The Winners!
SUSTAINABILITY ESSAY 2022
First Prize Winners
Poyu Chung
U.S.
Po-Yu is currently working at Bernheimer Architecture in New York City as an Architectural Designer after graduating with a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design (M.S.AAD) from Cornell University. Before he came to the U.S., Po-Yu received a B. Arch from NCKU in Taiwan and worked in Taiwan and Thailand.
During his study in Taiwan, the Czech Republic, and the U.S., Po-Yu developed his interest in housing and politics, which later brought him to BA in 2022. He believes architecture in our time should be flexible, adaptable, and create opportunities for others to weigh in.
Poyu Chung
Poyu Chung
Second Prize Winners
Xiaonan Li & Tianyu Zhao
Hungary
The team consists of two architects, we are currently working in two different cities:
ZHAO Tianyu is an accomplished architect and a DLA (doctor in liberal art) degree holder in Architecture. She is now a lecturer in Hubei University of Technology in China, teaching environmental design and architectural design. She had a 9-year professional and systematic architectural education background in the University of Pécs, Hungary. The major scopes of her research are public space planning, neighbourhood design, resilient urban spaces and corresponding architectural and infrastructure design.
Dr. ZHAO joins Hungary based carbon-neutral brownfield rehabilitation project, in which plays a leading role in public space design and master planning. She is also an accomplished writer and has published several articles in international academic journals and conferences on her major scopes. Her research and design concept stands with the well being of inhabitants, and looks at the the future resilience of urban life.
LI Xiaonan is a Junior Consultant and assists ABUD in the company’s research endeavors. She studied architecture in BME 7 years ago and she is doing PhD study on urban regeneration at Marcell Breuer Doctoral School. Xiaonan’s creativity is visible in all her work and her diverse interests led her to become a teaching tutor at her alma mater.
Xiaonan Li & Tianyu Zhao
Xiaonan Li & Tianyu Zhao
What is your design philosophy?
Zhao:
Public space planning, habitat and community living are my major concerns, which also drive me to proceed resilient and people-oriented way of thinking. With the help of design, as a tool, I try to lead people’s behaviour, how they utilize the design and therefore mindset, imperceptibly. I believe that design belongs to the loop of creating and utilizing.
Can you briefly explain your understanding of the topic and the source of ideas?
Zhao:
According to my perceived knowledge about India-based-sustainability, it will have to deal with the sustainable co-existence between urban space users, which on one hand means the human inhabitants, on the other hand, the nature, the street animals and the eco-system lives on them. So the theory of stationary micro infrastructure promoting urban co-existence, yet with integrated functions, came into being.
Li:
L: The best design with minimal changes.We hope to develop a design model in the context of India's highly distinctive human environment and urban street ecology that will facilitate the analysis of design ideas and elements within the three concepts of micro-infrastructure, urban intervention and ecological sustainability, and that can be applied to other cities and regions around the world.
When and how you were first introduced to architecture?
Li:
I was observing the graduation defence at the Central Academy of Fine Arts when the defending student's topic was the urban renewal of Huizhou-style architecture, and her design proposals and reflections on the local humanities aroused my interest in architecture.
What does architecture mean to you?
Zhao:
Architecture is such a broad field of science, and meantime an assembled tool to solve all kinds of problems for people and for beyond people. The more I try to use it and perceive it, the greater power it proves itself to me.
Li:
Architecture is a combination of beauty and function, a work of art created through a process of constant refinement in the design of buildings.
Third Prize Winners
Hana Cicevic & Daniel Abraham Gandica
United States
Hana Čičević is an architectural designer currently living and working in New York city. She graduated in 2022 with the Master of Architecture degree from the University of Florida where she also did her undergraduate studies. In her final year, Hana focused on topics of post-war reconstruction and how architects can re-shape the ways in which the communities inhabit damaged spaces, about which she wrote a master research project. She is currently working on the projects based in New York City in affordable housing and education and is developing interest in sustainability.
Daniel Abraham Gandica is a project specialist based in the city of Orlando, Florida. Originally from Maracaibo, Venezuela, he graduated in 2022 with a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Florida, after completing his bachelor’s degree in architecture at the University of Central Florida. In his last year, Daniel turned an eye back home and focused on vernacular indigenous architecture, the way in which communities can adapt and overcome to the challenges posed by sea level-rise, and the possibilities of a hydro-generated urbanism. He currently works in the sector of data centers’ architecture. Some of his interests include medieval history and architecture, and mapping.
Hana Čičević and Daniel Abraham Gandica
Hana Čičević and Daniel Abraham Gandica
What is your design philosophy?
Hana: Our design philosophy is based on the idea that architecture can become a critical tool to address some of today’s and tomorrow’s issues, especially those regarding human interaction with their built and natural environment. We believe that all design ideas are orbited by micro and macro factors which have the ability to change the way a singular person approaches space or a daily routine, or change whole communities’ lives for the better.
Can you briefly explain your understanding of the topic and the source of ideas?
Daniel: The focus of our essay Mottainai, Kintsugi, and Sakiori: Redefining Sustainability through the Lenses of Three Resource Philosophies is on the idea that these concepts can be used as principles of sustainability in architecture.. Hana had originally researched the concept of Kintsugi during her master thesis in which she analyzed the connection between kintsugi and post-war reconstruction architecture. Kintsugi is an ancient Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with gold. This concept is not only applicable to pottery, but is rather a wide philosophical concept that can be applied to many aspects of life, including architecture and sustainability.
Hana: During our later discussion regarding the topic of architecture, we have discovered that two more philosophical principles can be applied to it, the principles of mottainai and sakiori. Mottainai refers to the respect towards the resources that we already have and avoiding wasting them. This principle can also be applied to sustainability in architecture where old buildings are not seen as waste, but are rather recognized as an already existing resource.
Third, Sakiori is a Japanese art of reusing old fabrics to create new clothes where old and new materials are woven together to make innovative designs. As the two previous principles, sakiori is also applicable to architecture and refers to a notion of reusing the old materials in order to decrease the waste made through the construction and to create beautiful designs that transform old materials into new designs.
When and how were you first introduced to architecture?
Daniel: I was first introduced to architecture at a very young age in the shape of educational magazines and models distributed in his native Venezuela, which quickly captured his interest and imagination. Said interest was nurtured by his parents, who encouraged reading, traveling and pursuing architecture as a major. Said major would be pursued abroad, where he would be introduced to many different approaches and points of view regarding architecture.
Hana: I was first formally introduced to architecture when I enrolled at the University of Florida as a freshman student and started taking architectural design courses. As most other students, in these classes I was able to develop the skills not only in architecture, but also in analytical thinking, theory, model making, conceptual design. The first design classes I took were very abstract, but they have shaped how I think about architecture and spaces to this day as they created a base of my knowledge in architecture.
What does architecture mean to you?
Daniel: For us, Architecture is the pinnacle of human imagination, it is ideas, sometimes very abstract, materializing into livable, usable space. It is a field that allows you to rationalize and develop a physical, sometimes monumental, imprint of your beliefs, philosophies, dreams, fears, and hopes. It is humanity coming together to solve everyday problems, through the product of our hands, minds, and tools. It is an opportunity to tell the world that we were here, and that we dreamt, and lived.
Architecture is a tool to serve ourselves, and our communities. It is the analysis, and product, of the complex relationships of humans with their physical environment.
Special mention
Yang Zhao
China
I graduated from Tianjin University with a bachelor’s degree of Engineering in Urban Planning and from Cornell University with a master’s degree of Architecture. I worked for BUZZ Beijing, STR NYC, Gensler Boston and SOM Chicago; currently I am working for Pfeiffer Partners Architects in Los Angeles as a Project Architect, majoring in theatrical and musical Architecture Design. I started my own brand UYANG Architecture in 2021, and already won several major international awards and publicized several articles and projects on Archdaily, Gooood, Archcollege, Archposition, etc. I am also a commercial pilot, flight instructor and an aviation business owner.
Yang Zhao
Yang Zhao
Honorable mention
Iman Fritsch
Minza Shahid and Soham Dange
Hangchuan Wei, Xiaoying Fu & Yuhan Wu
Iman Fritsch
Iman Fritsch
Iman Fritsch
Germany
Minza Shahid
Soham Dange
Minza Shahid
Minza Shahid and Soham Dange
India
Hangchuan Wei
Xiaoying Fu
Yuhan Wu
Hangchuan Wei
Hangchuan Wei, Xiaoying Fu & Yuhan Wu
China
