for intergenerational, multigenerational, and collective living, supporting contemporary and future ways of life. Where Toronto’s housing stock once met resident needs, it is now financially unattainable and spatially inadequate.

Housing is a human right, and homes must evolve with their households. Disrupting conventional spatial patterns, the project inserts flexible spaces into existing housing stock to adapt to shifting families, cultures, and needs. “Home in Flux” provides residents with agency and belonging.

Instagram: @kjenn.n, @karenkubey

Tucson Hope Factory Micro Shelter Project by Yasmina Dashti, Caro Durazo, Souhayla Farag, Ashlea Hume, Graciela Keymolent, Christian MacKay, Daniela Navarro, Olivia Nelson, Chloe O’Hail, Alberto Ramirez, Berenice Ramos Pena, Alondra Rodriguez, Mariana Rodriguez, Josh Russell, Jordan West & Connor Worley, B.Arch ’25
University of Arizona | Advisors: Teresa Rosano & Greg Veitch

The Community Design & Action Capstone Studio engaged 16 fifth-year architecture students from the University of Arizona in designing transitional micro-shelter villages, in collaboration with Tucson Hope Factory and the Drachman Institute. Rooted in trauma-informed and community-based design, the studio addressed housing insecurity through inclusive, service-learning pedagogy.

Across two semesters, students investigated root causes of homelessness, conducted site analyses, and proposed scalable solutions for villages of 10–40 units. They evaluated over 50 Tucson sites, ultimately producing master plans for five viable locations and developing a replicable framework for future implementation. A modular micro-shelter prototype emphasized climate responsiveness, cost-efficiency, and ease of volunteer-led assembly.

Centering lived experience, students engaged directly with unhoused individuals—including veterans and women—as well as nonprofits, service providers, and faith-based partners. A pivotal trip to Seattle included collaboration with Sound Foundations NW (which reports a 63% success rate transitioning residents to permanent housing) and hands-on construction of a tiny home. Students also drew insights from the University of Washington’s Design-Build Studio and Habitat for Humanity’s CHUCK Center.

Throughout the process, students crafted detailed construction guides and prototyped a full-scale shelter to test environmental performance and feasibility. The design prioritizes privacy, safety, and community—balancing individual dignity with collective support.

As one student reflected, “I really appreciated the community aspect of this project, having a real client and really feeling like there was a real project that is making a difference.” A community member echoed: “This is a beautiful project coming to life. I am very proud of the University for being part of this. I am thankful that many lives are being impacted!”

Exemplifying the power of inclusive, community-driven design, the initiative has garnered media attention, secured grant funding, and positioned itself as a scalable model and catalyst for zoning reform in Tucson and beyond.

Instagram: @_carood21, @souhayla_farag, @oliviatnelson, @bere.ramoss, @alondra_rodriguez_j, @mmariandreaa, @jrussell_tm, @jordaan.west, @cj_the_prodigist, @teresarosano

Parametric Housing Aggregation Model – PHAM by Hunter Wells, D.Arch ’25
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa | Advisor: Karla Sierralta

This project reimagines how we design housing in Hawai‘i, starting with one of the most promising solutions: the Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU). In response to the state’s ongoing housing crisis, the Parametric Housing Aggregation Model (PHAM) is a digital tool that helps homeowners, designers, and policymakers rapidly generate ADU designs that are affordable, space-efficient, and culturally grounded.

At its core, PHAM transforms zoning codes, lot dimensions, and programmatic needs into a flexible design language. Using parametric modeling software and modular components such as bedrooms, kitchens, and bathrooms, the system can generate hundreds of unique ADU configurations based on user inputs like room dimensions, site location, and layout adjacencies. Each option is evaluated in real time for spatial efficiency and estimated construction cost, grounded in localized data from Hawai‘i’s building market.

To bridge technical design with architectural character, the model also integrates AI visualization tools that help communities and designers visualize how ADUs might blend with the island’s built and natural environments. This creates a dialogue between form, culture, and cost, allowing for design solutions that are not only efficient, but place-based and aspirational.

The tool also includes a planning interface where policymakers can explore how changes in zoning or proximity to transit might affect where and how ADUs can be deployed. Ultimately, PHAM functions as both a generative engine and a decision-support platform, empowering homeowners, designers, and city officials to work together toward more resilient and equitable housing futures in Hawai‘i.

Click here to learn more.

This project received the 2025 ARCC King Student Medal – For Excellence in Architectural + Environmental Research.

Instagram: @thewellsdesign, @ksierralta

Pathways to Sustainability: Densifying Sag Harbor by Maxamillion Foley & Samie Zia, B.Arch ’25
New York Institute of Technology | Advisor: Dongsei Kim

Sag Harbor, a scenic East End village on Long Island, has become increasingly unaffordable due to unsustainable zoning and development practices. Current regulations require minimum lot sizes of over 20,000 square feet, but only 25% of each lot can be developed, which raises housing costs and results in land being underutilized. 

Although there are 2,100 housing units, only half are occupied year-round, and many local families face rising costs for housing, energy, and transportation. Large-lot zoning has also displaced small businesses and increased reliance on private cars, which has contributed to population decline, especially among younger residents who often do not return after college due to a lack of affordable options.

Our proposal introduces zoning reforms to support denser, more affordable housing without displacing current residents. By reducing maximum lot sizes to 10,000 square feet and targeting underused parcels, we outline three infill strategies to double or triple housing density while preserving the village’s character. These homes will be designed with environmental considerations in mind, including solar orientation, flood risks, and energy-efficient materials.

We also suggest expanding public transportation by adding four new bus stops and a local shuttle system to decrease car reliance and connect residents to jobs and services. Stops will feature bike storage, solar collection, and small amenity spaces. These changes aim to lower financial burdens, enhance accessibility, and create a replicable model for sustainable growth across the East End.

This project won the Faculty Thesis Award.

Instagram: @dongsei.kim

Fädi, House for the Elderly by María José Castaños Murillo, B.Arch ’25
Universidad Anáhuac Querétaro | Advisors: Guillermo Márquez, Patricia Cutiño & Jorge Javier

The Fädi House concept symbolizes the stages of life through a play and intersection of architectural volumes, each representing a different phase of our lives. The design is conceived as a habitable sculptural piece, where transitions between spaces reflect the passage of time and personal evolution.

We spend every year of our lives trying to live longer and have more retirement years, but we don’t think deeply about how we’ll make those years truly worthwhile, where we will spend those final years.

At the heart of the project, the central gardens act as the symbolic core, representing the purpose and roots of life, while a conceptual bridge links nature with the living spaces, promoting a harmonious integration between humans and their environment.

The arches, inspired by Querétaro’s historic centre, act as portals that link to the interior spaces with nature, evoking the city’s colonial architecture and reinforcing a sense of cultural belonging. By crossing these arches, residents not only connect with the architecture of the project, but also with the history and identity of Querétaro, feeling that they are part of a heritage that transcends generations. The design of patios, gardens, terraces, and other green areas in spaces designated for older adults offers a valuable opportunity to promote social gatherings, participation in group activities, and the creation of spaces for social interaction. These areas seek to minimize feelings of loneliness while promoting well-being and strengthening social interaction in harmony with nature.

Instagram: @mariajoseecm, @archbymj, @arquitectura_anahuac, @arqwave

A Journey Towards Home: A Holistic Approach to Indigenous Youth Homelessness in Winnipeg, Manitoba by Jordan McKay, M.Arch ’25
University of Toronto | Advisor: Karen Kubey

Winnipeg, Manitoba, is home to the highest population of Indigenous people in Canada. Unfortunately, Indigenous youth make up 84% of all Winnipeg youth experiencing homelessness. Utilizing an Indigenous-led approach, “The Journey Towards Home” creates an intentional and purposeful housing space that challenges the colonialist definition of homelessness and alleviates its impact on our youth.

The space fosters an environment for reconnection to land, culture, community, ceremony, and growth within the urban fabric. Emulating the path of the Red River, this multi-use mid-rise residential project promotes growth and healing by creating culturally adequate spaces for learning, connecting, and ceremony within the built form and the landscape. The project houses youth, live-in mentors, and elders and provides built-in services, programs, and amenities.

Instagram: @jmckay43, @karenkubey

Harbor: A Safe Haven that Fosters Growth and Creativity by Mayowa Odunjo & Brenda Meloto De Oliveira, B.Arch ’25
Kennesaw State University | Advisor: Robin Puttock

“Harbor” creates a safe haven that fosters growth and creativity. The design aims to bring people in and create exciting and engaging spaces.

Instagram: @mayze.o, @brendameloto, @robinzputtock

Re-Itera, Collective Housing by Sebastián Mercado Zaldivar, M.Arch ’25
Universidad Anáhuac Querétaro | Advisors: Guillermo Márquez, Patricia Cutiño & Jorge Javier

The reuse of abandoned lots within the Historic Center of Querétaro is the starting point of an urban strategy aimed at reversing the physical and social deterioration of the area. “Re-itera” proposes an affordable, flexible, and site-specific collective housing typology, capable of adapting to the specific conditions of each lot and the transformations of the inhabited environment. The project introduces a replicable, adaptable housing module designed to respond to the physical, historical, and regulatory constraints of the site while enhancing the built environment. 

Each module is configured linearly and comes in two typologies: Type A, which consists of three meters in width and forty square meters, and Type B, of 4.5 meters in width and sixty square meters. Both maintain a depth of fourteen meters and distribute five dwellings along with communal spaces on the semi-basement and rooftop levels. A system of staggered half-levels enables vertical compactness, allowing for compliance with the 7.5-meter height limit imposed by local heritage authorities. The layout centralizes kitchens and bathrooms to optimize infrastructure, while a longitudinal void ensures cross ventilation and natural lighting in every unit. 

The structure is based on a rigid frame system composed of reinforced concrete columns and beams. The floor system uses joist and vault construction, with precast concrete dovetail-shaped vaults, reducing construction time and cost, embracing a material honesty that aligns with sustainability goals. 

The ensemble located on Felipe Luna Norte #22 demonstrates the system’s potential: an underused lot is transformed into 35 new housing units across seven modules—where only four existed before—while preserving historic facades and reinforcing the neighborhood’s character. Shared spaces, including dual-purpose parking and recreational areas, encourage community interaction. 

Rather than imposing new urban forms, Re-itera integrates sensitively into the existing fabric. Its modular logic allows it to densify responsibly, adapt to irregular lots, and preserve architectural heritage. More than a housing solution, it offers a scalable model for urban regeneration—revitalizing neglected areas, fostering inclusivity, and enhancing quality of life through contextual and sustainable design.

Instagram: @elarquitonto, @arquitectura_anahuac, @arqwave

Co-Care Lodge: Community-Focused, Cohousing Care Homes in Toronto by Ho Yeung Miu, M.Arch ’25
University of Toronto | Advisor: Karen Kubey

“Co-Care Lodge” responds to the urgent need for tailored, affordable housing solutions for Toronto’s aging population. Since COVID-19, many city-operated elderly care facilities have become under-maintained, with some facing demolition. The project offers a new intergenerational, care-based cohousing model that reimagines the relationship between older adults, caregivers, and their families.

Through unlocking infill opportunities in established neighborhoods and integrating shared indoor and outdoor spaces, the Lodge integrates new care residences without extensive land acquisition and reduces costs while fostering stronger community ties across roles and generations. Co-Care Lodge embraces a sustainable and replicable building approach that prioritizes economical, durable dwellings that promote long-term community integration while challenging the outdated “warehousing” of seniors.

This project won the University of Toronto Daniels Faculty Design Prize.

Instagram: @o.en.mo._, @karenkubey

Balikbayan: Creating a Sense of Place through Housing by Julia Buli-e, M.Arch ’25
University of Toronto | Advisor: Karen Kubey

“Balikbayan” housing celebrates Filipino cultural identity and fosters community in Toronto’s Little Manila. Facing unaffordable housing and limited flexible spaces, Filipino immigrants have created a vibrant hub. This proposal reimagines balikbayan – Tagalog for “return home” – by adapting traditional Filipino residential typologies, like the “compound,” to a high-density Canadian setting. 

A mid-rise building incorporates familiar design elements to enhance belonging. Using a limited-equity cooperative model, Balikbayan promotes multigenerational living, stability, and inclusivity. The project balances cultural heritage with contemporary urban needs, offering affordable, accessible housing that strengthens community ties. Incorporating live-work and “compound” housing units, Balikbayan is informed by interviews with Filipino Torontonians.

This project won the Irving Grossman Prize.

Instagram: @buli.e, @karenkubey

The Rainier Collective by Marianne Radillas, M.Arch ’25
University of Washington | Advisor: Dawn Bushnaq

The project is from the required ARCH 503 design studio, which focuses on mixed-use, multi-family housing in Seattle’s Rainier Beach neighborhood. Seattle is facing a crippling housing affordability crisis and the studio tasks students with addressing this crisis at scale while responding to neighborhood concerns, creating a vibrant urban environment, and fostering community within the building. The Rainier Collective provides a density of social opportunity, co-living and the individual, and supports an active and interdependent community life. The project consists of 116 co-living units and ground-floor uses, including a bakery, maker space, food bank, and dining hall. The building is configured as a series of discrete blocks with full-height courtyards between them to reduce the scale of the building on the street, provide ample light and ventilation to the units and foster community. Each block houses a discrete co-living community with a central shared kitchen/dining/living space and terrace. A central “street” connects the blocks while providing amenities for the building as a whole, including lounges, game rooms, conversation spaces, and quiet work spaces. The building is clad in an understated gray brick to put the emphasis on the courtyard gardens and the community within.

This project received commends.

Instagram: @mariannered

The Link by Emmaline Payne & Kevin Toudeka, B.Arch ’25
Kennesaw State University | Advisor: Robin Puttock

Situated in Greenwood Bottom, a historic Black Business District, this project aims to link the site to downtown Macon by creating a new hub that promotes interaction between the local community and residents. The project’s interlink space connects pop-up retail spaces with a semi-public co-working area, creating an incubator space for local entrepreneurs.

The use of trees native to Macon contributes to preserving wildlife and enhancing the landscape. An engineered wetland in the central courtyard is effective in managing stormwater runoff, climate regulation, and improving biodiversity while only requiring minimal maintenance. The onsite retention pond holds excess storm water, allowing it to be reabsorbed into the environment, and also replenishes the wetlands.

In an effort to reduce overall embodied carbon emissions, locally sourced and manufactured materials such as wood were selected as the primary building facade component. Our other primary materials include glass, which is locally sourced from a manufacturer only 51 miles from the site.

Instagram: @emmalinepayne, @robinzputtock  

The Understory by Eleanor Lewis, M.Arch ’25
University of Washington | Advisor: Jack Chaffin

The project is from the required ARCH 503 design studio, which focuses on a mixed-use multi-family housing project in Seattle’s Rainier Beach neighborhood. Seattle is facing a crippling housing affordability crisis and this studio introduces all M. Arch students to the challenge of providing much-needed housing at scale while addressing neighborhood concerns, creating vibrant urban spaces, and fostering community within the building. “The Understory” provides 80 units of cohousing along a central residential “street” with an array of community-focused amenity spaces, including lounges, maker spaces, library, art gallery, and community garden. The building is conceived as a series of discrete boxes organized beneath a single, low-slope gable roof. The informal arrangement of the boxes juxtaposed with the continuous roof creates a variety of interstitial spaces that provide ample opportunity for community gathering and the fostering of relationships. The primary structural system is mass timber and the porosity of the building provides ample opportunity for passive heating, cooling, and ventilation in Seattle’s temperate climate.

This project received commends.

Instagram: @l.n.r, @jchaffin32

The Hive by Justin Monzon & Soreya Ganda, B.Arch ’25
Kennesaw State University | Advisor: Robin Puttock

Eco-conscious design for resilient, inclusive, and efficient workforce housing. Inspired by Macon’s historic Tybee community, “The Hive” honors the legacy of Greenhood Bottom, once home to a close-knit Black community known for its flourishing small businesses and cultural vitality. Located on the same site where Tybee residents were displaced by a never realized urban renewal plan, this five-story mixed-use project is designed to bring back the vibrancy and resilience of a once-thriving “Black Wall Street.”

The HIVE combines residential and commercial uses within a community-centric environment. The design prioritizes a lively ground floor with diverse retail options, a community center, a grocery store, and an open courtyard to foster daily interaction and access for Macon residents. Strategically, the project emphasizes reconnection, aiming to seamlessly integrate the Greenhood Bottom neighborhood with downtown Macon through a pedestrian- and bike-friendly environment.

The HIVE is divided into smaller, interlinked structures scaled to reflect Macon’s urban fabric, creating a strong sense of continuity and accessibility. Connection is central to The Hive’s design approach. Drawing inspiration from the Charles Douglass Theatre’s chain symbol, bridges link each building to provide both circulation and community gathering spaces. These public bridges, symbolic of strength and unity, house resident amenities and foster communal interactions, while rooftop gardens contribute to environmental sustainability and urban agriculture. The Hive is both a tribute to Greenhood Bottom’s rich cultural history and a beacon of future resilience, offering Macon a vibrant, integrated, and sustainable community space that connects people and place in meaningful ways.

Instagram: @justin_at_life, @___sosso___, @robinzputtock

Make & Mend by Madeleine Cordray, M.Arch ’25
Washington University in St. Louis | Advisor: Donald N. Koster

“Make & Mend” is a response to the self-initiated research and design proposal fulfilling the degree project requirements for the first-professional Master’s degree program in the Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design at Washington University in St. Louis. Work in this studio is the architectural response to the intentional, programmatic, and situational project brief developed through in-depth research into a specific transect of the St. Louis Region conducted during the prior semester. 

In North St. Louis, rates of violence against women are considerably higher than the national averages, with the State of Missouri ranked seventh in the country for reported domestic abuse.  In crisis, women need more than immediate shelter; they need a safe space that can foster healing, skill-building, and strength. Given the high number of assault cases within the researched transect, the lack of resources to combat violence against women, and a need for economic stability, this proposed safe space for female-identifying individuals and their loved ones takes a unique approach, combining a makerspace to empower women not only as survivors of hardship but also as creators and professionals.

Designed with both privacy and community in mind, the shelter offers a safe, dignified environment while inviting women to engage with the transformative potential of hands-on skills. In the makerspace, residents can explore trades such as woodworking, sewing, and digital design—skills that support pathways to employment and financial autonomy. This architectural intervention is more than just a building; it is a holistic response to the unique needs of survivors. Local artisans and volunteers will host workshops, fostering an environment of shared learning and support, enabling women to rebuild confidence and community connections.

By aligning thoughtful architectural design with critical social services, this safe house and shelter aims to disrupt cycles of violence and poverty, creating a lasting impact. Here, residents find not only refuge but also a resource-rich environment tailored to foster self-sufficiency and future opportunity in a way that strengthens the entire North St. Louis community.

Instagram: @mad.cord, @donkoster

Cadence: The Rhythm of a Community by Marianna Sanchez, Nicholas Stile & Sofia Gomez, B.Arch ’25
Kennesaw State University | Advisor: Robin Puttock

“Cadence” is a sustainable, multi-use building inspired by Macon’s musical heritage. It connects downtown with the site through native landscaping, solar-responsive elements, and local red brick. Featuring photovoltaics, rainwater harvesting, natural ventilation, and geothermal wells, it offers an energy-efficient, community-friendly space blending public and private areas.

Instagram: @msg2002, @nicholas._.stile, @gomez.sofia1, @robinzputtock 

Legacy: A Visual Timeline that Honors Macon’s Past, Embraces its Present and Advocates for its Future by Caroline Puckett & Alejandra Montalvo-Mendez, B.Arch ’25
Kennesaw State University | Advisor: Robin Puttock

As time goes on, it’s easy to forget what got something to where it is today, especially when some of those things are not considered to be highlights in history. However, the worst thing that can happen is forgetting or trying to erase that history. While some moments in time are moments less than ideal, it’s important to acknowledge and understand that without the moments that came before, one cannot move forward. Macon is a city that was shown just that; it acknowledges that its history and origin are filled with the suffering of slaves and other grim moments, but it’s not afraid to show that they have grown from what they once were. 

Their urban landscape is a visual look into the past of Macon and everything they’ve done to create a better city today. Yet, not only does Macon embrace their past in their present, but they are looking to the future for their current and new residents looking to make a home there. Macon is currently looking to create a community where people are not afraid for their future generations and can rest easy knowing that the environment they are in is nurturing and caring for them. One way they’re doing this is by designing a space where people can settle and create their own legacy. This space not only mirrors Macon as a whole in embracing the rich past but also displays where Macon has grown to in this day, while pushing toward the future Macon wants to create for its residents.

Instagram: @thatoneazian, @alejandra_montal, @robinzputtock 

Reconnect with Home : A Long-Term Shelter for Women Who Have Experienced Domestic Violence by Roxanne Boulet, M.Arch ’25
Université Laval | Advisor: Maria Del Carmen Espegel

It is acknowledged that a home should be a place of refuge — a space where one feels safe and free to express intimacy. However, the experience of domestic violence goes against these fundamental needs associated with the notion of “home.”

Although it is commonly believed that domestic violence occurs during the relationship, the violence that happens after separation is often overlooked. Long-term shelters are recognized for offering specialized services in post-separation domestic violence. Through transitional housing, they support women in becoming aware of the violence they have endured and in reorganizing their lives. It is therefore important to consider what design strategies can support women in their process of regaining control over their lives and reconnecting with their homes. More specifically, this project seeks to answer the following question: How can the built environment contribute to the empowerment of women who have experienced domestic violence?

This housing project explores how spatial qualities can help rebuild the bond of trust between survivors and their living space. It examines how the built environment can support the idea of reconnecting with one’s home — the home as a safe, secure, and intimate place — as well as reconnecting with oneself — the home as a space of self-appropriation and self-affirmation.

Click here to learn more. 

Instagram: @roxanne.boulet, @eaul.architecture

Project Nomad: Modern Solution to Adaptable Desert Living by  Nick Pshegodskyy, B.Arch ’25
Academy of Art University | Advisor: Jason Austin

This project is positioned as a UTOPIAN vision that speculates its DYSTOPIAN realities. The temperatures on planet Earth have reached triple digits. The record-breaking temperatures are making uninhabitable large cities with vast surfaces covered with asphalt and concrete. This project assumes that, as a consequence, some people will move away from large urban centers to remote locations such as the Joshua Tree Desert. Open landscape, climate adaptation, and renewable energy production provide a safe haven for the newly transplanted residents. The architecture provides cool breezes, fresh air, and beautiful views of the site. The implementation of the latest technology provides a continuation of services like the internet and deliveries in this remote location. But as we all know, life doesn’t always work as it is described, thus the DYSTOPIAN aspect becomes a central part of the project. The project’s DYSTOPIAN elements draw from social community prototypes based on sci-fi movies, video games, and historical precedents. Life in the desert will not be easy. While project NOMAD provides residents with some conveniences, there is no way to ignore that, beyond the project boundaries, the emptiness of the desert is enormous and hostile to life. This project imagines how humanity might adapt to such a setting.

Click here to learn more. 

This project won the Design Excellence Award.

Instagram: @godsky_design, @aus.mer

Subversive Suburbs – Join the Altadena Land Trust Alliance by Charles Lafon, M.Arch ’25
University of Southern California | Advisor: Sascha Delz

The typical residential subdivisions that define much of the housing supply in the U.S. have drawn persistent criticism from architects and planners. Suburban sprawl has contributed to car dependency, social atomization, and an affordability crisis fueled by land speculation and debt. While urban co-ops and rural utopian communities have attempted to address some of these structural issues, “suburbia” remains deeply tied to conventional forms of ownership, use, and consumption. Subversive Suburbs argues for the adaptation of suburbs into sites that resist, rather than reinforce, these socioeconomic norms. Using post-wildfire Altadena as a case study, this proposal for a Community Land Trust (CLT) and affiliated incentives retains the area’s suburban character while supporting more resilient, collective lifestyles. The envisioned Altadena Land Trust Alliance (ALTA) offers residents who lost their homes the opportunity to convert their land titles into shares in a new housing cooperative that gradually but efficiently redevelops the neighborhood. ALTA incentivizes collectivization by allowing members to build under a new zoning framework, adding a variety of shared infrastructure and amenities without sacrificing affordability. The project thus subverts both the formal and economic logic of suburban development, creating an alternative vision for the future of this contested typology.

Instagram: @coop_urbanism

COOPERATIVE AGING: REIMAGINING MULTIGENERATIONAL HOUSING TO SUPPORT AGING IN PLACE by Reilly O’Grady, M.Arch ’25
University of Maryland | Advisor: Ken Filler

Multi-generational housing is an ancient solution to a modern problem. The idea of living in a home with others to share in the workload, responsibilities, and security of the whole has been around since humans first constructed shelters. In modern times, however, we have lost this sense of community and resulting support. A majority of the population is facing elderly age and changing physical and mental requirements. The world is not prepared to care for and house such a large group of elders, especially the United States. Many people, young and old, are forced to move and seek assistance outside of their known and grown homes. Aging in place is the ability to remain in your home or community safely, independently, and comfortably, regardless of age, income, or ability level. Multi-generational housing proposes a solution where adaptive unit design, focus on shared spaces, and slow circulation can create a community that grows and changes with its residents. By creating social engagement in an age of isolation, future growth and connection can be inspired in the greater community.

Instagram: @_rjogrady_, @kenfiller

Stay tuned for Part XIII!

2025 Study Architecture Student Showcase - Part XI

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Architecture has the power to transform a space. In Part XI of the 2025 Study Architecture Student Showcase, we put a spotlight on revitalized spaces. These projects take their pre-existing sites and create new spaces that promote sustainability, community connection, accessibility, and resiliency. The transformed sites include naval bases, power plants, industrial sites, local landmarks, abandoned city centers, underserved neighborhoods, and more. Each project incorporates design, construction, policy, and infrastructure to reimagine new spaces that serve their communities. 

Take a closer look below!

The Greenest Building, The One That is Already Built by Audrey Barnhart, M.Arch ’25
Roger Williams University | Advisor: Rubén Alcolea

This thesis explores adaptive reuse and sustainability by transforming a retired coal-fired power plant into a conservation center. With over 300 decommissioned coal plants across the U.S., the project asks: Should these monumental industrial relics be demolished, or reimagined to serve communities once again? The selected site is located on Mare Island, California, a former naval base now undergoing revitalization. Positioned near polluted waters and existing conservation efforts, the site becomes a strategic place for ecological restoration.

The design preserves the historic brick and concrete shell of the power plant, inserting a self-supporting mass timber structure within. This new framework uses sustainably sourced CLT panels and glulam beams, forming a light-filled, naturally ventilated interior that supports vegetation between the old and new structures. Only at vertical circulation points do the two structures physically meet, symbolizing a transition between past and future.

Programmatically, the conservation center includes public education spaces, research labs, and residential units. A rewilded landscape replaces paved surfaces, reducing the urban heat island effect and encouraging biodiversity. A narrow water channel brings Bay water into the site for ecological engagement, while a nearby storage hangar is converted into a ferry terminal to enhance sustainable transportation.

Passive design strategies guide the intervention, with large open-air windows providing daylight and ventilation. Prefabricated timber elements reduce site impact. Overall, the project demonstrates how industrial heritage can support ecological recovery, creating a dialogue between decay and renewal, nature and structure, and the old and the new.

This project won the Thesis Honor Award.

Instagram: @rwu_cummingsarch, @alcoleatarrago

Turning Tides: Holistic Remediation by Hannah Moore, B.Arch ‘25
Academy of Art University | Advisors: Simon McKenzie, Philip Ra & Ricardo Solar

Through identifying areas of neglect, the revitalization of Harris Shipyards can emerge as a place of social inclusion, environmental sustainability, and urban renewal.

The repurposing of materials and structure found on the site accommodates transitional housing, job-training, and programs for public reconnection for those in our community who are experiencing homelessness. In addition, the project restores the surrounding beaches in order to protect at-risk species.

These parallel stories, of once-thriving characters who have since fallen into dereliction, can be provided remediation through this intervention, reigniting their significance and resilience within their contexts.

This project won the B.Arch Thesis Award. 

Click here to learn more.

Instagram: @hannah.3, @smckenzie23, @ricardo_solar_architecture

Rebuild From Decay: An Industrial Solution for A Post-Industrial Age by Kyle Sylvester, M.Arch ’25
Wentworth Institute of Technology | Advisors: Lauren McQuistion & Tom Chung

Mass timber presents an opportunity to redefine the future of abandoned industrial sites through the introduction of a new industry. While many of these sites have been repurposed as cultural and landscape parks, this approach often reduces their industrial identity to just a facade for new programs, disconnecting them from their manufacturing past. By integrating mass timber manufacturing and education within the fabric of an industrial wasteland, this model preserves the site’s historical significance while also creating a hub for sustainable industry, ensuring its continued use in the 21st century. 

This thesis revitalizes Machine Shop No. 2 at Bethlehem Steel Mill by maintaining and reinterpreting its industrial legacy. Typically, industrial wastelands are repurposed as landscape parks or cultural centers, stripping away the site’s industrial memory and using its infrastructure as a facade. By integrating sustainable mass timber construction, this proposal offers a forward-thinking approach to revitalizing post-industrial spaces through the use of mass timber construction. The existing machine shop has been transformed into a mass timber manufacturing facility and educational center for renewable materials, blending production and education through layered programming. This approach preserves the site’s identity while addressing the need for sustainable construction practices.

This project won the Wentworth School of Architecture and Design: Design Excellence Award. 

Instagram: @ksly5, @mc.quistion

From Wrecks to Wonders: Reclaiming Shorelines, Enriching Communities by Karunia Ayu, Hongxiang Wang & Tianqi Zhao (Enoch), MSAUD (Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design) ’25
Columbia University | Advisors: Kate Orff, Geeta Mehta, Emanuel Admassu, Sebastian Delpino, Gabriel Vergara, Lucas Coelho Netto & Shrey Patel

WHAT IF THE WATERWAY IS REOPENED, BROUGHT COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES TO ITS SHORES, AND REIMAGINED THE ECONOMY AND INDUSTRY ALONG THE BANKS?

In the past, the island of Ilha da Conceição was composed of three separate islets located within Guanabara Bay. The construction of Niterói’s port and the later Rio–Niterói Bridge, which was driven by the expanding oil industry, filled in the channels that separated the two islands. This effectively annexes the islands to the city while also obstructing the natural flow of water. In addition to the accumulation of derelict ships, this land reclamation has resulted in the accumulation of wastewater and industrial runoff, which has resulted in the transformation of once-clean currents into polluted pools that are stagnant.

The shoreline is now dominated by industrial activity, which has cut off communities from the water and undermined both the quality of the catch and traditional ways of making a living. Local fishermen used to thrive in this area previously.

The ‘what if’ scenario that we have envisioned involves reestablishing water circulation without displacing any industry. By relocating factories to nearby locations and innovatively repurposing vessels that have been abandoned, we could bring back a canal that is cleaner and flows more freely. Residents of Ilha da Conceição and Niterói would be brought together through the creation of new public spaces along its banks. These spaces would serve as natural filtration zones and social connectors.

What is the end result? improved water quality, revitalized community fishing, and parks along the water’s edge that are very inviting. The demonstration that industry, ecology, and community can coexist in harmony would be [highlighted] by the fact that improved access to the bay would stimulate the creation of jobs, broaden access to goods and services, and ignite local economic growth.

Click here to learn more. 

Instagram: @runikarunia, @enoxizi, @mehtageeta999 @eadmassu, @sdelpino_arq, @gabrielvergarag, @lucascoelhonetto, @cauecapille, @shrey_patel1999

City Within a Shell, Reclaiming underutilized buildings for living learning and belonging. by Kush Choganwala, M.Arch ’25
Boston Architectural College | Advisors: Ralph Jackson &  Ian F. Taberner

In a city defined by knowledge and ambition, where students arrive with dreams larger than their square footage, a quieter truth rises between the lines of the skyline: vacancy. Beneath the towers of Back Bay, amid the noise of commerce and culture, stand buildings built for another time empty, waiting, still. “City Within a Shell” is a thesis rooted in this urban contradiction. It asks: What if the city’s forgotten rooms could be reimagined for those still finding their place within it? What if architecture, instead of beginning with demolition, began with listening to the structures that remain, and the lives that need them?

This project proposes the adaptive reuse of the Sheraton Boston Hotel’s South Wing, transforming a vacated hospitality structure into a vertical co-living environment for students. Located in the academic epicenter of Boston, surrounded by institutions like Northeastern, Berklee, and the Boston Architectural College, the site holds the potential to serve the very population it has long overlooked. 

The design strategy centers on a modular four-story stacking system that integrates living units with shared kitchens, study lounges, wellness pods, and green terraces. These clusters spiral around a central spine, a vertical social core that weaves moments of interaction into the daily rhythm of living. The new facade becomes a living skin: softened with balconies, filtered with light, wrapped in green, inviting the city to witness a transformation not just of form, but of purpose. Methodologically, the thesis draws from precedent case studies in New York, Philadelphia, and Berlin, where adaptive reuse and cooperative housing models have reshaped the residential landscape. Site analysis, zoning and policy review, economic feasibility studies, and environmental performance simulations ground the proposal in practical viability while guiding its architectural expression. But beyond numbers and plans, this work is a meditation on belonging. It acknowledges that housing is not just a commodity, but a condition for well-being. It positions design as a tool not only for efficiency, but for empathy. And it offers a replicable framework—both spatial and strategic for cities grappling with similar imbalances between abundance and need.

City Within a Shell challenges the idea that buildings expire when their original function fades. Instead, it proposes that architecture can evolve layered, resilient, and generous. It suggests that within the walls we inherit, there is room to imagine something better: a city where vacancy is not a failure, but a beginning. Through this thesis, architecture becomes an act of reclamation of space, of purpose, and of the right to belong.

This project won the Edwin T. Steffian Award, Best of M.Arch Thesis. 

the informal Formal: a third way out by Yamen al Mohtar, B.Arch ’25
American University of Beirut | Advisor: Makram Al Kadi

In today’s world, where architecture is designed down to every small detail, spontaneity has been cast aside in favor of control. However, while being true in certain cities, this reality is in no way universal. That is because in most countries and cities, designed architecture is only a fraction of what is built. Most buildings are built without architects, without engineers or professionals, sometimes even without builders. This language of architecture is embodied in various informalities, ranging from informal neighborhoods and slums to temporary structures and “spontaneous” buildings built out of necessity.

This thesis exploration delves into questions regarding this untapped space, asking questions like: What if informality emerges not as a product of circumstance, but as a personalized method of design? What if different classes of society can be brought together through the incorporation of the informal into formal design? How can we use informality as a design method that could be applied universally, providing unique spatial qualities that would otherwise be exclusive to a few? What if there’s a new design process? One which is neither formal nor informal, but one which has the virtues of both and the downsides of none?

The Corridor, Neighborhood Center by Alejandro Rodríguez Torres, B.Arch ’25
Universidad Anáhuac Querétaro | Advisors: Guillermo Márquez, Patricia Cutiño & Jorge Javier

The goal of the project is to meet the need for a dignified central space that honors the history and cultural legacy of the San Francisquito neighborhood. It seeks to strengthen community unity through a specialized program that will position the project as a local and regional landmark. This space will integrate areas dedicated to recreation, culture, gastronomy and coexistence, key aspects to revitalize and strengthen the social fabric of the community.

Located in front of the Divina Pastora parish church, ‘El Corredor’ will become the main square of the neighborhood, housing a food market, culinary workshops and a multi-purpose esplanade. This space will host sporting, cultural, religious and recreational events, consolidating, together with the parish church, as the main cultural and social centre of the San Francisquito neighborhood.

The architectural approach focuses on creating a vibrant and cohesive neighborhood centre that not only revitalizes a neglected environment, but also becomes the beating heart of the community. Designed to bring residents together, our space promotes coexistence and collaboration, while driving local economic development and celebrating the rich cultural diversity of the neighborhood. By integrating recreational, commercial and cultural zones, we have conceived a place where every corner invites interaction, learning and creativity. This project will not only transform the urban landscape but also strengthen community ties, providing an environment where everyone feels included and valued.

Instagram: @atorres025, @arquitectura_anahuac

The Urban Ecology Center by Sydney Tucker, M.Arch ’25
Kansas State University | Advisor: Chad Schwartz

Situated along the dry Salt River corridor near Tempe Town Lake Dam, this Urban Ecology Center serves as a restorative retreat, not only for the urban community, but for the native ecologies that once sustained the riverbed. Grounded in historical research and indigenous knowledge, particularly the Hohokam’s advanced canal systems, the design reclaims the site’s legacy of environmental ingenuity. The project frames architecture as a medium for ecological education, offering spaces that reveal the riverbed’s hydrological function and potential for regeneration. The center looks to reconnect the public to the origins of Tempe and Phoenix, inviting reflection on how design can reconcile disruptions of urbanization and foster a more resilient future in Tempe.

Instagram: @sydneytucker1, @cjs_arch

Eco-corridor by Tinarith Tann, B.Arch ’25
New York Institute of Technology | Advisor: Jeannette Sordi

Far Rockaway, located at the eastern end of the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, New York, is a coastal community uniquely situated between two bodies of water: Jamaica Bay to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the south. Despite offering natural beauty, its geographical setting is vulnerable to flooding, especially during extreme weather conditions such as hurricanes, nor’easters, and intense coastal storms.

This thesis project designs eco-corridors—living pathways that transform unused urban spaces into a continuous green network stretching from downtown Far Rockaway to the water. These connections will revive neglected areas while addressing multiple challenges at once: managing stormwater and providing people with beautiful, functional natural and indoor spaces.

Click here to learn more.

This project was featured in the NYC Design Week, NYIT Exhibition.

Instagram:  @narith___, @jeannettesordi

BARN REIMAGINED: Adaptive Reuse as Environmental Stewardship by Kevin Johnson & Leanne Vera, M.Arch ’25
University of Notre Dame | Advisor: Ming Hu

This design aims to propose a barn complex that addresses LEEF’s mission of “Science Serving Society”, creating a functional complex that meets the need for public and private uses, enhances user views towards the Eagle’s Nest, and responds sensitively to the climatic conditions of the site while integrating into the landscape with minimal interventions to appear as if it were always there. At the core of the project, we sought to integrate sustainable design strategies as a link between LEEF’s mission and the architect’s duty to the environment.

We decided to orient the barn’s front facade, which contains the large triangular window, directly towards the existing Eagle’s Nest, which is a mainstay of the existing LEEF site. This orients the building roughly SE and maximizes the barn’s solar capabilities. The Solarium takes the orientation of the existing pavilion in order to maximize solar gain.

By keeping the building footprints small and separating the massings, we were able to reduce excessive heating, cooling and energy expenses. We also emphasized the importance of the natural prairie habitat as the predominant landscape and tried to minimize additional landscaping. Additionally, we propose utilizing local materials and adding a rainwater collection system for reuse in the LEEF facilities.

Our project embodies a holistic approach to adaptive reuse by thoughtfully preserving the historic Gothic arch barn and integrating it within a sustainably designed complex that supports LEEF’s mission of “Science Serving Society.” By achieving net-zero energy usage, implementing rainwater harvesting, restoring prairie ecosystems, and utilizing locally sourced materials, our proposal not only preserves the historic barn but also sets a precedent for future environmentally conscious adaptive reuse projects. 

La Factoría del Pueblo, Artist’s temporary internship by Estefania Vizcaya, B.Arch ’25
Universidad Anáhuac Querétaro | Advisors: Guillermo Márquez, Patricia Cutiño & Jorge Javier

The project “La Factoría del Pueblo” is about La Santa Cruz, and [was] created to provide temporary housing for artists seeking support to grow in the creative sector of the visual arts (painting and sculpture), in addition to creating a community among people who are interested in this subject and want to learn and soak up this art.

The design is sectioned to create different buildings and between them, small niches that help creativity and environment, all of them are united by a central square that has different ways of use, all with the purpose of uniting people who live there or visit the space to create a community. 

The materiality was chosen to minimize maintenance requirements for the space, as it is social. Therefore, we also created modules with frosted glass brick featuring thermal insulation to provide privacy and comfort to the space. We also have the steel rusted so that the spaces have more color; on the other hand, the materiality of slabs and walls is of apparent concrete. But also with the exteriors, the circulation is of paving stone, which is used locally for the different spaces.

Finally, the construction system is very important; the concrete was fused with steel, which led to having columns of HSS beams that are poured with concrete and perimeter beams covered with CPS profiles. In this way, it is possible to make a union with the apparent ribbed slab that has a support for the concrete retaining wall.

Instagram: @fannyvizcaya, @arquitectura_anahuac, @arqwave

VARIANT MINDS: DESIGNING FOR NEURODIVERSITY IN OFFICES by Maya Schiltz, B.Arch ’25
Kennesaw State University | Advisor: Robin Puttock

As society progresses, the stigma around neurodiversity is gradually fading, yet full acceptance and accommodation remain a work in progress. While programs exist for low- and medium-functioning neurodiverse individuals, high-functioning adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder often find themselves struggling to navigate environments designed for neurotypical minds. This thesis explores how workplace design can better accommodate the needs of neurodiverse employees, enhancing productivity, well-being, and inclusion.

Neurodiversity refers to the natural diversity in human cognition, encompassing the wide range of how people think, learn, and process the world around them, including conditions like autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and more. Estimates suggest that 15-20% of the population may have a neurodivergent condition. The conditions this thesis will be focusing on are ADHD, which involves challenges with attention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity, as well as autism, which involves difficulties in social communication and repetitive behaviors. These conditions were chosen due to how frequently they overlap, both in diagnostic criteria and social diagnosis. There are many benefits to embracing neurodiverse individuals, such as unique perspectives, innovative thinking, and heightened attention to detail. Research shows that neurodiverse teams can even outperform neurotypical ones. For example, Hewlett Packard Enterprise found that

their neurodiverse teams were 30% more productive than neurotypical ones when given the resources to succeed. Despite their potential, neurodiverse individuals face significant barriers to employment. In the United States, the unemployment rate for individuals on the autism spectrum exceeds 90% and 30% for ADHD, compared to the 4.2% national average.

This thesis proposes a framework to achieve inclusive office design with three key zones: individual workspaces with reduced distractions, collaboration areas supporting varied communication styles, and restoration spaces for stress management and sensory recovery. To find the optimal layout of these zones, precedents were chosen based on their positive performance in post-occupancy surveys and analyzed for their programmatic spatial ratios and sequence, then synthesized with existing neurodiverse design research. Redesigning oces to support neurodiversity comes with challenges, including costs, space constraints, and cultural resistance. However, prioritizing inclusivity in workplace design is not only a matter of fairness but also a practical strategy to enhance creativity, innovation, and organizational performance for neurodiverse and neurotypical employees alike.

This project was recognized as a Thesis Finalist (Top 5 of 90+).

Click here to learn more.

Instagram: @mayaschiltz, @robinzputtock

Urban Poverty: The Villas in Argentina by Lizbeth M. Padilla-González, B.Arch ’25
Pontifical Catholica University of Puerto Rico | Advisors: Jesús O. García-Beauchamp & Pedro A. Rosario-Torres

Urban poverty has emerged as a complex challenge affecting millions globally, profoundly impacting residents of informal settlements and marginalized neighborhoods. This multifaceted issue extends beyond economic deprivation to encompass inadequate access to essential services, substandard housing, food insecurity, limited educational opportunities, and systemic social exclusion. These challenges are intrinsically linked to economic inequality, spatial segregation, and evolving urban structures.

This architectural proposal addresses these challenges within Villa 21-24 (Villa Zavaleta) in Argentina through a comprehensive urban master plan that reimagines the existing urban fabric. Drawing inspiration from the consolidated city’s formal grid system, the design introduces strategic reorganization that enhances spatial articulation, improves connectivity, and establishes a foundation for transformative architectural interventions.

The project’s cornerstone is a major linear park traversing the settlement from north to south, serving as both an organizing spine and vital public space for community cohesion. Three strategically positioned mixed-use buildings line this central corridor, creating a dynamic interface between public and private realms. The ground and second levels house essential community programs, including dining facilities, technology education centers, libraries, vocational workshops, gymnasiums, children’s recreation areas, and flexible rental spaces for local entrepreneurs. These elements were selected through comprehensive community needs assessments to strengthen social networks, enhance quality of life, and foster comprehensive development pathways.

The upper levels accommodate diverse residential typologies, from studio units to three-bedroom apartments, serving varied family structures within the community. Each dwelling incorporates terraces and balconies strategically oriented toward recreational areas, fostering visual connections with green infrastructure and reinforcing the relationship between private living spaces and communal areas. The buildings employ a brick façade system providing effective solar protection and thermal regulation while maintaining authentic integration with the existing urban landscape, where brick represents one of the most prevalent and culturally significant building materials in the region. This material choice exemplifies the project’s commitment to environmental responsiveness and contextual sensitivity.

Click here to learn more.

Instagram: @Lizbethmarie_1

Quintero Bay: A Breakthrough by Georgia Fernandes, Maïssa Eid, Patricio Munoz & Dutt Patel, M.S.AUD (Masters of Science in Architecture and Urban Design) ’25
Columbia University | Advisors: Kate Orff, Geeta Mehta, Gabriel Vergara, Sebastian Delpino, Emanuel Admassu & Lucas Coelho

Quintero Bay, once a thriving coastal ecosystem in Chile, has become one of the country’s most heavily polluted sacrifice zones. Years of industrial activity have contaminated the air, land, and sea, deeply impacting the health and livelihoods of its residents. The region powers 7% of Chile’s energy, yet the communities living here have received only environmental harm in return.

Our project, inspired by the work of local feminist collective MUZOSARE, envisions a future rooted in healing and co-existence. Rather than erase the industrial past, we aim to repurpose it. The phased closure of the Codelco copper smelter offers a unique opportunity to restore wetlands, uncover buried sand dunes, and adapt former factories into community hubs for housing, research, culture, and ecological stewardship.

Guided by the principles of revitalizing, repurposing, and community development, the design introduces green corridors, nature-based ports, and SLAG LABS to transform industrial waste into public infrastructure. Residents can participate in restoration through income or social credit-based programs, reactivating the local economy while building environmental resilience.

This is not just a vision for Quintero Bay—it’s a model for all sacrifice zones. By integrating policy, ecology, and community leadership, the project offers a blueprint for transforming places of harm into living territories of shared futures.

This project won the Lucille Smyser Lownfish Memorial Prize.

Instagram: @g__fernandes, @misssoouuuu, @pamb.070, @duttpatel108, @mehtageeta999, @sdelpino_arq, @gabrielvergarag, @lucascoelhonetto, @eadmassu

Rhythmic Ribbons by Tadhg McDonald, M.Arch ’25
Lawrence Technological University | Advisor: Masataka Yoshikawa

The goal of this design was to highlight the site’s seclusion from the rest of Belle Isle and how it is reinforced by the relationship between the existing built and natural environments. This relationship influenced the formal design elements through the utilization of both orthogonal and curved walls. The orthogonal walls represent the built environment, while the curved walls represent the natural [environment.] The main generator for the site’s seclusion was the journey that any site visitors have to travel in order to reach the secluded core of the site. From the parking lot, the visitor can partially see all of the stunning views of the site, but they do not get the full experience until they have passed through the lines of trees and the Kresge Pavilion. This idea of Path vs. Goal was heavily influential for the interior design of this new construction. Overall, the site’s inherent seclusion, journey, and built and natural confines create a uniquely private experience for all visitors.

Instagram: @ta.dhg, @masataka.yoshikawa

Urban Apex Hub – Sustainable Tourism: A Path to the Reconstruction of Urban Spaces by Louis Y. Sepúlveda-Homs, B.Arch ’25
Pontifical Catholica University of Puerto Rico | Advisors: Jesús O. García-Beauchamp, Pilarín Ferrer-Viscasillas & Pedro A. Rosario-Torres

Urban decay is a persistent condition in many contemporary cities, leading to the deterioration of physical infrastructure, the disappearance of cultural identity, and the disconnection between communities and their environments. This capstone investigates the potential of sustainable tourism as a catalyst for the reconstruction of such spaces, proposing an architectural and urban intervention that integrates ecological, cultural, and economic dimensions. Titled “Urban Apex Hub – Sustainable Tourism: A Path to the Reconstruction of Urban Spaces,” the project is located in the deteriorated historic center of Río Grande, Puerto Rico, a site marked by abandonment, weak pedestrian infrastructure, and lack of public activation.

This research explores the intersection between landscape urbanism, urban obsolescence, and ecotourism as strategic tools to regenerate neglected urban cores. Drawing from the theories of Charles Waldheim on landscape as a framework for urbanization, Kevin Lynch’s concept of urban obsolescence, and Richard Butler’s tourism area lifecycle model, the proposal envisions a hybrid public space that merges architecture and nature. The program includes an eco-conscious hotel, a cultural center for local expression and education, and a public market that supports local entrepreneurship and food sustainability.

The methodology combines site analysis, ecological mapping, and community engagement to develop a masterplan focused on walkability, stormwater management, cultural preservation, and green infrastructure. Key spatial strategies include the use of interior gardens, green roofs, permeable surfaces, and open-air courtyards that enhance microclimates and support social interaction. The project also addresses tourism from a critical lens, proposing a model that attracts ecotourists to under-visited urban areas while empowering local communities.

Urban Apex Hub reimagines tourism as more than a temporary activity; it becomes a long-term drive for environmental stewardship, cultural resilience, and economic regeneration. By rooting the architectural proposal in the specific ecological and social context of Río Grande, the project demonstrates how sustainable tourism can actively participate in reconfiguring urban identity and restoring meaning to forgotten spaces. Ultimately, this research advocates for an architecture that is not only responsive to climate and place, but also capable of reshaping the narrative of urban decline into one of collective renewal.

Click here to learn more.

Instagram: @arch.louis_yarell

Ecologies of Extraction: Reclaiming Industrial Landscapes for Ecological and Social Renewal by Anna MacDonald, B.Arch ’25
Wentworth Institute of Technology | Advisor: Lauren McQuistion

The remediation of declining industrial landscapes in cities can serve as a catalyst for reimagining the urban fabric through the establishment of resilient infrastructure and renewed community connections. Newark’s industrial zone exemplifies the tensions and possibilities of this transformation, revealing how design, policy, and environmental strategies can converge to reshape industrial spaces. Industrial landscapes have long been shaped by economic shifts, ecological negligence, and urban expansion. As industries shrink or relocate, their physical remnants—factories, warehouses, rail lines, and contaminated land—present both challenges and opportunities for urban and ecological transformation. 

The transition to sustainable, post-industrial cities requires strategies that integrate environmental remediation, adaptive reuse, and equitable redevelopment. Newark, NJ, serves as just one extreme example of the contaminated, underutilized industrial landscapes that permeate U.S. cities, and regulatory agencies must implement a framework for transforming modern industrial zones through sustainable infrastructure, ecological restoration, and social equity. Strategic interventions explored in this study establish a model for cities to move beyond extractive histories toward climate-conscious and socially inclusive futures, demonstrating how industrial spaces can evolve into regenerative landscapes.

This project won the ARCC King Award, Wentworth School of Architecture and Design: Design Excellence Award.

Instagram:@annarmacdonald, @mc.quistion

WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE by Madisyn Hunter, M.Arch ’25
Florida A&M University | Advisors: George Epolito, Andrew Chin & Ronald B. Lumpkin

WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: THE IMPACT OF HURRICANE KATRINA ON THE CREATIVE PROCESS OF MUSICIANS AND THE EVALUATION OF ARCHITECTURAL LANDSCAPES

This thesis examines the intersection of architectural innovation and cultural resilience in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, focusing specifically on its impact on the creative processes of young musicians in New Orleans. The project investigates how architectural design can serve as both a physical and emotional safeguard against future natural disasters, while simultaneously nurturing cultural expression and healing.

Following Katrina’s devastation, rebuilding efforts largely favored traditional architecture over progressive design solutions—often reinforcing systemic inequities and overlooking the creative lifeblood of the city’s youth. Yet, in the face of limited resources and widespread destruction, many musicians returned to their craft, channeling trauma into vibrant, transformative art. This thesis argues that their resilience and creativity were not merely responses to adversity but vital threads in New Orleans’ cultural recovery.

The research combines case studies, archival data, and design analysis to explore how architecture can support post-disaster recovery by integrating cultural spaces within resilient infrastructure. The proposed design envisions floating structures that act as creative havens—spaces for performance, collaboration, and remembrance. These architectural interventions respond not only to storm surge patterns and environmental threats but also to the need for safe, inclusive places that honor the city’s musical heritage and provide psychological support.

Ultimately, “When the Levees Broke” presents a vision for architecture that does more than mitigate disaster—it becomes a catalyst for cultural preservation, artistic growth, and long-term community healing. The thesis underscores that in a city where music is a lifeline, architecture must rise to meet both environmental and emotional needs with equal care.

Instagram: @famusaet, @famu_masterofarch

Lazo by Rafael Martínez Marín, B.Arch ’25
Tecnológico de Monterrey | Advisor: Claudia Berenice Muciño García

The abandonment of Puebla’s Historic Center stems from urban, economic, and social transformations that, since the city’s founding, have triggered segregation and displacement, altering its residential character. In the 20th century, urban sprawl and the creation of new housing zones pushed residents out of the center. This trend was deepened by economic crises, weak public policy, and a lack of housing incentives, leaving many buildings in disrepair and community life fractured.

In recent decades, the city’s designation as a World Heritage Site and the growth of tourism have transformed the center into a commercial hub, further reinforcing residential abandonment and neglecting the development of its original neighborhoods.

This study focuses on the Analco neighborhood, a place deeply affected by these dynamics. It now faces advanced deterioration and insecurity. Through documentary research, interviews, comparative analysis, and analogous case studies, the project identifies patterns, challenges, and opportunities that have shaped Analco’s transformation.

As a response, the architectural project “Lazo” proposes a strategy to reconnect the neighborhood with its people. Situated on two plots separated by a street, the design links them through a habitable bridge that becomes both a symbolic and functional connector. This elevated structure hosts cultural, educational, and social programs that strengthen community bonds.

More than a finished object, the project is conceived as an open and adaptable system, shaped through community involvement. Public space is the core of the proposal, with plazas, open workshops, and shared courtyards designed to encourage interaction and daily use. The program includes classrooms, artisan workshops, a communal kitchen, and exhibition areas—spaces that promote learning, creativity, and the transmission of local knowledge.

The bridge redefines the street not as a boundary but as a space of encounter, promoting pedestrian movement and intergenerational exchange. “Lazo” becomes not just a building, but an infrastructure of care, identity, and continuity—an active agent in the regeneration of one of Puebla’s most historic yet neglected neighborhoods.

The capstone was recognized as Best Generation Project by Tecnológico de Monterrey.

Instagram: @rafamtz._, @arq.pue.tec

Empowering Communities by Carlos Victor Coelho, M.Arch ’25
Boston Architectural College | Advisors: Ralph Jackson & Ian F. Taberner

SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE’S IMPACT ON URBAN BARRIERS IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS

This thesis proposal focuses on the tension between formal and informal settlements in Latin American countries, particularly in Brazil, where urban barriers contribute to sociocultural inequality. These barriers, including spatial, economic, and political exclusions, create challenges for informal settlements, such as infrastructure disadvantages and limited access to opportunities. By asking the following questions, this proposal suggests establishing a social hub in a low-income community within informal settlements, emphasizing the importance of considering its unique conditions and challenges in planning urban interventions. 

The Social Hub aims to break down social and cultural barriers through social architectural intervention. This intervention will act as a powerful tool to provide equal access to essential resources and services, such as food and water. The initiative also aims to promote social equality and inclusion. This proposal suggests establishing the social hub in an informal settlement in Vitoria, ES, Brazil. To achieve its goal, the proposed site, approximately 1.8 acres, is situated in a sloped informal neighborhood within the heart of the city and the Historical center, rich in cultural and historical relevance.

Methods of Inquiry:

– How can social architecture in informal settlements increase the quality of life and social equality?

– What challenges and barriers do urban barriers within low-income communities bring to them?

– How can deconstructing urban barriers through architecture help guarantee needy community residents’ right to the city and ensure integration and equality?

Term of Criticism:

– Does the proposal project help overcome challenges such as the urban barrier within the community?

– Does the proposal present a structure that fulfills the community’s significant needs, such as food access, education, and public space?

– Does the project offer a structure that encourages the community’s involvement and inspires pride and opportunities

This project received Commends for Thesis.

Power In Displacement by Raneen Alaani, M.Arch ’25
Boston Architectural College | Advisors: Lorraine Kung & Ian F. Taberner

Planting roots in extended exile – Disintegrating refugee camp boundaries.

This research investigates establishing a sense of security, resilience, and preservation of cultural identity for Palestinian refugee communities in the Middle East. These communities have been struggling with instability and feeling that they have been uprooted from their homes for many decades. The political status of most of these refugees complicates the issue even further. Palestinian refugees in many Middle Eastern countries fall under the status of “stateless”. This dilemma is not only affecting their social and economic lives, but it is detrimental to their psychological and emotional wellbeing as they continue to feel imprisoned within the intangible boundaries of their refugee camps.

  • Creation of a safe haven to exhibit communal memory that reminisces the homeland
  • A place of attachment that empowers the culture, religion and heritage
  • The use of natural light to invoke healing – peace – tranquility

Methods of Inquiry:

  • Sense of security and stability is restored
  • Refugee community’s youth have aspirations for their future
  • Self-esteem and self worth is restored

Terms of Criticism:

Alzarqaa refugee camp is only a few kilometers outside of Amman, Jordan. It is one of the oldest refugee camps in the region (UNRWA Jordan). Alzarqaa camp struggles with density and lack of job opportunities in addition to water scarcity, lack of resources, and lack of natural light. This thesis proposes a resilience center of approximately 9000 SF just outside the bounds of the camp that acts as a continuation of the community extending just beyond the boundaries of the camp.”

This project received Commends for Thesis.

Stay tuned for Part XII!

2025 Study Architecture Student Showcase - Part IX

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Today’s installment of the 2025 Study Architecture Student Showcases includes exceptional capstone and thesis projects centered on public spaces. Part IX features a variety of public spaces, including marketplaces, museums, mixed-use buildings, music venues, recreation centers, and more. Each design creates an opportunity for connection and growth by promoting inclusivity, accessibility, and sustainable practices. Read more about these outstanding projects below!

Sprouting Market by Ryn Blackburn, B.S. in Architecture ’25
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Advisor: Wei Zhao

“Sprouting Market” offers the local community access to a vibrant market space set on the waters of the Tam Giang Lagoon, where many residents live on boats. Utilizing a steel space-frame structure with tensile fabric for shading, the design minimizes contact with the terrain to preserve the region’s delicate aquaculture. Fully open to its surroundings, the market allows boats and people to pass through freely or gather beneath an organically shaped roof where commercial activities and social exchanges unfold. Inspired by the traditional floating markets of the lagoon’s coast, the design reinterprets this tradition while introducing programmed and programmable spaces for both locals and visitors. 

At the heart of one leaf-like cluster is a community garden that supports food security; the opposing cluster accommodates flexible spaces for social gatherings and cultural performances. A smaller canopy structure marks the dock along the shoreline, creating both a visual and functional link between the new market and the existing onshore one. The structure is thoughtfully designed to accommodate the lagoon’s fluctuating water levels throughout the day. While portions of the central circular platform may be partially submerged, the docks are built to float, adapting seamlessly to the changing tides. More than just a marketplace, Sprouting Market is a place of connection, community, and collective growth.

The Museum of Water and Sustainability in Querétaro by Fabricio Guerra Hernández, B.Arch ‘25
Universidad Anáhuac Querétaro | Advisors: Guillermo Márquez, Patricia Cutiño & Jorge Javier

The museum is an educational and cultural initiative aimed at raising awareness about the importance of water and sustainable practices in a region increasingly impacted by water scarcity. Located in the Historic Center of Querétaro, the museum serves as a dynamic space where community members can engage with environmental issues through interactive exhibits, educational programs, and sustainable architectural design.

The mission of the museum is to promote knowledge, reflection, and active participation in water conservation and sustainable living. It integrates the historical narrative of water management in Querétaro with current global and local strategies for sustainability, creating a powerful bridge between past practices and future solutions. Through immersive experiences, the museum seeks to foster a culture of environmental responsibility, particularly among younger generations.

The design of the museum emphasizes green building principles, using renewable energy systems, rainwater harvesting, and eco-efficient materials, positioning it as a model of sustainable urban regeneration. It also functions as a research and innovation center for water-related issues, collaborating with local institutions, scientists, and environmentalists.

By addressing the complex challenges of water management and climate change, the Museum of Water and Sustainability aims to become a reference point for other regions facing similar issues. It offers not only an informative journey but also a call to action—highlighting the urgent need for collective awareness and efforts toward environmental stewardship. Ultimately, the museum stands as a beacon of hope, education, and community empowerment, contributing to the long-term resilience and sustainability of Querétaro and beyond.

Instagram: @fabriciog17, @arquitectura_anahuac, @arqwave

Folding Seoul: Reframing the Capital’s Central Station by Jungbin Sheen, B.Arch ’25
Myongji University | Advisor: Junsuk Lee

The Seoul Station is the central station of the national capital, including public buildings and plazas that are essential urban elements, and is close to several national symbols such as Sungnyemun Gate and Seoul Plaza in the former Hanyang Fortress, and serves as a node that is easily accessible from various directions using various transportation systems such as taxis, buses, and pedestrian traffic. The integrated history of Seoul Station has not fulfilled its status as the central station of the national capital, with large commercial facilities occupying most of the area, a pedestrian plaza narrowed by the horizontal expansion of the transportation system, and a lack of frontality due to the logic of civilian development. The spatial experience of the existing Seoul Station, and its circulation system, provides a sense of passing through large commercial facilities or wandering through the corridor space of the exterior staircase plaza, which we considered as a lack of symbolism in the experience of the capital’s central station. What kind of symbolism could represent ‘Seoul Station’?

The project begins with the discovery of a linear piece of land on the southeast side of Seoul Station with an odd shape. The site is privately owned and is lined with a narrow row of dilapidated neighborhood facilities, making it a place with dull development potential and a challenge in securing the symbolism and frontage of Seoul Station. Recognizing the development potential of the site, the project considers the place of ‘Seoul Station’ as a central station and proposes symbolic exterior materials and structures that encompass the spatial experience of rail passengers in the space of Seoul Station. [It also considers] the need for an urban open space where citizens who do not come to Seoul Station for the purpose of using the railroad can come and rest and spend time, through a method of expansion that demolishes only a small part of the existing structure. The Seoul Station pedestrian plaza, which was expanded by the relocation of the taxi stand, and the urban lounge, which is open to anyone regardless of their purpose of use, are separated by a curved louvered curtain derived from the form of the existing Seoul Station. It presents a white backdrop that juxtaposes the existing marginalized cultural station, Seoul 284, and the behavior of rail passengers using the interior space becomes transparent through the thin vertical structure. Depending on the inflection point of the curve and the position of the visitor, the frontality of the plaza and Seoul Station is received by the viewer as a coexistence of the white folding screen with the exterior reflection of the urban lounge.

Click here to learn more. 

Instagram: @bin__cong, @myongji_univ

Place-Reclaiming Chinatown: Repairing the Urban Landscape of Manhattan Chinatown by Katherine Shi, B.S. in Architecture ’25
University of Virginia | Advisor: Mona El Khafif

Chinatowns exist worldwide, and in nearly every major American city. Historically formed as ethnic enclaves of Chinese immigrants facing persecution from legislation such as the Chinese Exclusion Act, they have evolved into important socio-economic centers of activity and community hubs within their respective cities. New York City is home to nine Chinatowns, making it the largest center of Chinese Americans in the Western Hemisphere. However, many Chinatowns are shrinking due to urban development and gentrification, and Manhattan’s Chinatown, one of the first Chinatowns established in the US, is no exception. Asian residents and local businesses have been pushed out, resulting in closed storefronts, land loss, and displaced community members, especially following COVID-19. More significantly, there is the risk of cultural erasure as a result of these changes.

An important part of local identity, for example, is Chinatown’s distinctive use of public space, as seen in its culture of street vending and sidewalk appropriation. Columbus Park and Sara D. Roosevelt Park are some of the most important public spaces in the district. This is where residents socialize, play mahjong, exercise, and greet each other in their native tongue. However, large roadway infrastructure creates a significant and dangerous disconnect at the heart of Chinatown.

This thesis, therefore, proposes an urban design approach for Manhattan Chinatown that seeks to reconnect green spaces in a traffic-torn cultural district, provide needed social infrastructure support, and reclaim the identity of the Manhattan Bridge Plaza as a Chinatown gateway. The intention is to bring vibrancy to underutilized sites at the heart of the community, not only by preserving and celebrating Chinatown culture and history, but also by supporting residents’ way of life within a transforming district. 

Instagram: @pro_kat_stinator, @monaelkhafif

2-in-1, CULINARY CENTER AND RESEARCH HOSTEL by Julius Lin, M.Arch ’25
University of California, Berkeley | Advisor: Rene Davids

Madrid’s Plaza de España, where a culinary center and residential hostel are planned, reveals a confluence of “dry” and “wet” areas; the former is associated with buildings, while the latter is linked to a network of green spaces that connect several key areas including the Sabatini Gardens and Plaza de Oriente to the south, Casa de Campo, Campo del Moro, and Madrid Río to the west, as well as Parque del Oeste to the north. As a result, Plaza de España can be envisioned as a green gateway to a transversal network that extends from the Manzanares River into the heart of the city.

The project translated these observations into an architectural form consisting of twin towers: one transparent (wet) and the other solid (dry). The transparent building was designed for growing food and hosting public programs. In contrast, the more opaque and solid tower was intended to house a more private and enclosed hostel.

Each tower features a unique structural system. The transparent tower employs a core-based structure that maximizes openness, utilizing lightweight materials such as metal grating for the floors and an exposed I-beam grid to enhance transparency. Planters are integrated into the grid system, allowing users to harvest ingredients for educational or culinary purposes. When looking up, the ceiling reveals that these plants extend to the upper floors. Inspired by the subtle flavor of rice pudding, one of Spain’s favorite desserts —a dish with a subtle profile that features layers of flavor —the façade of the transparent tower evolved into a delicate glass curtain wall with a gradual gradient rhythm, influenced by the varying root depth that houses the rich, sensuous interior.  The opaque tower, by contrast, utilizes a regular column grid with a secondary system inspired by tree trunks that organizes the space inside, combining concrete structure, wooden partitions, and a brick façade to create a grounded and inviting atmosphere.

The pair of renderings illustrates the visual connections between the two towers. Despite their differing materials and structures, there is an intentional ambiguity at the threshold, providing glimpses, overlaps, and shared experiences between the two. 

This project was a finalist for the UC Berkeley Design Excellence Awards. 

Instagram: @julius___007, @r.davids

Vessel of Light: A Spiritual Descent into Earth by Aarsh Dipak Nandani, M.Arch ’25
New York Institute of Technology | Advisors: Marcella Del Signore & Evan Shieh

Located in São Cristóvão, a culturally diverse neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, “Vessel of Light” is a thesis project that reimagines sacred space as an inclusive, contemplative landscape rooted in the elemental and experiential. The proposal responds to the city’s layered history of religion, culture, and infrastructure, revealed through analytical mappings of population density, cultural institutions, open spaces, public services, and mobility networks.

The design expresses spirituality not through religious symbolism, but through sensory experience, shaped by the four fundamental elements: earth, air, water, and light. The entire building is embedded below ground, allowing the site’s surface to function as a fully public park, accessible to all regardless of intent to enter the space. Above ground, only skylight turrets punctuate the landscape, sculptural forms that channel daylight and natural ventilation into the interior, while symbolizing moments of vertical spiritual connection.

The single-floor subterranean structure includes spaces for prayer, meditation, ritual ceremonies, and collective gatherings. A cultural zone features classrooms, a library, workshops, an exhibition gallery, and an amphitheater, programs that serve both children and adults throughout the day. The spatial arrangement varies in scale, lighting quality, and degree of openness, allowing the building to support both individual reflection and collective activity.

The sequencing of spaces is informed by principles of centrality, progression, and spatial hierarchy, guiding visitors from more public, active areas toward increasingly quiet, inward, and sacred spaces. A matrix of geometric explorations, rooted in historical forms associated with spirituality, led to a language of hybridized shapes generated through addition and subtraction.

Materiality reinforces the elemental narrative: terracotta surfaces evoke earth; open skylights bring air and light into the heart of the structure; and two stepwells, one publicly accessible in the park, and one interior, honor water as both sacred and shared.

“Vessel of Light: A Spiritual Descent into Earth” offers a space of reflection, communion, and return, embedding sacred experience directly into the everyday life of the city.

Instagram: @aarsh_nandani, @marcelladelsi, @ev07

THE INTERLACE: CREATING SUBURBAN CONNECTIONS by Annikka Fairfield, B.Arch ’25
Kennesaw State University | Advisor: Robin Puttock

Many cities in the United States are designed based on suburban sprawl, which contributes to excessive automobile-dependency and unwelcoming streets for pedestrians, and metro Atlanta is no exception. Alpharetta, Georgia, is a growing city with the potential to become a more walkable suburban city. Alpharetta can be invigorated along specific corridors at the human scale to increase both walkability and connectivity by focusing on pedestrian wellbeing. Research shows that Biophilia’s various facets have the power to improve human wellbeing. Prospect, refuge, and presence of water were selected to guide the thesis design. Urban-scale precedents like the Beltline in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Emerald Necklace in Boston, Massachusetts, inspired The Interlace, a 17.5-mile pedestrian loop that expands upon the existing Greenway Trail and connects multiple nodes across the city. 

“The Interlace” is designed along specific corridors to significantly improve pedestrian access along roads that are currently car-oriented. Research suggested that improved pedestrian access alone will not increase walkability; destinations must also be created to encourage walking. Inspired by the Parc de la Villette in Paris, France, twenty different proposed architectural installations, also called nodes, are strategically designed along The Interlace to create destinations. Different combinations of programs are implemented in each node to support each surrounding community. The nodes are all designed with a similar materiality, inspired by Alpharetta’s history, which ties the architecture together and facilitates placemaking by creating a new identity. Five of the twenty nodes are more fully developed, featuring how prospect, refuge, and presence of water can be implemented at the architectural scale to improve pedestrian wellbeing and thus increase walkability and connectivity at the broader urban scale.

Click here to learn more.

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

Instagram: @annikkafairfield, @robinzputtock 

Wellness Activity Center by Angel Niemczyk, AA in Architecture ’25
Community College of Philadelphia | Advisor: Elizabeth Master

The project site was selected in central Oregon, at 45°N latitude, and within the 6a climate zone, which influences key factors such as wind directions and local flora.

The design draws inspiration from the turkey tail mushroom, featuring organic, curving shapes that promote a calming atmosphere. This architecture integrates ample natural light through large windows and skylights, enhancing well-being and reducing energy costs.

To foster a strong connection with nature, the design incorporates mushroom-inspired forms and features abundant live vegetation throughout the building and in the surrounding gardens. A park has been added to the adjacent parking lot, featuring a pathway that leads to a nearby forested trail.

Other enhancements include:

– A café with fair trade coffee and healthy snacks.

– Separate mechanical and electrical rooms on each floor for improved energy management.

– Four additional restrooms for increased capacity.

– A fire escape near the north entrance.

– A “Heritage Pavilion” inspired by Native American architecture.

– An organic produce garden and a pollinator garden to support biodiversity and collaborate with the kitchen.

The pollinator garden attracts bees and butterflies, enriching the local environment and enhancing visitors’ experiences, while the produce garden fosters growth through natural cycles, utilizing kitchen waste as fertilizer.

This project won the second-place CCCAP 2025 Student Award. 

Instagram: @ADC_CCP 

Valley Sports Complex: Sports, Recreation, and Fitness Opportunities for Every Season by Blake Douglas, M.Arch ’25
Academy of Art University | Advisor: Aurgho Jyoti

The community of Flathead County, Montana, requires an indoor recreation space. Long winters with short daylight hours significantly impact the community’s ability to be active and recreate through winter months and shoulder seasons. Snow is on the ground for up to eight months of the year, limiting available outdoor recreation opportunities. The winter climate also has an impact on mental wellness, as seasonal depression due to a lack of sunlight is common. Combined with a lack of recreation opportunities, the community would be well served to have a place to commune and interact throughout the winter season. Montana is known for its rugged and beautiful landscape; the built environment should respect and respond to that. The structure of the building will be locally sourced mass timber, and the overall form will be respectful to the context in which it sits. A sports center that will respect the landscape, enhance a sense of community, and provide recreation.

This project received the M.Arch Thesis Award. 

Click here to learn more.

Instagram: @b_doug_arch, @aur.architecture

The Capitol Collective: A Community Centered Creator’s Hub that Enhances the Pedestrian Experience by Ashley Miller, M.Arch ’25
Virginia Tech | Advisors: Andrew Linn, Susan Piedmont-Palladino, Paul Kelsch

“The Capitol Collective” is a community-centered creator’s hub that anchors the proposed Capitol Hill Art Trail – an alley network programmed to enhance local beauty and promote community pride. Located in one of the most walkable cities in the United States, Washington, D.C., this thesis explores pedestrian environments that are deemed ‘the best’ according to the District’s Pedestrian Friendliness Index (PFI), with a focus on the Capitol Hill neighborhood. While dozens of blocks in the area are ranked within the top 1,000 of the District, several others are deemed less desirable. This begs the question: what constitutes an ideal pedestrian environment, and how can we as designers contribute to creating architecture that thoughtfully integrates with, and improves upon, the pedestrian experience? 

Observing and documenting street conditions of both higher and lower-ranked blocks demonstrated that blocks with higher rankings embraced the walker’s experience by incorporating programs such as sidewalk cafes and restaurants, inviting transit plazas, playgrounds, outdoor markets, and more. Through this initial research, a scope of roughly twenty-seven blocks was identified as an area that could be improved upon. The existing area has the foundation for a flourishing, walkable hub for the community, but it currently lacks the inviting qualities that its neighboring blocks have. This thesis proposes to fill these gaps through the built environment by creating a programmed art trail that is anchored through a community workshop and residence. 

The Capitol Collective’s mission is to build community through creation. At the heart of the project are the wood shop and metal fabrication lab, which are open to all community members. There are also classrooms where individuals can learn from one another, a tool library where locals can rent out items, and studio spaces for local recurring artists. The ground floor of the newly constructed building also boasts a cafe and warehouse-like spaces for local artists to set up and sell their goods. Levels two through three of the new construction building are programmed with affordable housing that prioritizes individuals who are committed to improving and supporting the local community.

This project received the WAAC Thesis Award. 

Click here to learn more.

Instagram: @ashley.miller15, @VT_WAAC

The Voids of the Forgotten: Stories Layered in Unmaking by Sophie Hutton, BFA in Architecture’25
James Madison University | Advisor: Dylan Krueger

This thesis begins not with the act of making, but with the act of unmaking—a journey into the forgotten, the overlooked, and the lost.

Architecture is often thought of as something permanent—something that stands tall against time. But what if the first gesture in design was not to assert, but to dissolve? What if architecture could listen, rather than impose? What if the act of unmaking could be the beginning of creation?

Unmaking is a meditation on impermanence. It is about architecture that dissolves instead of dominates, about creating spaces that listen to the land rather than claim it. To unmake is not destruction. It is revelation. It is peeling back the layers of time to expose what has been buried. To make visible the hidden histories, the suppressed memories, and the erasures that still resonate beneath the soil. Architecture, in this sense, is not a monument to permanence but a vessel for memory, decay, and regeneration.

This exploration centers on a forgotten history, one hidden beneath the surface of Central Park, New York, where Seneca Village once stood—a thriving minority community in the 19th century, full of life, resilience, and faith. But it was erased, displaced under the guise of progress. Beneath the park’s manicured lawns lies a history that has yet to be remembered.

The design is centered around three areas in the park, each a meditation on memory, erasure, and reclamation. These speculative site plans visualize futures shaped by absence: nature overtaking roads, forgotten street grids returning, memory lines resisting imposed order. Each is an act of unmaking—a gesture toward revealing what has been hidden and allowing the land to speak again.

Unmaking is not failure, but resistance and revelation. It asks us to design with the rhythm of life. To unmake is to remember.

This project won the James Madison University Thesis Prize.  

Instagram: @sopharcd, @dylan.things

DESIGNING FOR THE SENSES: HARNESSING LIGHT, TRANSPARENCY, AND VISUAL CONNECTIVITY TO CREATE RESPONSIVE ARCHITECTURE FOR THE DEAF COMMUNITY by Jennifer Pennington, M.Arch ’25
Florida A&M University | Advisors: George Epolito, Andrew Chin

This thesis explores how architectural design can be thoughtfully informed by Deaf space principles to create environments that enhance navigation, communication, and inclusivity for the Deaf community. Centered on the strategic application of light, transparency, and visual porosity, the project seeks to dismantle spatial and sensory barriers that often leave Deaf individuals navigating spaces that fail to support their lived experiences.

The research focuses on designing a community hub in Tallahassee, Florida—an inclusive space that promotes visibility, intuitive movement, and social connection. Current architectural practices frequently neglect Deaf users, resulting in spaces that are visually fragmented or lack necessary cues for spatial awareness. This study responds by investigating design strategies that prioritize visual access, clear sightlines, and unobstructed circulation.

Using Deaf space design theory as a foundation, the project integrates spatial transparency and natural light to support non-verbal communication, while employing visual rhythm and layered spatial relationships to guide users organically through the environment. Through case studies, spatial analysis, and architectural modeling, the research establishes a set of principles for creating spaces that do not merely accommodate but actively empower Deaf individuals.

The resulting design envisions a community hub that is both functionally accessible and emotionally enriching—encouraging interaction within the Deaf community while also inviting greater engagement with the broader public. In doing so, the thesis advocates for a more holistic and humane architectural practice, one that values sensory diversity as a driver for innovation and social equity.

 Instagram: @famu_masterofarch, @famusaet

The Last Lookout by Keaton Bruce, M.Arch ’25
Temple University | Advisors: Sally Harrison, Jeffrey Nesbit & Kate Wingert-Playdon

Our forest has been completely designed.

The production of artificial boundaries, unassuming objects, and pervasive cultural imaginaries, the United States Forest Service constructs American forests in the image of a naturalized occupying state. Contemporary architecture, in its reliance on this manufactured forest, sustains violent neoliberal fantasies of displacements disguised as world-saving visions of productivity and progress.

So how might we imagine the future of architecture, of our forest, of resistance? If the National Forest Service is a tool of an occupying state, a new vision of the forest is delayed until the current system of commodification and nationalization is dismantled. The project speculates on a final form – the last lookout – and asks how this end can be just as valuable as a beginning in realizing a new future – an architecture after the Forest Service.

Based on the Multi-Use Sustained-Yield Act of 1960, which set forth five productivity mandates for USFS-managed lands (watershed, logging, recreation, range, and wildlife), the project satirizes five architectural endings of the forest: the MAUSOLEUM, the PENITENTARY, the MUSEUM, the COMMONS, and the AFTERLIFE. Each forest rendered in plan, perspective, and physical model investigates the symbiotic relationship between forest imaginary, architectural vessel, urban form, and political agency in an acontextual superimposition on the Oregon State Capitol Complex.

The forest we inherit need not be the forest we leave behind, but the forest we ultimately construct must be the forest we imagine.

Concourse on 5th by Maverick Santos & Luke Slay, M.Arch ’25
University of Texas at Austin | Advisor: Matt Fajkus

“Concourse on 5th” is a bold reimagining of downtown Austin’s civic landscape, designed to facilitate the city’s cultural vibrancy and active urban lifestyle. Strategically placed at the intersection of 5th Street and Guadalupe, the project redefines the role of circulation by transforming it into an “activated concourse” — a connective public platform that links a performance theater, community recreation spaces, and residences within a single cohesive building. By layering programs that operate on varied cycles, the building sustains continuous activity, becoming a dynamic place that serves diverse users throughout the day and night.

Located adjacent to Republic Square, the site capitalizes on its proximity to green space to prioritize the pedestrian experience. The theater’s monumental entry sequence, directly facing the park, establishes a strong civic presence and a sense of arrival. Along Guadalupe Street, the entrance to the community center is activated by an exterior stair that ascends to the elevated podium, where a running track and green spaces extend the square, promoting public engagement and visual transparency. The lightly articulated facade along this edge offers curated glimpses into the building’s interior, where warm wood finishes and the vertical ascent of a rock-climbing wall become visible markers of internal activity. On the 6th Street edge, the residential tower entrance is discreetly integrated alongside a highly visible sports court, reinforcing the project’s active interface with the city.

Internally, the theater is defined by sweeping, sculptural wood forms that foster a close and immersive relationship between audience and performance. The contrast between the refined urban exterior and the expressive, tactile interior enhances the experience within the project. The recreation program complements the performance spaces through its strategic integration, featuring moments where the climbing wall ascends along the theater’s edge, connecting multiple floors and drawing visual continuity between arts and athletics. 

The project challenges conventional typologies of event venues, which often remain unoccupied outside of peak hours. Instead, Concourse on 5th activates its circulation zones as multifunctional social spaces. Vertical and horizontal circulation paths double as areas for spontaneous interaction, bridging programs and communities. In the atrium, patrons exiting a performance might encounter climbers in motion or glimpse a yoga class underway; a choreography of simultaneous experience. This overlap fosters moments of connection and shared occupation, elevating the concourse from mere infrastructure to an essential part of the building’s public life.

Ultimately, Concourse on 5th functions as a hybrid space, serving as a platform for art, recreation, and everyday life. It reclaims space in downtown Austin for collective use through a design rooted in transparency, spatial porosity, and programmatic overlap. The project reimagines how architecture can enable continuous activation, creating a vibrant and inclusive environment that adapts to the city it serves.

This project was a finalist for the UT Design Excellence Award.

Instagram: @mikhail.maverick, @luke_slay01, @mf.architecture

The Natatorium and the Wall by Grace Kotomi Owens, B.Arch ’25
Mississippi State University | Advisors: Jassen Callender, David Buege, Mark Vaughan, Aaron White & David Perkes

Pools are about floating and swimming; they are about feeling the water, feeling its temperature, its resistance to our movements, its weight, and our weightlessness. They are undoubtedly experiential destinations. In our increasingly digital world, I began this project hoping a natatorium in downtown Jackson, MS, would simultaneously bring people together and provide a place for people to be present, a place of focus and sanctuary. 

As the semester progressed, my project became about many things.  

My initial explorations were about void space. I find it insufficient to say that architecture creates space — it instead divides and thereby gives identity to and further defines the “empty” space that is already there.  

There was one question that I consistently asked myself in designing the natatorium: how close do two surfaces have to be for people to feel the space between them?  Voids became a bit of an obsession: the implied void of ribbon of windows wrapping the west and south facades, the unusual entry sequence in the void of the west elevation, the void behind the square window, the unoccupiable spaces of light wells and sculpture pockets seen in plan, the conical void of the south elevation, and of course, the void of the pool… negative space – present tangibly and intangibly throughout.  

This project also led me to explore architecture’s contribution to the city.  Designing a natatorium – a fairly suburban building in its standard form – for an urban context… This became an incredible challenge.  

My desire to meaningfully contribute to the city manifested itself in the design of “The Wall,” which can be seen in my West elevation. The Wall is almost totally detached from the rest of the natatorium, joined only by the cuboidal space protruding from the wall as a square window.  The Wall serves to acknowledge the suburban scale of the program it conceals: locker rooms, restrooms, and small offices.  Without such an acknowledgement, the natatorium would be dwarfed by the surrounding context.

In the end, I designed the natatorium and its wall as a monument to the city of Jackson. 

This project was chosen for display in the McNeel Architecture Gallery. 

Instagram: @grace.kotomi, @jassencallender

Continuum Library by Joyce Lin, Ronny Nowland, Ashlyn Okazaki, Natalie Ou & Ran Shen, D.Arch ’25
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa | Advisors: Clark Llewellyn & Ferdinand Johns

In the bustling Chinese city of Shanghai, “Continuum” reimagines a forgotten infrastructural void beneath the historic Nanpu Bridge’s spiraling access ramps as a dynamic art and fashion-focused library and cultural center. Rooted in the city’s identity as a place of contrasts, where historic tradition interweaves with global innovation, Continuum explores the concept of duality through architecture, program, and materiality.

The design embraces Shanghai’s industrial heritage by preserving and exposing the structural steel elements of the site while layering contemporary interventions that reflect the city’s evolving creative identity. A long-span steel canopy nestled under the undulating descending slope of the site’s green park bridges the old and new, creating an iconic gesture that anchors the site and provides shelter for public gatherings, exhibitions, and performances.

Continuum’s program is split between traditional library services and a “+” space dedicated to fashion archives, design workshops, maker labs, and rotating gallery exhibitions. This not only supports education and creative exchange but also activates local industries and emerging designers. Public spaces flow seamlessly from interior to exterior, with open reading terraces, pop-up markets, and interactive art installations drawing pedestrians and cyclists into the space.

The project’s strategy of adaptive reuse reduces environmental impact while celebrating the poetic tension between heavy infrastructure and light cultural use. By stitching together circulation paths, layered programming, and expressive steel structure, Continuum becomes a new node in Shanghai’s civic network, a platform for exchange, creativity, and community resilience.

In a city of constant flux, Continuum offers a space for pause, reflection, and cultural production, anchored in history, yet always looking forward.

Instagram: @as.h_l.and, @joyce.lyx, @artravelersr, @natalie.xy.ou, @archawaii, @global_track_architecture

The Creative Exchange by Bridget Knudtson, Sarah Gurevitch & Jasmin Dickinson, M.Arch ’25
University of Texas at Austin | Advisor: Matt Fajkus

“The Creative Exchange” is an artist collective and performing arts theater in downtown Austin, located across from Republic Square. Designed to unify Austin’s disconnected arts scene, the project provides a hub where both locals and visitors can easily engage with the city’s vibrant cultural offerings. The raised proscenium theater, capable of accommodating a variety of performances, allows the ground level to remain entirely open to the public, ensuring it remains activated even when performances are not occurring. The design incorporates bold, angled geometries that signify the cross-pollination of ideas happening within the building. 

Central to the Creative Exchange is a grand staircase that connects all six floors of the podium, ascending from the ground floor lobby up to the theater. This staircase serves as a visual and physical cue, inviting movement upward and symbolizing the exchange of ideas and collaboration among artists. In the floors between, an artist’s collective provides studio space, a workshop, and other resources to Austin’s creative community. A perforated metal facade shields these interior spaces from direct sunlight, protecting the art inside and enhancing energy efficiency in Austin’s hot climate. 

The top floors of the podium include an asymmetrical theater design, meant to invert the hierarchies created by a traditional auditorium layout. Encasing these floors is a massive steel truss that runs along the building’s perimeter, enabling the front and back of house programs to cantilever on the north and south facades. On the Republic Square side, this cantilever creates a grand, sheltered entry and drop-off zone, while on the 6th Street side, it frames a large garden terrace, adding much-needed green space to the bustling urban context. Similar cutouts in the residential tower above provide views out to the city. 

Altogether, the building’s design effectively and efficiently fills the needs of Austin’s growing artistic community. Its distinctive visual language, innovative structural design, and careful mixing of programs establish the Creative Exchange as a clear cultural hub for the City of Austin. 

This project was nominated for a Design Excellence Award at the UT School of Architecture and was a finalist among award selections.

Instagram: @bridgetthetwin, @sarah_gurevitch, @jazzy_colors, @mf.architecture

(IN) ORDINATIO by Luis Leonardo Flores Hernández, B.Arch ’25
Tecnológico de Monterrey | Advisors: Guillermo Nieto Ross & Jorge Santos Quiroz

“Ordinatio” is an innovative architectural and urban masterplan strategically designed to transform the community of Ocoyucan in Puebla, México, by directly addressing socio-spatial segregation and fostering inclusive community integration. Positioned at the intersection of diverse socio-economic contexts, the project elegantly blends traditional urban patterns from Santa Clara Ocoyucan with the contemporary residential fabric of Lomas de Angelópolis, creating dynamic spaces for equitable interaction and communal growth.

The project’s central feature is a vibrant marketplace comprising agricultural and culinary sectors, complemented by advanced aeroponic greenhouses, significantly reducing resource consumption while directly benefiting approximately 65% of local families dependent on small-scale farming. This strategic economic and cultural hub acts as a catalyst for communal exchange, revitalizing the local economy and nurturing social cohesion.

Architecturally, Ordinatio reinterprets traditional forms through contemporary lenses, utilizing locally sourced materials and visible structural elements to promote a sense of identity and ownership among residents. The community plaza and ephemeral market spaces—framed by elegantly detailed corridors—create essential social nodes that encourage diverse community interactions and cultural activities, reactivating collective memories and traditions.

Integral to the project’s vision is the thoughtful inclusion of a multimodal mobility node, which connects public transport and cycling routes, ensuring everyday urban mobility becomes an enriching communal experience. Additionally, environmental sustainability is woven into the design through ecological restoration along the adjacent Atoyac River, creating essential green corridors and public parks that enhance biodiversity and offer restorative communal spaces.

Ordinatio exemplifies architecture’s potential as a regenerative tool, mitigating socio-economic disparities, avoiding social resentment, and promoting harmonious urban coexistence. This holistic approach not only revitalizes the urban landscape but positions Ocoyucan as a compelling model of equitable, sustainable, and community-driven urban development.

Click here for a closer look.

This project was exhibited at ITESM University’s national architecture festival, “How Space Can?” It was also selected to be presented at EXPO EAAD.

Instagram: @luish_137, @arq.pue.tec

Vortex Theater by Joshua Jolly, M.Arch ’25
Pennsylvania State University | Advisor: Ute Poerschke

The project task was to design a theatre in-the-round as an addition to the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia.

“Vortex Theater” — This design places the theatre as the eye of the storm, a tornado’s core. The central ramp becomes the force around which people, spaces, and artifacts spiral. Its continuous motion reinforces the vertical energy, pulling people into the experiences that the theater has to offer. The surrounding spaces (lobbies, rehearsal halls) act as the rotating winds, positioned in a way that reacts to the ramp’s motion. Due to the ramp’s centrality, each level has a visual sight between programs, enhancing the sense of being caught in a swirling motion and thrown out of the winds. The concept is amplified through the structure and surrounding programs. The ramp isn’t just a means of circulation; it’s the driving force of the architectural experience, pulling everything and everyone into its swirling grasp.

This project won the Design Excellence Award. 

 Instagram: @_jollyj

Stay tuned for Part X!

2025 Study Architecture Student Showcase - Part V

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In Part V of the 2025 Study Architecture Student Showcase, we take a look at projects centered on equity. From natural highways to aid centers, the featured student work includes design solutions catered toward migrants, widows, and other historically marginalized groups. By providing culturally sensitive architectural interventions, each project fosters resilience, equity, and empowerment. 

Scroll down to learn more!

BARRA DA TIJUCA MARITIME TERMINAL by Justyn D. Grant, M.Arch ‘25
Florida A&M University | Advisors: George Epolito, Andrew Chin & Ronald B. Lumpkin

Barra da Tijuca Maritime Highway Terminal responds to a long-standing pattern of neglect toward disenfranchised communities impacted by large-scale global events like the Olympics. This thesis focuses on Rio das Pedras, a self-built favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that, despite being in proximity to the 2016 Olympic sites, remains disconnected from the infrastructural and economic benefits promised during the event’s planning and execution.

The project proposes a bold intervention: a maritime terminal located at Athlete’s Park that connects Rio das Pedras with the broader Barra da Tijuca area via the lagoon system. This “natural highway” avoids disruption within the favela while offering a culturally sensitive, environmentally harmonious transit solution. The terminal is envisioned as more than a transportation node—it will be a space for economic empowerment, community gathering, and cultural exchange, serving both residents and tourists.

Architecturally, the design draws from the spatial and material logic of Rio das Pedras to promote familiarity, dignity, and inclusivity. By integrating construction practices and vernacular forms found in the favela, the terminal becomes a home away from home—bridging class divides and reshaping perceptions of informal urbanism.

This thesis critiques the post-Olympic urban landscape and interrogates the broken promises of legacy investments. It reframes infrastructure as a tool for equity, proposing design strategies that center the needs and aspirations of historically marginalized communities. In doing so, it advocates for a model of development that honors cultural identity, fosters connection, and plants the seeds for long-term resilience and economic vitality.

Instagram: @famusaet, @famu_masterofarch

Centro Mariposa: The Refuge of Wings, Women’s Shelter, Querétaro by  Leslie Bocanegra Valdivia, B.Arch ’25
Universidad Anáhuac Querétaro | Advisors: Guillermo Márquez, Patricia Cutiño & Jorge Javier

At the heart of the indigenous neighborhood of San Francisquito, Querétaro — a city affected by gender violence and inequality — [is] CENTRO MARIPOSA, inspired by the butterfly’s journey of rebirth, emerges as an architectural space for transformation. In response to the lack of safe spaces for women, the project offers more than refuge; it provides a place to heal, rebuild identity, and begin anew, surrounded by physical, symbolic, and collective protection.

A pavilion marks the entrance — a civic gesture that transforms a neglected corner into a new community anchor. More than a threshold, this space invites gathering and recreation, intervened with messages of resistance. It is here — where the intimate and the public intertwine — that the transition from pain to rebirth begins.

The proposal integrates a network of spaces that respond to women’s needs: medical, legal, psychological, and physical support combine with workshops on crafts, art, recreation, connection, entrepreneurship, and empowerment — all within an atmosphere of mutual care and healing. A temporary shelter area offers safety, professional support, and dignity to those in urgent need, the architecture draws inspiration from metamorphosis: Organic paths, contemplative patios, and warm materials create a nurturing environment. Every architectural gesture is an act of care. The design respects the neighborhood’s heritage and connects with the land and its people.

The impact of CENTRO MARIPOSA extends beyond its walls. It seeks to heal a community, rekindle hope in forgotten spaces, and offer Querétaro a model of architecture grounded in social justice and gender equality.

Like a butterfly, each woman who finds strength here takes flight — lighting the way for others to rise, transform, and soar.

Instagram: @leslie_bocanegra, @bocle.architecture, @arquitectura_anahuac, @arqwave

UMBRE Comprehensive Aid Center for Migrants by Natalia Pérez Pereyra, B.Arch ’25
Universidad Anáhuac Querétaro | Advisors: Guillermo Márquez, Patricia Cutiño & Jorge Javier

The project offers a temporary stay of up to six months, intended as a preparation and support period so that people on the move can decide their next step: settling in Querétaro or continuing their journey. During this time, workshops, talks, and training sessions are held focused on their labor and social integration. In addition, the center provides outpatient services for those not temporarily housed there. This includes food, sanitation, medical and psychological care, legal assistance and support, training workshops in various sectors, and support in finding employment.

These services do not have a strict time limit, allowing them to be adapted to the migrants’ different trajectories and needs. In coordination with volunteers and specialists, support is also offered in finding housing and managing legal documentation, such as a humanitarian visa, which can be completed in approximately 20 days. The goal is to offer a safe, dignified, and connected environment to the city, strengthening users’ autonomy and integrating them into the social fabric of Querétaro.

Instagram: @nataliaprzp, @perezparch, @arquitectura_anahuac, @arqwave

URBAN FRAGMENTATION AND SOCIAL ISOLATION: The Impact of High-Speed Expressways and the Reconnection of the Luis Lloréns Torres Public Housing Complex with Its Surrounding Communities by Lara S. Pérez-Fuentes, M.Arch ’25
University of Puerto Rico | Advisors: Omayra Rivera Crespo, José R. Coleman-Davis & María Helena Luengo

In the Luis Lloréns Torres Public Housing Development and its neighboring communities, such as Shanghai and Villa Palmeras, physical and symbolic barriers, resulting from its architectural design and the Baldorioty de Castro Expressway, have generated urban fragmentation and social isolation. This isolation has limited mobility, access to essential services, and economic opportunities, while perpetuating the social stigma associated with public housing. Based on this context, the study proposes designing an integrative public space as a strategy to mitigate barriers, foster social cohesion, and improve residents’ quality of life.

The research combines qualitative and quantitative approaches, including interviews and surveys, which highlight the challenges of mobility, community disconnection, and lack of adequate infrastructure. Key elements of identity and belonging are also identified, guiding the proposed interventions. The design program includes a pedestrian corridor, a Community Connection Center, and a Cultural Center, along with strategies to revitalize informal commercial spaces and promote social interaction. 

This integrative approach not only responds to the functional needs of accessibility and connectivity, but also seeks to transform the perception of residents and neighboring communities, fostering a sense of unity and active participation. The research underscores the importance of inclusive and collaborative urban planning as a means to overcome exclusion and build resilient, cohesive, and equitable communities.

Click here to learn more.

Instagram: @larita0013, @uprarchitecture

Jackson Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired by Anna Kate Horn, B.Arch ’25
Mississippi State University | Advisors: Jassen Callender, Mark Vaughan, Aaron White, David Perkes & David Buege

“Jackson’s Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired” is a training facility that empowers individuals with vision loss to gain greater independence. This project explores the understanding that design solutions addressing the needs of the blind and low-vision communities are universally beneficial—enhancing the spatial experience for all users by deepening the sensory richness of the environment. Located at one of the most prominent and sensory-rich intersections in Jackson, Mississippi, the training center creates a space for its user group within the city that celebrates the acceptance of diverse perspectives in urban environments.

Across the street once stood the first location of the Institute for the Blind in Jackson. The geometry of this original building has become the base of the façade, which is intentionally disrupted with boxed bronze window openings that pierce through the underlying rhythm, contradicting the established grid to create moments of tension. Sculpted from green glazed brick with medium gray mortar, the materiality speaks to the context and historic structure without attempting to replicate the past, while celebrating the primary user group’s history within the community. The green glazed mass levitating above the ground reveals a district condition of light and sound from the street at the entry to indicate arrival.

Transforming a visual gesture of the façade becomes a spatial and sensory one by folding the façade into the atrium. This fold generates a dynamic threshold, one that informs circulation and invites engagement. Brick-cladded ribs, consistent in their cadence, wrap the atrium like a metronome marking time in built form. Each cardinal direction of the atrium is delineated by the program that borders the path in a distinct manner – designed to communicate wayfinding and the presence of others.

This project received the CDFL Capstone Studio Travel Award. 

Instagram: @designs_by_akhorn, @jassencallender

ReOCCUPY Your City – The Co-operative Squatting Society by Nour Kaddoura, M.AARS City Design + Housing (CDH) ’25
University of Southern California | Advisor: Sascha Delz

For many marginalized individuals and communities, informal practices are an essential means of gaining access to services and spaces that are otherwise unavailable or unaffordable. This is especially true for shelter and housing, where squatting often serves as a last resort. While property owners have broad legal means to evict squatters, squatters also hold limited rights, leading to often adversarial and protracted legal battles.”ReOCCUPY Your City” offers an alternative approach to squatting. By combining a supportive legal framework, a Pro-use Housing Policy, and formalized Co-operative Squatting Societies, it empowers squatters to take control of vacant industrial properties, transforming them into collaborative spaces that provide affordable housing for Los Angeles. 

Under the Pro-use Housing Policy, a group of dwellers can form a Co-operative Squatting Society, claim collective ownership of an abandoned building, and gradually inhabit and manage it democratically over time. As residents join, their involvement in the co-operative can evolve from emergency occupancy to transitional and ultimately permanent residency. ReOCCUPY Your City thus enables a community-driven, democratic reuse of vacant buildings, empowering squatters to not only claim and improve these structures but also to contribute to the city’s housing stock. The project also allows the city’s housing administration to make underutilized spaces progressively productive, offering affordable, self-governed housing solutions.

Instagram: @coop_urbanism

B.lab Community-Based Design by Lowai Ghaly, Mazen Ghaly, Mohamed Meawad, Andrew Hart, Kim Ebueng, Kenny Soriano, Edgar Castillo, Peter Peritos, Shadi Vakilian, Amanda Estrada, Giewel David, B.Arch ’25
Academy of Art University | Advisor: Sameena Sitabkhan

The B.lab program at the Academy of Art University was founded in 2018. Through robust partnerships with our neighbors and local nonprofit organizations, the program has implemented several projects in the Bay Area. At its core, the B.lab program is a community-based design program promoting spatial justice and advocacy for future designers. Through radical listening and co-creation, we empower communities and bring positive change to the built environment.

This project received the B.Arch Community Building Award.

Instagram: @studio.sideproject

Empowerment Center by Devangi Patel, M.Arch ’25
Boston Architectural College | Advisors: Emeline Gaujac, AIA. & Ian F. Taberner, AIA.

This thesis proposes the design of an Empowerment Center for Women in Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh, India, as a response to the social, cultural, and economic marginalization of widows and single mothers in the region. Vrindavan, often referred to as the “City of Widows,” is a place of profound spiritual importance. It is home to thousands of women who are abandoned and forced to live in poverty, social isolation, and emotional distress.

The Empowerment Center aims to restore dignity, independence, and resilience to these women by offering a comprehensive, community-based center that integrates education, skill development, emotional healing, and economic empowerment. The architectural vision emphasizes a balance between safety and openness, combining secure, private zones with transparent and inclusive spaces that encourage connection, confidence, and personal growth.

Key features of the design include sustainable green areas such as gardens and courtyards, and also form is Inspired by inspired by local vernacular architecture and supported by research. These spaces foster mindfulness, promote physical and emotional well-being, and create opportunities for community interaction and collective healing. The project incorporates flexible, adaptive spaces for workshops, training, and communal living to support the evolving needs of its users.

Using techniques including demographic analysis, community participation, and contextual site study, this thesis, which is based on collaborative research and cultural sensitivity, informs an inclusive, accessible, and responsive design. The Empowerment Center seeks to establish a standard for gender-sensitive, socially conscious architecture that not only meets immediate needs but also sparks long-term structural change.

In conclusion, this thesis demonstrates how architecture can serve as a cause for social transformation by addressing the needs of marginalized women in Vrindavan. The Empowerment Center offers a dignified, inclusive, and healing environment that fosters education, independence, and community. By integrating cultural sensitivity with sustainable design, the project aims to empower women and inspire broader change toward gender equality and social resilience.

This project received “Commends for Thesis.”

The right to the city by Cindy Caitong Duan, M.Arch II ’25
Yale University | Advisors: Andrei Harwell & Alan Plattus

The cities in China have a long tradition of planning based on the gated unit – a collective residential form strictly controlled by entrances, walls, and different levels of thresholds. People live within walls, which define the space of a gated unit; and in the wall that is the building itself. Walls gather us but also limit us, until their imprints are etched into our minds and build obedience and indifference to life. These spaces are both the metaphor and the embodiment of power in Chinese society. 

In this way, I feel it is necessary to ask: What is a city? What should the balance be between governance and defending people’s rights to the city? 

This thesis addresses these questions through a close study of the gated unit where my grandaunt lives in Shanghai, China. The project comprises two parts: first, research analyzing the formation of collectivism and the gated unit; second, a design proposal exploring how gated communities can actively foster local identity and autonomy while mitigating surveillance and urban segmentation. 

The concept of “collectivism” fosters a stronger sense of solidarity but also poses the risk of deindividuation by homogenizing people. As a result, the notion of collective space shifts from being a symbolic space of belonging to a geographically defined common space, diminishing the notion of individual residents’ rights. 

However, I believe a city and its built form should be the second self of the individual, responding to and encouraging open narratives. Gated units and their communities can be transformative, connecting individuals while forming a new entity based on shared agency. More importantly, whenever the collective emerges, it arises from countless “I”s—each independent, each different—reaching a timely commonality through mutual agreement. There is no single form. 

Thus, this project is not the solution but a demonstration of how to regain an individual’s right to the city. It can strike a balance between you and “I”, between us and “I”, and between them and “I”, and the city is its metaphor and site. 

This project received the Yale Drawing Prize.

Instagram: @Cindycaitongd, @andrei__simon

Stay tuned for Part VI!

2025 Study Architecture Student Showcase - Part I

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Welcome to the 2025 Study Architecture Student Showcase!
Over the summer, we asked architecture faculty around the world to celebrate graduating students whose work embodies excellence in architectural education. The submitted theses, projects, and capstones reflect the various skills and concepts that are taught in architecture schools. With the Fall semester in full swing, we are excited to share these outstanding projects with you over the next few weeks.
With topics ranging from Infrastructure and Equity to Sustainability and Housing, each project has the power to inspire current and future architecture students. Tune in every Tuesday and Thursday to browse a collection of outstanding student work.
Today’s showcase features projects that explore different elements of education. From Pre-K through 8th-grade Montessori schools to university campuses and vocational schools, these designs capture the variety of educational venues. Each project provides design solutions that address diverse student needs, community well-being, safety, learning conditions, and more.

Transforming Trios: Typologies for Adaptive Education, Safety, and Community by Sheen Wang,  BS Architecture ‘25
University of Virginia | Advisor: Mona El Khafif

At Hutchison Beach Elementary in Panama City Beach, Florida, students adapt how they learn in response to their changing environment. Situated in a coastal, tourist-centered community along the Gulf of Mexico, the school frequently endures hurricanes and severe storms. With no dedicated community centers, schools here serve as storm shelters—often without enough space to meet demand.

This presents a unique design opportunity. The school’s campus includes numerous portable classrooms, originally meant as temporary solutions to overcrowding. Typically built at minimal cost, these structures are often uncomfortable and unsafe. But at Beach Elementary, there’s a shift: these portables are being reimagined as flexible, collaborative spaces where students and teachers co-create their learning environments to foster joy and exploration.

In a place defined by constant change, this thesis asks: How can a new, adaptive typology for portable classrooms support education, shelter, and community in one modular space? How can it integrate with existing school structures while engaging the surrounding landscape? How might these units aggregate both horizontally and vertically to form larger spaces?

This thesis proposes modular, adaptive structures that meet programmatic needs—education, safety, and community—while responding to the site’s outdoor uses, from wetlands to playgrounds to sports fields. The architectural skin of each module supports both interior and exterior use, enabling hybrid, temporary programming that flexes with the rhythms of the school and environment.

Instagram: @sheen.w_, @monaelkhafif

Descubre Cultural Academy by  Leonardo Sánchez Jiménez, B.Arch ’25
Universidad Anáhuac Querétaro | Advisors: Guillermo Márquez, Patricia Cutiño & Jorge Javier

This architectural project is part of the development of cultural spaces as a tool for strengthening the social fabric and preserving intangible heritage in historic urban contexts. The proposal seeks to contribute to the access and dissemination of artistic expression, fostering community participation and dialogue between tradition and contemporaneity. This type of intervention is essential in areas with heritage value, as it promotes the sustainable use of the built environment, activates cultural and social dynamics, and strengthens local identity, all in alignment with urban development and cultural conservation policies.

Through an analysis of the project’s intentions for the community, a concept was developed that seeks to encompass the actions, artistic expression, and experiences that the project is expected to generate and provide to its users. The words discovery and rediscovery are defined as the act of finding, identifying, or exploring something that was ignored or went unnoticed; in the case of rediscovery, it is the same, but something that was thought to be forgotten, hidden, or undervalued. These terms imply not only the revelation of unknown or rediscovered aspects but also a new appreciation or perspective on what has been rediscovered. It is a process that combines memory and innovation, inviting us to reinterpret and value elements of the past in a contemporary context. It goes hand in hand with the type of user who experiences it, whether local or outside the neighborhood.

However, it is possible to create a route that allows both locals and outsiders to gain an insight into these spaces, with the aim of awakening curiosity and passion for the neighborhood’s identity and tradition, thanks to elements that frame specific spaces in the context, as well as plays of heights, levels, and terraces that allow for distinct views that perhaps is not commonly appreciated as they should be.

Instagram: @leosanj05, @asili.arq, @arquitectura_anahuac, @arqwave

The 5-Minute School by Anoushka Sarkar, BS Architecture ‘25
University of Virginia | Advisor: Mona El Khafif

Set in Fairhill, Philadelphia – a neighborhood affected by historic disinvestment in education, high vacancy rates, and limited public infrastructure, “The 5-Minute School” explores how education can be embedded into the everyday fabric of the city. Rather than designing a single school building, the project proposes a network of public learning spaces within a 5 to 10 minute walking and biking radius, transforming vacant urban lots into active, community-driven educational sites.

At the center of the proposal is the site of the former Fairhill Elementary School, closed since 2013, reimagined as a multi-generational learning center with wings dedicated to food and ecology, the arts, technology, fitness, and early childhood education. The design is structured on a 20’x20′ modular grid system with interchangeable roof and façade components, allowing for flexibility, sensory variation, and user autonomy.

Radiating from the main hub are six “satellite” sites, including a rain pavilion, art park, solar garden, edible walkway, bike kitchen, and outdoor movement plaza. Each [site] offers hands-on, multi-generational, and place-specific educational opportunities. These sites are connected by a walkable and bikeable loop, which weaves through the neighborhood and links together existing community assets like libraries, rec centers, and social service organizations.

“The 5-Minute School” reimagines education as something lifelong, all around us, and capable of transforming neighborhoods into more vibrant, walkable, and healthy communities.

Anoushka received the Faculty of Architecture Award for Design Excellence for her yearlong work, including this thesis project. 

Instagram: @anoushkasarkar, @monaelkhafif

AMUSEMENT PARK by James Herlihy, Jack McGowan & Anthony Meli, M.Arch ’25
University at Buffalo | Advisor: Jin Young Song

South Korea faces the growing challenge of vertical schools, where even children as young as 2 to 5 years old attend regular classes followed by up to four additional hours at private institutions. These facilities often keep students until the late evening, intensifying stress for families and fueling social inequalities. Private educational institutions have become symbols of South Korea’s hyper-competitive educational culture, also affecting real estate markets and the urban landscape. In response, this project reimagines the vertical school as a socially engaging and visually vibrant space. Inspired by theme parks, the building emphasizes circulation and spontaneous social interactions across all floors. The façade design directly relates to both the building’s interior spaces and the vivid colors of the surrounding urban signage. Using a unitized curtain wall system, the façade incorporates angled fins, expansive windows, and transparent glass walls. A variety of fin typologies encourages playful engagement from both inside and outside the building, creating dynamic focal points. On the front elevation, glass and fins are strategically arranged to emphasize circulation routes, program elements, and to transform the building’s appearance between day and night.

This project was featured in “Cram Urbanism And Vertical Learning Space,” an international symposium and exhibition in Seoul, South Korea. 

Instagram: @arcmeli02, @jinyoung___song

University of Providence Campus and Community Visioning by Harrison Bluestein, Andrew Rosenberg, Kiki Simmons & Nick Tournour, M.Urban Design & B.Arch. ’25
University of Miami | Advisor: Joanna Lombard

Nearly 100 years ago, the Sisters of Providence, the Ursuline Sisters, the Catholic Bishop of Great Falls and the Great Falls community began to integrate their educational vision with the unique ministries that had developed from the earliest years of the Sisters of Providence’s founding of a hospital and school in 1892 and 1894, respectively. Building on this early relationship of shared commitment to an academic and community-based education, the University of Miami Urban Design studio opened with analysis of the current form, historic architecture, as well as the social and physical context of the campus and Great Falls community to explore the potential for the physical campus to plan for a future that expresses the founding mission of integration and advancement and contributes to the future flourishing of university and the community of Great Falls. The student teams worked in collaboration with University of Providence leadership, faculty and students to develop prototypes for how the physical environment could most effectively frame and support the campus and community in the coming decades.

Studio-based multidisciplinary investigations and collaborations with leading professionals and a continuity of communication throughout the semester enabled rapid response as ideas were proposed, analyzed, developed and refined. This dynamic exploration was conducted with the Providence St. Joseph Health and University of Providence team members, as well as Great Falls advisers, resulting in a penultimate presentation at the end of the semester, after which the work was organized into a slide presentation that can be utilized by the University of Providence.

Instagram: @hb23_, @andrewrosenberg7, @u_soa

Pathways to Possibilities: Montessori, re-imagined and expanded for every path in life by Melanie Nin, B.Arch ’25
Kennesaw State University | Advisor: Robin Puttock

“Pathways to Possibilities” explores the importance of establishing a Montessori Pre-K through 8th-grade school for a large population of children, highlighting the unique challenges they face in accessing an education that meets their fundamental needs. By incorporating Montessori design principles and learning theories, the proposed school aims to create an inclusive, supportive environment that fosters self-directed learning, creativity, and social engagement. It advocates expanding the Montessori model to a larger school that fosters an inclusive environment that supports diverse students’ needs.

Thesis Question:

How can Montessori learning theory and design principles be implemented in a large-scale public school to provide an innovative school in Norcross, GA, that expands the accessibility of Montessori education to a larger community?

Problem:

Students face several challenges when trying to attend Montessori schools, including cost, lack of information, cultural and language barriers, and limited access.

Solution:

To expand the current Montessori model into a vibrant, inclusive learning community where every child can grow and thrive.

Hypothesis:

Designing flexible learning spaces that follow the 10 Montessori Principles while optimizing space efficiency.

Click here to learn more.

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

Instagram: @melaniespov, @robinzputtock

Crosswing Hall: a Biophilic Student Hub for Well-Being and Connection by Marianna Sanchez, B.Arch ’25
Kennesaw State University | Advisor: Robin Puttock

Crosswing Hall stands as a vibrant intersection of connection, community, and growth at Kennesaw State University’s Marietta campus. Inspired by the convergence of diverse paths and ideas, the name symbolizes both the physical design of the building—marked by angular, wing-like forms—and its purpose as a space where students and alumni come together. As a central hub, Crosswing Hall fosters interdisciplinary exchange, reduces anxiety through thoughtful design and natural elements, and cultivates lasting connections that extend beyond graduation. By providing an environment where students feel supported, engaged, and at home, Crosswing Hall strengthens campus pride, encourages meaningful relationships, and ensures that every visitor—whether a first-year student or returning alum—feels part of the university’s ongoing story.

Click here to learn more.

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

Instagram: @msg2002, @robinzputtock

Uvalde Strong: Youth and Community Center by Eric Grossman, M.Arch ’25
Academy of Art University | Advisor: Eric Reeder

The proposed Youth and Community Center in Uvalde, Texas, aims to address two tragic questions: the nature of social isolation and its ties to violence, and the nature of community healing.

On May 24th, 2022, 19 elementary school students and 2 teachers were murdered by an 18-year-old active shooter at the Robb Elementary School. The shooting directly affected 21 families and indirectly several more. Uvalde is a small town where people know each other. An uncle of one of the victims stated, “If the shooter was involved and was able to be active and play, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.” A few months later, on September 9th, 2022, two teenagers of 16 and 18 years were shot in an alleged drug deal at the same site.

Drugs and gang affiliations may also be causing increased youth gun violence, in addition to social isolation. Currently, the Uvalde area hosts few mental health resources and facilities. According to US News, “The only mental health center in the area — just blocks from Robb Elementary — was seldom used or discussed, raising worries about the lack of awareness regarding signs and symptoms of mental illness and the stigma surrounding seeking help.”

Grieving together through recreation and community has helped Uvalde begin to heal. The parents of one victim started an organization that hosts wilderness retreats for victims’ families and survivors. Residents also come together in social media groups where they can share mental health resources and express their grief. 

By bringing in places to gather as families and as a community along with being able to play, we may be able to foster more inclusion in school environments. A recreation center, community center, and place to gather can give these kids an opportunity to engage in play and change their direction. A chance to compete in sports and be a part of a team can lead children through self-discovery. Through play, children can interact with others in a positive environment. Social interaction and civic engagement can trigger some of the solutions for these issues through organized activities. The proposal is a Youth and Community Center that can facilitate these activities.

Click here to learn more. 

This proposal received the Graduate School of Architecture Prize for Outstanding Thesis Project.

Instagram: @ericreeder.architect

School of Roots by Eva Shaw, M.Arch ’25
Academy of Art University | Advisor: Eric Reeder

Sustainability must lead our educational efforts to address the planet’s pressing challenges. While complex, the issue can be met with intention and thoughtful design. This elementary school teaches sustainability through direct exposure and lived experience. Targeting elementary-aged students is intentional—Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage marks a critical period when children form logical ideas from concrete experiences. At this stage, space and time are vital in shaping thought, making the built environment especially influential. 

“School of Roots” embraces this developmental window to cultivate future stewards of the land. Designed with a rotating visiting schedule, it serves as a learning model for other schools and opens to the public when not in use, broadening its educational impact. Located in a dense urban area in Berkeley, California, the site minimizes sprawl and transportation needs, with direct access to public transit. This ensures both environmental responsibility and community accessibility. The building includes flexible workspaces, demonstration labs, and dining areas. Its strong emphasis is on outdoor learning, which reconnects users with nature. School of Roots is a foundational effort to align education with planetary health. Engaging children at their most formative stage offers a hopeful path toward a sustainable future.

Click here to learn more. 

This design was awarded the 2025 Spring Show Prize for Outstanding M.Arch Thesis Project.

Instagram: @evashaw_architecture, @ericreeder.architect

Designing for Tomorrow: Elevating Learning and Shaping Growth by Vira Grace Williams, B.Arch ’25
Belmont University | Advisors: Tom Lowing & Dennis Daniels

As I considered my approach to this project, I reflected on O’More College’s place within Belmont University. Though it has been part of Belmont for only seven years—and its architecture program for just five—it stands as the only architecture school in Middle Tennessee. While O’More has already been shaped by Belmont’s broader vision, the university now has a unique opportunity to define a design school that sets itself apart—not just regionally, but nationally. One of the key ways O’More differentiates itself is through its mission-driven approach to design education. The question this proposal is trying to answer is: how can this renovation and expansion strengthen that identity and help position the program as a leader in design education?

One of Belmont’s 2030 initiatives is a commitment to whole-person formation—a strategic focus on academic, emotional, social, and spiritual development. This idea resonates deeply with me as I reflect on my own education. The question, then, is how the building itself can reinforce this vision while strengthening O’More’s institutional identity.

 At its core, this project is about the student experience. Design fields—whether architecture, interior design, or fashion—are often defined by long hours, intense deadlines, and constant pressure. The existing O’More building, while rich in history and character, has reached a point where expansion is not just an opportunity but a necessity. Through analyzing the Hitch building and drawing from personal experience, it was clear that the lack of spatial variety, accessibility, and common areas limited interaction between cohorts, while poor daylighting and ventilation increased energy demands. These challenges helped shape the design approach: addressing the gaps in the current spaces while creating a healthier, more supportive learning environment—one where students want to stay, work, and grow.

Architecturally, this vision takes shape through quiet areas, collaborative commons, or breakout pods. This allows the building to support social interaction and individual well-being—both essential to whole-person formation. While the project provides the necessary studios, classrooms, and presentation spaces, its true priority is ensuring that students have spaces that accommodate different working styles. By aligning the physical environment with the values of care, well-being, and connection, this addition ensures that O’More is a place where students are supported not only as designers, but as whole people.

Instagram: @vira_semkiv_design, @omore.architecture

Village for Children by Zake Bjontegard, B.Arch ’25
University of Texas at Austin | Advisor: Nichole Wiedemann

Situated near the southern border of Senegal, the Nursery School repositions early childhood education toward a community-oriented model that leverages the resilience of local materials and techniques. The school mimics vernacular village structures through careful positioning, aggregation, and a focus on interstitial space. 

In turn, the grounds form a child-centered micro-village where young children can explore a sense of freedom and agency within a managed system. The askew masses showcase a necklace of indistinguishable “hut-like” classrooms positioned around a central courtyard encased in bamboo. Each classroom shares an educational play space with a neighboring classroom, as well as direct access to the free-play courtyard. 

The model of learning emphasizes flexibility, allowing the school to adjust connections and spaces depending upon the needs of local youth. Upon approach, the profile of the complex resembles a neighborly system of material and assembly—diffusing into the surrounding context of thatch and earth. Children are encouraged to feel a sense of familiarity with the shapes, forms, and textures of the complex, embracing conservation in the pursuit of innovation. 

The project utilizes two major local materials: rammed earth and bamboo. The rammed earth wraps the perimeter of the complex, presenting itself outwardly as a depiction of privacy and strength. In contrast, a softer bamboo inner membrane gives way to looser, more permissive thresholds between classes and age groups. The construction and building of these materials are possible through local techniques—not significantly different from the construction of the traditional Senegalese home. 

In all, the Nursery School works to preserve the sensitive traditions of rural Senegal while capitalizing on the potential for subtle modifications—both in architecture and within the broader early childhood education system.

This project was submitted to the Kaira Loora Competition.

Instagram: @zakebjontegard, @nicholewiedemann

Inside Out – Outside In by Nguyen Thanh Minh, D.Arch ’25
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa | Advisor: Yasushi Ishida

“Inside Out – Outside In” is a K-12 vertical school design that creates a biophilic learning environment through modular classroom spaces that support faster construction and easy adaptability to meet future education needs. The blending of interior and exterior allows the design to get a natural flow that helps the students learn, grow, and live in harmony with the environment. 

The green pockets are located throughout different levels of the buildings to welcome natural elements such as sunlight, fresh air, and greenery, which allows students to feel the presence of nature in every part of their learning experience. The green pockets can also become areas for relaxation, exploration, and social interaction. 

“Inside Out–Outside In” reimagines the vertical K–12 typology within urban Honolulu. It challenges the traditional single-corridor model by creating dynamic, layered learning environments organized around the extended open-air green pockets. These green zones act as continuous outdoor extensions of each classroom cluster, creating additional outdoor space for learning activities.

The first principle of the design is “Design for Well-being.” The project was developed to support students’ physical, mental, and emotional health. Brise soleil manages sunlight and glare, while open corridors and operable walls promote natural ventilation. The landscape in the center becomes learning gardens, and soft vegetative buffers attract students to gather under shades, fostering calm, comfort, and sensory richness.

The second principle is “Design for Change”. It is evident in the modular classroom configuration and flexible partitions. As education evolves, the building can accommodate new changes, enrollment fluctuations, or even entirely different age group needs without major structural intervention.

The school is designed to serve all students of different ages, from elementary to high school, with tailored experiences. Ensuring that it’s secure, and has playful outdoor areas for younger children and flexible zones for older students. Together, these spaces create a vertical learning landscape that nurtures collaboration, and connection to the natural world.

This project was nominated for the AIA Honolulu People’s Choice Awards 2025. 

Instagram: @archawaii

Restoring Vocation by Mason Burress, M.Arch ’25
Washington University in St. Louis | Advisor: Donald N. Koster, AIA

“Restoring Vocation” is a response to the self-initiated research and design proposal fulfilling the degree project requirements for the first-professional Master’s degree program in the Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design at Washington University in St. Louis. [This studio’s work] is the architectural response to the intentional, programmatic, and situational project brief developed through in-depth research into a specific transect of the St. Louis Region conducted during the previous semester. 

Once a center for hands-on learning, North St. Louis was home to several vocational schools that equipped students with practical skills in woodworking, metalworking, welding, fashion, auto mechanics, and the MEP (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing) trades, among others. However, since the mid-1960s, these institutions have steadily disappeared. Restoring Vocation seeks to bring the spirit of vocational education back — by establishing a new affiliate school designed to work in concert with the four major high schools in the surrounding area as a celebration of the trades. 

The new educational facility expresses its practical mission by honoring familiar industrial typologies. The structure is mass timber and the building’s north-facing sawtooth skylights are designed to maximize natural light within the vocational classroom spaces and shops. Adaptable workshops are organized along a linear spine that doubles as a collaborative large project working space and primary circulation. The building’s structure and systems are intentionally exposed to serve as an instructive tool for learning. 

This project received the 2025 Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design Degree Project Award.

Instagram: @masonburress.arch

Convergence – DAS Transformed by Evelyn Foster & Marko Jovanovic, B.ArchSc ’25
Toronto Metropolitan University | Advisor: John Cirka

The TMU campus is currently a space to pass through, not to inhabit. “Convergence” aims to reimagine this by proposing more than just a new Architecture Building; it is a vision for a lively public realm. At its core is the transformation of Kerr Hall into a vibrant central square, with the new building framing a key path from Dundas Square. Human-scaled programming and public space activate Church Street, drawing visitors into a generous social area at the south entrance. This space leads to “The Square,” a multi-purpose atrium for lectures, presentations, and casual interaction, anchoring the building’s layout. Circulating through the building concludes with the sixth-floor space, a celebratory space under a CLT roof, flooding with natural light. At this point, the visitors have reached the pinnacle of the new Architecture building, and are invited to look out over the campus and city beyond.

Click here to learn more. 

This project was selected as an Honourable Mention – Bold Visions Transforming Futures.

Instagram: @ev.shoob, @marko.jovanovic.29, @lisalandrum.arch

It Takes a Village by Evan Cage, M.Arch ’25
Morgan State University| Advisors: Carlos Reimers & Howard Mack

“It Takes a Village” investigates the role of architecture in fostering intergenerational learning and cultural continuity, especially within historically rich, yet systemically underserved, communities like Mid-City, New Orleans. Research into social sustainability, community-based education, and the spatial marginalization of elders and youth reveals a critical need: the environments where we learn, grow, and gather often fail to reflect the full richness of our identities or support the passing down of lived wisdom. This project responds to that need by proposing a new model for educational and community spaces—one that elevates legacy-building through shared experience, cultural exchange, and intentional spatial design. By connecting elders and youth in a four-story, dual-building community center organized around arts, storytelling, culinary traditions, language, and civic engagement, It Takes a Village challenges conventional notions of schooling and reclaims education as a lifelong, communal journey.

This project received the Outstanding Architectural Design Award. 

Instagram: @sosmoov3, @reimerscarlos, @h_mack

Stay tuned for Part II!

2024 Study Architecture Student Showcase - Part VII

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Welcome to Part VII of the 2024 Study Architecture Student Showcase! Today’s featured projects highlight spaces that serve their local communities. The student work below functions as more than just community centers, but as cultural and educational hubs as well. Each design presents an opportunity to transform communities by supporting the local economy, enhancing sustainability, creating an enriching environment, and more!

Tarboro Road Community Center by Maggie Kroening,  B. Arch ‘24
NC State University | Advisor: Doug Pierson

Tarboro Road Community Center

Anchors: Connecting Community to Landscape

Architecture has the power to include or exclude, establish connections, foster pride, and generate emotion. In turn, when considering public projects, architects have the choice to design for all, promoting a more equitable built environment. This philosophy is exemplified in my design for Tarboro Road Community Center, called “Anchors,” bridging design aspects of both landscape and architecture.  

This informed my project parti: landscape as anchors of gathering. After delineating existing trees on site, the program is placed at the least intrusive spaces, preserving the canopy. Overall, the enclosure is created for the program, and mass is subtracted to reveal entry, instilling a beacon and public park for the community. This site resides in the historically underserved community of East Raleigh. Thus, my project, “Anchors” needed to function larger than a community center, acting as a social nexus as the region urbanizes.

The design maximizes green space by elevating private program spaces to the second floor. This dedicates the entire ground plane to community use, featuring a plaza, recreation, seating, landscape gathering, an enclosed café, lobby, and gymnasium. By creating an urban plaza and elevating private amenities to the second floor, the entire ground plane functions as a public space for the community.  

In designing a space for a community, it is important to reflect on memories of what makes a space meaningful, which are often rooted in nature.  At Tarboro Road Community Center, nature is not just integrated, but celebrated. The landscape incorporates elements that evoke memories of meaningful outdoor experiences. The terraced seating also overlooks the recreation court, allowing viewership during games.  A naturalized playspace not only offers children a safe environment but also incorporates bioswales for sustainable runoff filtration, reinforcing the center’s commitment to ecological celebration.

The Tarboro Road Community Center exemplifies the integration of architecture and landscape, where the natural environment and community needs converge. By preserving the historic trees and maximizing public green space, the center not only honors the past but also prepares for the future as East Raleigh evolves.  

This project won the 2024 AIA Triangle Student Design Award

Instagram: @maggie.k, @podarchitecturedesign, @ncstatedesign

Aguirre Cultural and Visitor Center: The Revitalization of Abandoned Industrial Areas in the Communities by Sebastián R. Medina-Colón, B. Arch ’24
Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico | Advisors: Pedro A. Rosario-Torres & Juan C. Santiago-Colón

The project is located in the Aguirre community in Salinas, Puerto Rico, and focuses on the former Aguirre Sugar Mill, situated near the coast and the community. This sugar mill was an economic pillar of the southern region in Puerto Rico since its establishment in the late 19th century. It spurred an economic boom centered on sugar production, becoming one of the largest and most productive facilities in the Caribbean. However, over time, the sugar industry faced economic challenges, and the sugar mill closed its operations in the 1990s. This closure caused several problems in the community, including the loss of jobs, population, commercial areas, and hospitals, leaving a forgotten and ruined community.

As a solution to this problem, the architectural proposal focuses on highlighting the area’s cultural, historical, and economic aspects. The main programs include a cultural and community center with recreational spaces, auditoriums for various local activities, a community market, and exhibition spaces with educational facilities to stimulate artistic and cultural interest in the area. Additionally, a visitor center is implemented to promote the local economy, which includes a virtual and interactive exhibition to present the history of the place and the processes used during that time, as well as commercial spaces, restaurants, and more.

The project advocates for returning the waterfront to the community by removing visual barriers and obstacles that currently restrict access to the coast. The intervention involves using part of the existing structures to preserve the sense of place, while new interventions are carried out in the deteriorated areas, fostering a strong urban node that highlights the cultural, economic, historical, and artistic activities of the place. The project focuses on three buildings selected for preservation. Two of them, formerly two-level warehouses, are proposed as the building for art and culture, oriented towards the community, and the community building facing the sea. The third and largest building of the sugar mill is designated for a commercial and exhibition space.

Instagram: @sebastianmedinacolon

Centro Juvenil Reginal, De Fomento Educativo y Cultural by Salma Orozco Orozco, B. Arch ‘24
Universidad Anáhuac Querétaro | Advisors: Alfonso Galván & Jorge Javier

The project aims to create an innovative youth centre that will become the heart of the social and cultural life of Cadereyta de Montes, radiating its influence to neighbouring states. This space will be designed so that young people can explore and enhance their talents and skills in both the educational and cultural spheres. In addition to fostering individual development, it will seek to promote positive values and community integration, strengthening ties between the inhabitants of the area and reducing violence rates. 

The project also contemplates the revitalisation of urban spaces in Cadereyta de Montes, turning the youth centre into a tourist reference point in the region. It will seek to stimulate urban activity in the city, generating economic and cultural opportunities for its inhabitants. In short, the youth centre aspires to be much more than a meeting place for young people; it will be an engine of social and urban transformation in the entire community.

Instagram: @orsa.mx, @salma_orozco123, @arqwave, @arquitectura_anahuac

HYOO•GUH by Cristian Salvador Díaz Castillo & Lian Alejandro de la Puente Pozada, B. Arch ’24
Tecnológico de Monterrey | Advisors: María Guadalupe Peñuñuri Soto, Jocelyn Erandi Reyes Nieto, Luis Antonio Valle Cordero & Marco Tulio Muñoz Lopez

Hyoo Guh is an architectural project strategically located in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, inspired by the Danish philosophy of “hygge,” which promotes the enjoyment of life’s simple pleasures. On a site of almost 30,000m², 11 towers will be built, including 4 mixed-use towers and 6 residential towers, generating a population density of 600 inhabitants. However, the project aims to attract all people who seek to celebrate life and generate community through architecture. Promoting this, Hyoo Guh’s main attraction is a central library, which along with the overall project, seeks to create an inclusive ecosystem for all, especially for children, in a way that promotes education and cultural development in an accessible and stimulating way for all ages.

The Danish philosophy of “hygge”, which focuses on warmth, intimacy, and the enjoyment of simple, cozy moments, has guided every aspect of Hyoo Guh. This approach is reflected in every detail of the design, creating an environment that invites relaxation and shared enjoyment, where users not only want to be, but to live, and spend most of their time. 

In addition, Hyoo Guh offers three different paths, each one of a distance under 600 meters, and marked with a different color that defines a different route, adapted to different users, these paths are intended to allow users to explore and experience the project in unique ways. Completing all three tours once adds up to one mile of distance, enriching the visitor’s experience.

The vision for Hyoo Guh is to become a landmark in the city, a place where people will go not only for necessity but for the pleasure of enjoying a welcoming and enriching environment.

Finally, Hyoo Guh aims to set a new standard for community and wellness in Hermosillo, creating an environment where every person feels not only welcome but deeply connected and enriched. Its library will not only be a center of knowledge, but a place where community flourishes, inspiring everyone to live with gratitude and full enjoyment.

Instagram: @teccampusson, @tecdemonterrey, @eaad.tec, @yochi_02

Wine, Water and Architecture: A Multiscale Approach to Terroir Expression by Carmen Al Chahal, B. Arch ’24
American University of Beirut | Advisors: Sandra Frem & Makram El Kadi

Focusing on Anjar within the expansive 215,000 sqm plot of the Bekaa Valley, this thesis seeks to demonstrate that architecture, when thoughtfully integrated into the wine-making process, has the potential to materialize and strengthen the links between terroir and wine production at multiple scales. By addressing water-sensitive processes responding to the challenges, fostering wineries as cultural hubs for local communities, and drawing inspiration from the site’s nature and potential, architecture can play a pivotal role in enhancing the sustainability, connectivity, and cultural richness of the wine industry.

Instagram: @ard_aub

Stay tuned for Part VIII!

2024 Study Architecture Student Showcase - Part IV

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Infrastructure is the central theme covered in Part IV of the 2024 Study Architecture Student Showcase. Defined as “the facilities and systems that serve a community,” infrastructure can range from public transportation to roadways.

Today’s featured projects look at existing infrastructure and use design solutions to improve conditions. Examples include creating opportunities for connection between surrounding areas, reimaging exclusionary foundations to support upward mobility, developing comprehensive building codes, and promoting sustainability.

Suburbia As the Anti-Society: Why We Need a Suburban Architectural Rebellion by Megan Kaminski, M. Arch ‘24
Lawrence Technological University | Advisor: Scott Shall

There needs to be a Suburban Rebellion in architecture. Suburbs were originally built for a white middle class and continue to be built for a white middle class, even as suburbs begin to change and evolve socioeconomically. The conditions of which are a prevailing continuation of a dependency on automobiles, zoning, and infrastructure that becomes dangerous limitations as the flow of suburban sprawl moves income and investment farther and farther away, causing an equal sprawl of suburban decay in its wake.

Existing suburbs should be reimagined by reusing decaying or underused conditions by the community, in spite of harmful regulations that have been institutionalized since the 1950s, to rewrite them.

To investigate this, I propose to design a methodology for how future suburbs can be designed by people/the community as well as detailing how existing conditions can be reused in order to achieve this.

Instagram: @scott_shall

Post-Infrastructure: Structure as Site by Hilal Kobrosly, B. Arch ’24
American University of Beirut | Advisors: Carla Aramouny & Sinan Hassan

The concept behind this project is an exploration of how infrastructure, in this case, the columns of the Mdayrej bridge, can undergo a profound transformation, transcending their utilitarian purpose to become integral elements in a new architectural narrative. By interweaving a performance hall and a hotel into the existing columns, this endeavor challenges conventional notions of these structures as purely functional, highlighting their potential as generators of space and meaning.

The project’s design engages with the history of architectural evolution, drawing inspiration from the Cordoba Mosque’s expansion stages. Much like how the mosque’s structure evolved over time while maintaining its essence, this project seeks to evolve the bridge’s columns, blurring the lines between pre-existing and newly constructed elements. This approach introduces a sense of continuity and harmony to the site, where the boundaries between old and new become indistinct.

As one enters the parking area, the experience unfolds progressively. The scale shift from the vast field of columns to the more confined performance hall is reminiscent of a journey through architectural time and space. It is as if one is moving through layers of history and design, gradually immersing themselves in the evolving narrative of the project.

In the context of the performance hall, the design draws inspiration from ancient Greek theaters, where integration with the natural landscape was paramount. Here, the topography lines of the site plan effortlessly lead to a niche beneath the eastern columns of the bridge, forming a natural amphitheater. 

The roof overhead serves as the only enclosure needed, allowing the audience to connect intimately with both the landscape and the columns. In this setting, the columns cease to be mere structural elements; they become performers themselves, adding a dynamic dimension to the grand hall’s ambiance.

Moving on to the hotel, it occupies a floating strip, gracefully positioned above the performance hall’s roof. Along the western columns of the bridge, the project’s field condition undergoes a transformation. 

The columns, now experienced at a more intimate scale, transcend their load-bearing role to become intricate surfaces. This shift in perspective challenges preconceived notions about the relationship between structure and space, highlighting how architecture can breathe new life into utilitarian elements.

Instagram: @ard_aub

Turnpike Beef by Ray Wincko, M. Arch ‘24
University of Florida | Advisors: Charlie Hailey & Bradley Walters

Turnpike Beef is a design project that synthesizes the inherent relationships amongst underlying infrastructural systems, the subliminal qualities of the banal, and a bucolic Floridian landscape. Florida is notorious for fantastical manufactured environments like the neon nightmares of Miami or the fabricated magical kingdoms of Orlando. Turnpike Beef suggests that the systems of infrastructure that stitch these urban centers hold a more accurate perspective of what this landscape beholds. Arguably the most overlooked component of infrastructure that, in its absence and introduction, has contributed to the development of Florida is the fence.

Through the analysis and invigoration of the fence, Turnpike Beef aims to envision how “fence” as an architectural tool can catalyze and shift the manner in which citizens perceive and interact with infrastructure, banal space, and the in-between of the Florida landscape. Once the idea of the fence surpasses its normally understood role of line and boundary, it acquires a greater set of roles as a spatial mediator, raconteur, and witness to the environment. The fence is most often interacted with while traversing between destinations at high speeds which demands a regional scale of response. Along with a regional response, a more impactful aspect of infrastructural interaction is that in a time of intimate and reflective pause or rather, rest.

In search of tying narrative and conditional threads between infrastructural landscape and seemingly regular program, this study proposes a set of interventions that utilize the “fence” as a tool for synthesizing and charging spatial, political, and cultural relationships. The intervention, programmatically, is a reinterpretation of a contemporary staple of American travel, the rest stop. A  generally disregarded, temporal experience along our routes, the rest stops of Florida’s state highway system are designed to operate as efficient exchanges of north and south-bound travelers with little regard for its infrastructural context or the often-enriched historical landscape that surrounds them. Through ceremonial defecation, boiled peanuts, trucker showers, and billboard propaganda, this project connects the individual with infrastructural traces and the forgotten celebration of the subsided program.

Instagram: @charlie.hailey, @r_winky

Central EJE de Movilidad Turística Tequisquiapan by Axel Josua Nogales Bernal, B. Arch ’24
Universidad Anáhuac Querétaro | Advisor: Jorge Javier

This project was born as an integral mobility strategy for the state of Querétaro, as well as from the need to connect the city of Tequisquiapan with the rest of the magical towns in the region.

The proposal is inserted in the periphery of the urban area, in order to integrate different local transports and make it easier to move around.

The building, a structural integration of uniform columns that link the large concrete roof through subtle arches, divides the public part from the private part, expanding the uses, in order to have internal plazas and open spaces and thus achieve a great amplitude for the transit and boarding of the bus users.

This project won the 2024 AIA Triangle Student Design Award.

Instagram: @axelnogales, @ajnb_arq, @arqwave, @arquitectura_anahuac

Exclusionary Infrastructure & Displacement: A Study on Architectural Mobility by Elisa Castañeda & Luke Murray, B. Arch ’24
Mississippi State University | Advisors: Jassen Callender, David Perkes, Mark Vaughan & Aaron White

Jackson, Mississippi, is a unique place, the capital of the most low-income state in the Nation, the Blackest major city in the United States per capita, and a city whose history is translated through its infrastructure and built landscape. While the implementation of policies and regulations are directly in view as forms of disenfranchisement in marginalized communities, public infrastructure, urban planning, and the built environment are not often recognized as forms of regulation. The placement of highways, railroads, walls, and more, have had profound effects on the organization of different racial demographic groups within the city of Jackson – these patterns are still pervasive today.

The above implicates exclusionary infrastructure, defined here as the placement and construction of built works that hinder accessibility between communities, resulting in systemic disinvestment and social plight. 

This proposal aims to examine how these factors – and their historical, social, and political contexts – have resulted in inequity at multiple scales. And furthermore, leverage that research to better understand how architecture can be a form of liberation rather than control in a city and a state that fails to reconcile under the weight of its own history.

What follows, is our research and conclusions on how architectural design skills can be used to illustrate how we might begin to break down exclusionary infrastructure and create collective autonomies over spaces that may seem divisive. To argue that physical divides can become points for connection. 

Through this analysis, we were able to identify what public infrastructure in the built environment had the most negative impacts within the Jackson community. Out of this came the Illinois Central Railroad as the site for a theoretical design intervention. In many instances, the track represents a literal earthen wall through the city that separates lower-income black communities from more fluent white-centric communities. The mission of the design intervention is to provide spaces to connect, while also contributing to social mobility among local stakeholders. This brought about a new re-imagining and reinvention of how we perceive train tracks as an occupyable space. One with broad reach and the ability to adjust to changing needs, both in programming and location.

This project won the CDFL Capstone Studio Travel Award.

Instagram: @elisa_castaneda, @chimichurrimurray, @jassencallender

Emerging Connections: Renetworking Formal and Informal Public Space by Hoi Ting Chan & Nicole Giella, M. Arch ’24
New York Institute of Technology | Advisors: Marcella Del Signore & Evan Shieh

“Emerging Connections: Renetworking Formal and Informal Public Space” focuses on adaptive reuse to revitalize mono-use infrastructure and reclaim underutilized public spaces in São Cristóvão, Rio de Janeiro. The project aims to enhance the local social infrastructure by extending its reach and promoting both formal and informal community interactions. A detailed analysis of the neighborhood’s existing connectivity and functional drivers informed the creation of a spatial matrix that seamlessly integrates current conditions with new opportunities for social engagement. In line with Rio’s goal of zero transport emissions by 2050, the design prioritizes pedestrian-friendly environments, reducing dependence on private vehicles.

The chosen site is characterized by intersecting boundaries, including a canal, a ground highway, an elevated highway, and the adjacent underutilized land. The intervention is executed in three phases: Phase One transforms ground-level highway lanes next to the canal into a pedestrian-friendly urban park, making the canal a central public space. Phase Two introduces a new community center on the adjacent underutilized land, enhancing local social infrastructure. Phase Three converts the elevated highway into a dynamic network for social exchange, with spaces dedicated to educational activities and formal gatherings.

Nodes play a critical role in the design, shaping areas for both formal and informal social activities. At the highway level, formal nodes, including a library, café, and lecture hall, are accessed through various paths to provide distinct user experiences. On the ground level, informal nodes are strategically placed around and above the canal, integrated with pedestrian pathways. Informal nodes accommodate street vendors, crucial to Rio’s vibrant social fabric, offering adaptable spaces that support formal events and accommodate temporary uses.

Resiliency measures include expanding the canal’s edges to prevent flooding and incorporating green infrastructure to improve air quality and address climate change. These interventions make São Cristóvão’s limited green space, previously dominated by a single park, more accessible. By focusing on implementing these strategies at the city’s boundary intersections, the project enables multi-directional and multi-level growth, enhancing public social interactions, and elevating the quality of life for Rio’s residents.

Instagram: @ngiella_, @virginiacht, @marcelladelsi, @ev07

Beyond Disaster Relief by Jean-Paul Abi Awad, M. Arch ’24
Boston Architectural College | Advisors: Ian F. Taberner, AIA & Asli Baran

This thesis explores how architects respond to disasters by designing urban spaces and architecture. The thesis has two perspectives: the immediate response to crises, which involves the design of temporary shelters and essential infrastructure, and future-proofing designs to prepare for potential crises by incorporating resilience, flexibility, and adaptability. 

The thesis aims to demonstrate architecture’s role in responding to and mitigating the effects of crises and how designers can create more resilient and adaptive spaces for the future.

The project aims to create a center to study and address the root causes of crises, develop comprehensive building codes and regulations, and conduct research. The project will engage with various stakeholders to promote collaboration and coordination in addressing crises and will be a hub for knowledge sharing and collaboration in the region.

This project received the M. Arch Thesis Commends.

Connecting Assets: towards an integrated city by foot. by Shreya Sanghvi & Tanaya Gawade, MS. Architecture in Urban Design ’24
New York Institute of Technology | Advisors: Jeannette Sordi & Jeffrey Raven

The São Cristóvão neighbourhood, often seen as an isolated island due to its perceived disconnection from surrounding areas, is on the brink of transformation. Our vision is to redefine this area, overcoming its barriers and enhancing connectivity to key landmarks like the market, bio park, and harbour. This initiative presents a unique opportunity for São Cristóvão to become a beacon of sustainable urban development, influencing the design of city blocks, open spaces, transit systems, and bicycle networks, thus revitalizing the entire region. Central to this strategy is the implementation of a major pedestrian-friendly system. Dismantling the invisible barriers that fragment the neighbourhood requires establishing a porous pedestrian network. This network will enable the seamless movement of people and facilities, fostering integration and accessibility throughout the area. By prioritizing walkable infrastructure, such as lively streets, plazas, neighbourhood parks, and green spaces, we can ensure safe and convenient passage between the neighbourhood and the harbour.

Moreover, innovative elements like elevated walkways and bridges will provide new dimensions of connectivity, further integrating São Cristóvão with its surroundings. The inclusion of blue and green infrastructure is pivotal, as it not only enhances connectivity but also addresses pressing climate issues. Green corridors and water management systems will create a resilient and inviting environment for residents and commuters alike.

Our strategy aims to breathe new life into São Cristóvão, making it a model of urban revitalization. By prioritizing pedestrian mobility and sustainability, we can transform this neighbourhood into a vibrant, interconnected community. This approach will not only improve the quality of life for current residents but also attract new visitors and businesses, driving economic growth and fostering a sense of community pride. Together, we can turn São Cristóvão into a thriving urban oasis, leading the way in sustainable urban development.

This project won the Black Spectacles, Spectacular Studio Awards, 2024

Instagram: @_shreya_sanghvi, @tana_yeahhh, @jeffrey.raven, @jeannettesordi

TerraCrux by Joseph Kim, B. Arch ’24
University of Southern California | Advisor: Eric Haas

The ceaseless interplay between human and natural forces focuses on the errors of our inventions and reminds us of nature’s everlasting presence. However, our efforts have left divisions in its realm, forcing the equilibrium to kneel to our errors. As our infrastructure falters, we will ensure that natural pathways resurface, interweaving with the very essence of our dominion. With the passage of time, aided by us, nature will thread through our past errors, restoring balance through its own fruition. Within the I-5 and CA-14 corridors, an error reveals an opportunity. This space will not only establish a new pathway but also create a sanctuary for wildlife.

Tapestry of tomorrow: weaving culture, commerce and community by Anushka Naik & Manogna Sai Padi, Ms. Architecture in Urban Design ’24
New York Institute of Technology | Advisors: Jeannette Sordi & Jeffrey Raven

In the bustling heart of Rio de Janeiro lies São Cristóvão, an industrial zone awaiting transformation into a sustainable, mixed-use area by 2050 through our visionary project, “TAPESTRY OF TOMORROW”. This endeavor aims to seamlessly integrate industrial and residential spaces, enhancing accessibility, connectivity, and harmony within the community.

Our approach prioritizes sustainability, considering the long-term impacts on environmental conservation, economic prosperity, social equity, and urban well-being. To realize our vision, we meticulously analyze the site, dividing it into a grid to address challenges such as flooding, waste management, and heat stress. This granular examination allows us to tailor solutions that ensure neighborhood resilience and sustainability. Our design serves as a versatile blueprint, capable of adapting to diverse urban problems in São Cristóvão and beyond. By understanding each location’s unique characteristics and issues, our strategies can be scaled and transferred, contributing to broader sustainable urban development initiatives.

It emphasizes green infrastructure, renewable energy sources, and mixed-use development to create a resilient urban environment. Incorporating elements like green roofs, rain gardens, and permeable pavements enables effective stormwater management and reduces urban heat island effects. The utilization of solar and wind power, coupled with energy-efficient building systems, underscores our commitment to sustainability. Additionally, our project fosters community engagement and economic growth through carefully designed public spaces and innovation hubs.

Furthermore, “TAPESTRY OF TOMORROW” celebrates São Cristóvão’s rich cultural heritage, blending history with modernity. By preserving the area’s cultural identity while embracing innovative design and technology, we aim to create a vibrant neighborhood that honors its past and embraces a sustainable future. This project epitomizes a holistic approach to urban revitalization, weaving a tapestry of sustainable, innovative, and culturally vibrant communities for generations to come.

Instagram: @anushkanaik12, @manogna_s_padi, @jeffrey.raven, @jeannettesordi

Stay tuned for Part V!