The University of New Mexico

NEWS RELEASE

Contact: Carolyn Gonzales 277-5920
cgonzal@unm.edu

Oct. 23, 2008

UNM Students Receive Merit Citation in the International Student Design Competition

University of New Mexico students Chad Harris and Jose Holguin, School of Architecture and Planning, received Merit Citation awards for their project [future]scaping, a project undertaken in Kristina Yu’s design studio . This is the first time UNM student work has garnered recognition in this international competition.

Administered by New Buildings Institute and sponsored by Southern California Edison, California Energy Commission, Pacific Gas & Electric and Sacramento Municipal Utility

District, the competition challenges students to incorporate principles of energy efficiency and sustainability as a basic standard of building design.

Leading Edge allows students and instructors to explore the use of new building materials and strategies and the aesthetics and technology of high-performance architecture in a practical, real world setting.

Students entering Challenge 1 (3rd-, 4th-year and graduate level students) designed an Environment and History Center serving dual roles of research and education about the environment and history of the local area, including reuse of an existing historic barn on the property. Challenge 2 students (1st- and 2nd-year) designed a three unit townhouse-style residence for student equestrians with horses on site. Successful entries satisfied environmental concerns of the area while addressing advanced energy efficiency and sustainable building issues. Harris and Holguin competed as Challenge 2 students.

Yu said that Holguin and Harris’ project stands out for their ability to smartly and creatively construct a spatial organization that they learn in class with technical and passive means of implementing sustainable strategies.

“They were able to try multiple ideas and test them spatially against the known concepts of reducing energy use and eliminating the need for excess in general. Their scheme was a series of linkages of site planning ideas as well,” she said.

Harris said that he found it easier to work collaboratively because he and Holguin both had strong and sometimes very different ideas that they were able to merge into a whole, making the project stronger.

The experience taught him more than teamwork. “I learned how to combine and simplify all the building systems into one integrated concept as well as developing a stronger/more fluid process for efficiently solving any design problem,” he said.

“The entries displayed serious conceptual thought, considerable graphic effort and elegant synthesis of technology and design,” said Design Judge Alison Kwok, of the University of Oregon. “We were impressed by the integrated approach, particularly the ones which tested, retested and validated their ideas using simulation programs, simple guidelines and tools that are critical to conceptual development and schematic design.”

“ This was a unique competition that met the needs of the course where private and public discourse in the architectural realm could be studied in the schemes of student housing while also clearly studying the relationship of sustainable design strategies not only from a technical and planning perspectives but also how these practices inform a social understanding for sustainability.  It is always an interesting moment for a student to place his or her work in the broader context, in a national or international arena. This form of competition creates a healthy awareness for one’s place in the dialogue of architecture beyond the confines, spirit of the local,” Yu said.

Complete judges’ comments and photos of all winning entries can be viewed at the competition website, www.leadingedgecompetition.org .

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