Jury members at the presentation with participating students. From left to right, seated: Jacob van Rijs, Li Hu, Huang Wenjing, Benjamin Romano, Steven Miller.
This year, as part of the AIA International Conference in Mexico City, we introduced an exciting new initiative - a student workshop which brought together teams drawn from 3 US universities and our hosts, Anáhuac University.
The workshop program was developed by Steven Miller, FAIA, RIBA, Adjunct Director, AIA International and Adjunct Professor at the University of Miami School of Architecture, and Paola Morales Orantes, MSAAD of Anáhuac University, and we were delighted to be joined by students and faculty from:
University of Houston, Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design
Arizona State University, The Design School
University of Colorado Denver,College of Architecture and Planning
Anáhuac University, School of Architecture.
Students worked in mixed teams involving individuals from all schools to respond to the theme of Towards a Vertical City / Ermita Building: Strategies, Systems and Superimpositions. Bearing in mind the conference theme of Memories and Visions, the workshop took the Ermita Building (1931) as its starting point - a historical example of vertical development that may be used to envision the city of tomorrow as a more dense, mixed, green and walkable city.
Three days of work culminated in a presentation to a jury composed of: Benjamin Romano, Founder, LBR&A; Jacob Van Rjis, Founding Partner & Principal Architect, MVRDV; Huang Wenjing and Li Hu, Principals at OPEN Architecture and visiting Professors at Harvard University; and Steven Miller.
We are grateful to the organisers and all the faculty that supported this program, and excited to see how we can develop this initiative over the coming years!
