By Karen Robichaud, Strategic Communications Consultant
Congratulations to the winners of the 2023 AIA / ASCA COTE Top Ten for Students Competition!
Last August, ACSA and AIA announced the 2023 entries from the student competition, selected from studio projects from architecture schools throughout the United States and Canada.
Like in years past, this crop of awardees submitted a stellar array of projects, from a cancer support center aimed at addressing health disparities of Native American communities to a reef research and teaching facility and several others. What struck me about the entries and the jury comments, was that what makes a strong student submission to the program is similar to what makes a strong submission to the AIA COTE Top Ten award program, most notably: well executed graphics, diagrams that show broader context, and robust information pair with clear data.
We had the good fortune to speak with the 2023 Student Winners and hear about what they’ve learned through the competition and how they plan to apply these learnings to their careers. Repeatedly students shared how the rigor of this program pushed them to think holistically about design and performance, recognizing that the two are linked; it’s hard to change course mid-way through design to achieve a sustainable project and an elegant solution. The students also expressed greater appreciation for understanding the relationships between systems, programs, and users as well as the process through which their projects improved – iteration, research, and critical discourse.
As I reflected on the student’s experiences, in their own words, what I noticed is that the program is working the exactly way it was intended. Established in 2013, the program was created to inspire the next generation of architects, to transform studio culture, and to promote design excellence through a holistic and integrated approach to achieve high performing, equitable and beautiful buildings. And that’s what is happening for these students who engage in the rigor of the Framework and consider how the ten measures are interrelated.
These ten projects run the gamut and are expressed beautifully. Join us in congratulating the students and take a few moments to earn more about the winning entries including from the students themselves about the focus of each project.
WIINGAASHK: A CULTURAL AND ECOLOGICAL PATH TO HEALING
Wiingaashk, located in Southampton, New York, is a cancer support center aimed at addressing health disparities faced by Native American communities.
Student: Isabelle Cassidy
Faculty: Patricia Andrasik
Collaborator: Jim Lutz
Institution: Catholic University of America
Isabelle shared that this project focuses on using using traditional and ecological methods to help members of the Native American community heal from cancer while also acknowledging how the community has been affected by climate change.
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GREEN LIGHTHOUSE
Green Lighthouse is a technology research office focusing on ecosystem sustainability in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Student: YunIn Jeung
Faculty: Kevin Singh
Institution: Louisiana Tech University
The team focused on the impact for the public because it exposes sustainable design strategies and invites people into a building that is working on healthy living in a downtown core. About the process Yunin shared, “I think what I learned the most is that it's better to consider this in the very early stage of the design process and because later you try to make something sustainable, it's just so hard to change by nature and energy efficiency wise.”
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WATERSHED
Watershed is a Seattle-based research institution situated along the Ballard neighborhood’s historically industrial waterfront. The project leverages synergies between a biodiversity research institute, a native plant nursery, a salmon hatchery, and an education center to create an experience centered around community empowerment, resiliency, and a sustainable future.
Students: Eric Luth & Andrew Baltimore
Faculty: Gundula Proksch & Christopher Meek
Institution: University of Washington
Eric and Andrew highlighted a few key elements of the project; “Our primary focus was creating a project that prioritized the health of the natural environment. We led with this mindset knowing that the impacts of our design decisions would naturally lead us to design with ecosystems, water, energy, well-being, resources, and equitable communities in mind.”
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SOUTHERN BASTION – PROTECTING THE MARSHES
The Southern Bastion is a reef research and teaching facility, located on Hunting Island, South Carolina and near the marsh-sea border.
Student: Denzyl Ye Teo Denzyl Gineva Zhang
Faculty: Alice Guess
Collaborator: David Thompson Architect, David Thompson Studio
Institution: Savannah College of Art and Design
The facility responds to the changing dynamics of the marsh lands and the sea levels which then, according to the team, “promotes community education as well as resilience in design” and seamlessly combine architecture and environmental conservation. The project is essentially floating, minimizing ecological impact.
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RELINQUETUR RESEARCH CENTER
The research center studies the overlap of microecosystems in the marsh environment, exploring how land, vegetation and animal life coexist in one habitat.
Student: Gabriel Cachapuz Velasco
Faculty: Alice Guess
Collaborator: David Thompson Architect, David Thompson Studio
Institution: Savannah College of Art and Design
Gabriel shared one of the big challenges “was to think about this project as a whole, and how the ten strategies can be cohesive in one image,” going on to say that the process helped them “develop empathy and patience.”
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HUNTING ISLAND STATE PARK CENTER FOR OCEANOGRAPHY
Hunting Island is a 500-acree, semi-tropical barrier island that hosts various ecosystems and natural features.
Student: Joanna Frauca
Faculty: Michael Hill
Collaborator: Matt Barnett, LS3P
Institution: Savannah College of Art and Design
With primary considerations for energy and resources, Joanna focused trying to use locally sourced materials and to simplify the construction methods as much as possible. She also shared one of her key takeaways; “It's not just about making something look aesthetically beautiful and having beautiful architecture, or just about doing something that is low carbon footprint net 0 or net positive. It's about understanding that as architects we are also problem solvers as much as we're designers.”
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TIMBR | TIMBER INTEGRATIVE MEANS + BIOPHILIC RESILIENCE
TIMBR is a high-performance, low-energy, mixed-use office building situated in Rivertown in Downtown Detroit that makes use of timber construction products.
Students: Marcus Puste, Farah Ossaimee & Dolin Diaz
Faculty: Kristin Nelson & James Leach
Institution: University of Detroit Mercy
The jury highlighted that the project delivers an impeccable project with urban design analysis creating an equitable community. Marcus expressed that early on the team “wanted to design within the context of our site,” focusing on adjacencies with natural elements like the green spaces.
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THE CRAFT, THE TRADITION, THE CELEBRATION OF CULTURE
This project aims to solve the disconnect between culture, place, and estranged descendants through an immersive, hands-on learning center that CELEBRATES the trades and traditions through practice.
Students: Angela Kraus & Olivia Wideman
Faculty: Ulrike Heine, David Franco & George Schafer
Institution: Clemson University
Angela Kraus shared, “one of our main project goals was to contribute to the idea of a thriving community that promotes connection, self-sufficiency, and resilience.”
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ABOVE THE MARSH
The program includes 18 hostel live-work units, a restaurant, a market space, an aquaculture center (fish / oyster farm), an immersive greenhouse, and ample civic / public space.
Students: Lucas Schindler & Mia Walker
Faculty: Ulrike Heine, David Franco, & George Schafer
Institution: Clemson University
This team developed a design that creates a repeatable model that can be repeated in other marsh and coastal lands. Mia shared, “Tourism creates unique pressures on places and has a negative impact on biodiversity and often overburdens local resources. These negative effects of tourism only serve to accelerate the effect of climate change on coastal environments.”
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RESTORING A HAVEN
The goal of the program is to provide space for creative exploration through an independent study program offered in the off-season and short-term housing opportunities for tourists during the peak-season for The Pines Community in Fire Island, NY.
Students: William Scott & Connor Smith
Faculty: Ulrike Heine, David Franco & George Schafer
Institution: Clemson University
The team focused on finding a way to protect Fire Island as a queer vacation destination. Additionally, because Fire Island is a barrier ideal, “we wanted to find a way to integrate the structural approach and the systems approach” in response to the site.
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Enormous appreciation to the stellar jurors of the 2023 COTE Top Ten for Students: Julie Ju-Youn Kim, AIA of Georgia Institute of Technology, Rahman Azari of Penn State University, Nithyashree Balachandar Iya of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Jill Kurtz, AIAof Page, and Sarah Mathews, AIA of Jacobs.
We encourage you to explore these ten projects further. Congratulations to the teams and their faculty advisors!
Karen Robichaud is an experienced storyteller in the arts, architecture, and design, cultivating a holistic approach to strategic communications and leadership development. Serving as a creative leader and storyteller for award-winning campaigns and projects of multiple scales, she brings broad perspective to her work. Skilled at articulating design excellence, she has developed successful submissions for several AIA award programs such as Firm Award, COTE Top Ten, Young Architect, and Fellowship. After having worked in-house at Boston Lyric Opera, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, and Payette, she founded a consultancy (Karen Robichaud LLC), focused on telling powerful, compelling stories of architecture and design.