A+ Student Award - AZ Awards

The finalists

A+ Award for Student Work

Are

Finalist

Project

Water Miner - Johannesburg 2050

Location

Johannesburg, South Africa

Team

Mingyang Sun and Fangyuan Sheng

School

University of Pennsylvania (Instructor: Christopher Marcinkoski)

Summary

Water Miner imagines a future Johannesburg in which climate catastrophe forces citizens to live in the gold mines beneath the city. Part architectural rendering, part graphic novel, the work tells a dystopian story with a utopian turn. Joburg’s residents build subterranean smart homes and 3D printers to provide them with food. They regreen the city from the ground up, harvesting climate-adaptive crops, and transform the downtown high-rises into research centres and water-monitoring stations. In time, catastrophe becomes a force for renewal.

Finalist

Project

Levee House

Location

Lawrence, U.S.

Team

Abbie Ford, Abby Eleeson, Ace Brown, Brady Whitehill, Casey Chura, Dakota Tubbs, Gabby Foster, Jack Swezy, Jean-Marc Juston, Kaitlin Hoines, Kelly Schorn, Leah Ferrara, Lindsey Freund, Maddy Irwin, Maggy Dickherber, Nate Hulse, Norah Swift, Riley Estrada, Ryan Everson, Tiffany Nguyen and Vinny Hyunh

School

University of Kansas (Instructor: Dan Rockhill, Studio 804)

Summary

Levee House shows how new residential developments could be better situated to densify neighbourhoods close to downtown Lawrence, Kansas, rather than contribute to the city’s sprawl. The home consists of three gabled buildings — a living quarters in front, a sleeping quarters behind it and a second residence that could be used as an accessory dwelling unit behind that. All are styled according to Midwestern farmhouse vernacular but boast sustainability features (including a PV array and super-insulated envelopes) that earn the home LEED Platinum certification. Instead of arranging the buildings in a neat row, the team set each at an angle relative to the one in front. The result: a home that meanders, much like the river itself.

Finalist

Project

The Stack Politic

Location

Bar Harbor, U.S.

Team

Tim Cousin, Natalie Pearl, Latifa Al Khayat and William Marshall

School

MIT School of Architecture and Planning (Instructors: Sheila Kennedy, Rami El Samahy and Cristina Parreno)

Summary

A proposal for a seaweed-processing plant near Bar Harbor, Maine, the Stack Politic makes ingenious use of hyper-local materials. The aquatic base of the structure would feature stones salvaged from a nearby quarry and arranged in a crib formation. On top of it are drying huts, made of timber with seaweed insulation and topped with a slate roof. The most innovative building material of all, though, is the surrounding water, which would engulf the base of the structure during high tides, enabling seaweed farmers to canoe up to the huts and deposit their harvest.

Finalist

Project

A New Housing Model for Social and Environmental Resilience in Houston’s Third Ward

Location

Houston, U.S.

Team

Sebastián López Cardozo and Lene-Mari Sollie

School

Rice University, U.S. (Instructor: Jesús Vassallo)

Summary

This ambitious, holistic and replicable vision seeks to provide an affordable, socially cohesive and climate change–resilient housing option for one of Houston’s most vulnerable communities. It proposes that any new residential development in the Texan city’s Third Ward, a predominantly Black neighbourhood, must increase density to bring down the cost for developers and buyers and satisfy demands for affordable habitation away from the flood-plain; maintain the essential spatial and social qualities to which Houstonians are accustomed; and protect residents from flooding while reintroducing porous surfaces to the urban landscape to mitigate runoff.

And

A+ Award for Student Work

The People’s Choice

People’s choice

Project

Levee House

Location

Lawrence, U.S.

Team

School

University of Kansas (Instructor: Dan Rockhill, Studio 804)

All are styled according to Midwestern farmhouse vernacular but boast sustainability features (including a PV array and super-insulated envelopes) that earn the home LEED Platinum certification. Instead of arranging the buildings in a neat row, the team set each at an angle relative to the one in front. The result: a home that meanders, much like the river itself.

And

A+ Award for Student Work

The Winner

Winner

Project

A New Housing Model for Social and Environmental Resilience in Houston’s Third Ward

Location

Houston, U.S.

Team

Sebastián López Cardozo and Lene-Mari Sollie

School

Rice University, U.S. (Instructor: Jesús Vassallo)

Sebastián López Cardozo and Lene Sollie: 2021 AZ Award Winners in Student Work

This ambitious, holistic and replicable vision seeks to provide an affordable, socially cohesive and climate change–resilient housing option for one of Houston’s most vulnerable communities.

It proposes that any new residential development in the Texan city’s Third Ward, a predominantly Black neighbourhood, must increase density to bring down the cost for developers and buyers and satisfy demands for affordable habitation away from the flood-plain; maintain the essential spatial and social qualities to which Houstonians are accustomed; and protect residents from flooding while reintroducing porous surfaces to the urban landscape to mitigate runoff.

“Elegant solution, well-detailed building, great research. Hard to believe this is student work!”

Susannah Drake, AZ Awards 2021 Juror

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