Undergraduate Studio Awards for Fall 2021

At the conclusion of Fall 2021 semester, we asked studio faculty to nominate students deserving of recognition. We are delighted to announce the Fall 2021 Studio Award recipients!

The pandemic continues to affect all of us in serious and less serious ways. We will continue to support and cheer for all of you. We hope the Studio Awards serve as an opportunity to acknowledge the tremendous effort and resolve it takes to successfully complete a design studio project during these troubling times. Please congratulate the recipients who have shown resiliency and dedication.

ARH 110 Studio 1 Conceptual Design

(Faculty: Yim Lim, Rebal Knayzeh, Shruti Dixit, Aurgho Jyoti, Alexa Getting, Eric Reeder, Zach Meade, & Megan Esopenko)

• David Moses Ablang
• Ilse Aldaz
• Erine Collard
• Marguerite Crooks
• Lidia Ferreira “Lidia produced a great project and is well-rounded with good drawing and model-making skills. She clearly stood above and beyond the rest of the class. It definitely helps as she has worked as an interior designer in New York for 12  years. Lidia attended every single zoom call throughout the semester. We had great design discussions and she incorporated a lot of design refinement comments.”
• Christopher Flores
• Eva Kopp “Eva’s work was intuitive yet deliberate. Her visual acuity is outstanding and a great example to behold. Congratulations!”
• Edie Marshall “It was an absolute delight to have Edie in class and to see her grow as a designer. She has much potential and passion and I have no doubt she will go far. She is not scared to experiment and has an intuitive sense about design. She is hard working, and that ethic serves her well in the work that she produces.  It is a pleasure to teach someone who truly wants to learn.”
• Collin Russell “Colin was a pleasure to work with. He was committed at the highest level one can imagine for a student in ARH110OL. His relentlessness of inquiry, improving his abilities/ craft and participation, I have to say are hard to come by. I know he will be one of the standouts in the department for the next few years.”
• Aaron Wilson Jr
• Rodrigro Wilton “Rodrigo was curious and worked hard as he developed his design thinking skills through the projects he worked on in ARH110OL. His work from project 1 to 3 shows a marked improvement in his design approach and craft. I am sure he will fly high as he finds himself as a designer through the work at AAU and beyond.”
• Thomas Zehrung

ARH 150 Studio 2 Spatial Ordering
(Faculty: Eva Chiu, Antonio Lao, Gil Rodriguez, Ines Martin Brito, & Yim Lim)

• Gonzalo Cervantes “Gonzalo expressed a keen interest in all Project assignments throughout the semester, he challenged himself to explore different methods of model-making and drawing representation through a wide range of medium and materiality. We believe he will continue to exhibit his enthusiasm and passion for Architecture in the years to come…”
• William Cox “Will expressed a very disciplined approach to design, beginning from his chosen case study project through the final project submission. We believe he has a future filled with great potential in evolution of thought processes and refined design sensibilities.”
• Giewel Samantha David “Giewel was a thoughtful, disciplined and rigorous student with great craft and care in all the work she produced for studio.”
• Alvyna Euta-Filo “Alvyna brought exuberance and passion to her work in ARH150, fearlessly weaving complexity and depth into her designs.”
• Sara Haque
• Pablo Ipucha “Pablo consistently brought a standard of care and thoughtfulness into the studio, melding a disciplined rigor of geometry and technical knowledge with an openness to experimentation and critique.”
• Alexander Niles

ARH 210 Studio 3 Site Operations
(Faculty: Alex Neyman & Alex Barrett)

• Kim Estacio
• Laura Fescenko
• Chelsea Johdan
• Laura Melkonyan
• Kyle Shaw
• Charles Wooden

Film by Kyle Shaw, Laura Fescenko, Laura Melkonyan

ARH 255 Studio 4 Assembly & Context
(Faculty: Jason Austin & Rebal Knayzeh)

• Corina Cano Fernandez “Corina’s perseverance and dedication to her own growth is laudable. This is evidenced in her final project which showed amazing improvement and an ability to synthesize feedback with critical thinking.”
• Joshua Miles

ARH 315 Studio 5 Advocacy in Design
(Faculty: Doron Serban & Sameena Sitabkhan)

• Busi Dlamini “Busi is a sophisticated, empathetic designer. She got to know a person experiencing homelessness in Johannesburg and went out to meet him several times to understand his story. She is always open to learning and she impressed me with her openness to critique and honing her skills. She is engaged and active in the class, with work submitted on time as she balances school with her life in South Africa.”
• Hannah Moore “As a member of the university soccer team, Hannah’s time isn’t her own, but she has continuously delivered exceptional work. During class, she showed an introspective and iterative approach to design, and turned personal experiences interviewing and helping a family experiencing homelessness into an empathetic approach.”
• Tim Christopher Tjenurdin  “Tim is a diligent student, never missing, or even being late to class, in spite of a 14 hour time difference between Jakarta and San Francisco. He committed to the comic narrative structure. He met a homeless family in Jakarta and uniquely focused on the story told through the youngest child.”  
• Edward (Harrison) Tupper “Harrison is a strong designer who is thoughtful and empathetic. He made contact with Leonard, a man experiencing homelessness in his hometown, and created a project around his story. His work was iterative and on target with a clear vision and goals, and he successfully developed a compelling visual language for the final project. He produced strong and in-depth work for each assignment during the semester, while balancing a full time job and family obligations.”

ARH 350 Studio 6 Site & Building Performance
(Faculty: Ethen Wood & Jason Austin)

• Dania Babi
• Cole Le
• Mohamed Meawad
• Pablo Nieman

ARH 410 Studio 7 Tectonics & Structure
(Faculty: Karen Seong & Simon McKenzie)

• Vanessa Martinez “Vanessa brought exquisite craftsmanship to her project. Her receptiveness to feedback indicated her commitment to an iterative design process. She trusted the process and allowed herself to reach beyond her comfort zone in her design proposal to arrive at innovative and compelling program relationships and spatial experiences.”
• Zach Smith “Zach was invested in his own, as well as his peer’s projects, throughout the semester helping build a healthy studio culture. His enthusiasm for design, depth of technical knowledge, and work ethic resulted in an ambitious proposal that asked big questions while also achieving a high level of technical resolution. He took a full credit load while working full time in an architecture office. Balancing different obligations was not always easy but his determination never waivered. We look forward to his continued leadership among his peers.”

ARH 450 Studio 8 Integrated Design
(Faculty: Charles Green & Stephen Ellis)

• Connor Bowes “Connor is a talented designer and spatial problem solver. In addition to his design skills, he exemplified great communication skills and leadership working in a team dynamic throughout the whole semester which is no easy feat for this studio.”
• Brandy Brock “In spite of the many hats she needs to wear outside of the coursework, the ones honored here include being a leader and a thoughtful, committed teammate and student who took on an admirable design challenge beyond her comfort zone and excelled magnificently, reinvigorating the idea that hard work breeds success.”
• Derrick Myat “Derrick exemplified great dedication to this studio. He not only pushed his design and representation skills throughout the semester, but also showed a great effort in communication, team work, and leadership to ensure a beautiful and thorough final project. ”

ARH 510 Studio 9 Mixed Use Urbanism & Research
(Faculty: Philip Ra & Ethen Wood)

• Iveta Posledni “Iveta established roots in Czech Republic through the lens of critical regionalism and local history.”
• Jessica Trevino “Jessica expressed subtle moves with powerful meaning and impactful design intent – through color, pattern, scale, and program.”

ARH 550 Studio 10 Final Thesis Project
(Faculty: Philip Ra & Ethen Wood )

• Luka Radovic “Luka investigated a thoughtful understanding of place and program of Montenegro through the iterative design rigor.”
• Cristo Staedler “Cristo demonstrated exceptional skills and clarity within the recognition of his hometown – Monterey, California.”
• Qiyang Xu “Yang explored vernacular expressions in contemporary China blending the old and new in an artful way.”