The Best Student Design-Build Projects Worldwide 2017

Written by AD Editorial Team
Published on July 13, 2017

For the third year in a row, in June we asked our student readers to submit the design-build projects which they have recently worked on. And, for the third year in a row, the response we received was excellent. With hundreds of submissions to ArchDaily, ArchDaily Brasil and all four ArchDaily en Español sites, in 2017 our readers gave us more projects to choose from than ever before; we’ve narrowed this selection down to bring you the 34 best student design-build projects around the world from the past year.

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Project Title: Installation #5 (CAAI)
Studio Name: CAAT Studio
Tutors: Mehdi Kamboozia
Students: Helena Ghanbari, Aria Goleh, Shamim Aghazade, Ashkan Radnia, Mehran Alinejad, Atieh Hosseini
Structural Consultant: Behrang Baniadam
Country: Iran

Installation #5 is inhabitable urban furniture located in the middle of Mellat Park in Tehran, made by rotating steel sections in space and lacing them together with a dense web of steel cables that produce original ergonomic shapes. Beneath the delicate structure lies a concrete and steel foundation that supports the intricate tensile structure.

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Project Title: Borde Soportante (Universidad de Talca)
Students: José Luis Valladares Ulloa
Country: Chile

Borde Soportante hosts the rural activities that take place on the edge of an open field in Chile. It functions as a public space for the 12 families that live near the structure, who use it on a daily basis as a bus stop and sporadically for local celebrations. Though interpretations of the structure may vary, the main objective was to bring new energy and possibilities to the area and users.

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Project Title: Infiloolion (Soore University)
Tutors: Dr. Hassan Osanloo, Ali Zolfaghari, Amir Armani Asl, Javad Norouzi, Sina Sadeghi
Students: Arina Garousi, Dena Khaksar, Seyed Mostafa Mirhashemi, Zahra Babaie, Farideh Yousefi Moghadam, Seyed Ali Sajadi, Bahareh Sadat Yasrebi Naeini, Fariba Dehghani, Shayan Kondori, Marzieh Ghaffari, Mohammad Esmaeili Tamandegani
Country: Iran

Inspired by the geometric complexities of the Persian “Muqarnas” vaults, Infiloolion is a striking steel structure comprising a looping grid inscribed in a cube. The bright orange steel grid was conceived in Grasshopper and loops in a precise, structurally conscious curvature in what could be described as an inverted, sinusoidal, folding grid.

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Project Title: Mirror Pavilion (Samara State Technical University - Architecture and Civil Engineering Institute)
Students: Vladislav Kondrashov, Arseny Samogorov, Kirill Sidorov, Alexander Starostin
Country: Russia

Located on the bank of a river, the Mirror Pavilion was built for Volgafest 2017. This reflective form is intended to promote silent contemplation and manipulate the boundary between nature and shelter. The wooden structure is open on one end and includes a slim yellow door on the other.

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Project Title: Noche en Blanco (Universidad de Málaga, España (eAM')
Studio Name: G+K Archstudio
Students: Francisco Conejo Arrabal, Elena Enciso Martínez, Francisco Fontiveros Becerra, Adrián Lobillo Berenguer, Cristina Martínez Alcalá-Galiano, Manuel Jesús Palma Segovia, Salvador Salgado Alcaraz y Manuel Francisco Villarrubia Rojano.
Country: Spain

To celebrate “Noche en Blanco” (“Night in White”), an important holiday in Malaga, Spain, these students built an ephemeral cave for the city using fabric. The event’s main theme is dreaming, a state in which the line between reality and fantasy is blurred. In this space, the “real” world is shut out so that users can freely navigate, understand and appropriate it through their senses.

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Project Title: Möbius Pavilion (UPV-EHU Universidad del País Vasco)
Tutors: Paco González, Josemi Rico y Rafa Zuza
Students: Pedro Arroyo, Chantal Donés, Borja Martínez y Belén Vázquez-Monjardín
Country: Spain

Mobius is a response to the European Capital of Culture initiative that occurred in San Sebastian last year. The striated wooden structure has no true start or termination as the project is meant to symbolize eternity, inclusivity, and infinity. The striking skeletal space is only partially covered, but still provides some protection from the elements.

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Project Title: Agricultural School Bella Vista, Bolivia (Technische Universität Berlin)
Studio Name: CODE
Tutors: Prof. Ralf Pasel, Franziska Sack, Lorena Valdivia, Johannes Zix
Students: Architecture Students of Technische Universität Berlin
Country: Germany

This large structure was built as an agricultural building in Bela Vista Bolivia. Three large modular volumes hold two classrooms each, providing the underprivileged area with 6 new education venues. The slanted roof design is intended to support photovoltaic cells and provide ventilation. The masonry walls keep the interior insulated and cool.

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Project Title: Mirador de los 4 horizontes (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso)
Studio Name: G+K Archstudio
Tutors: David Luza, Ivan Ivelic, Maria Paz Urrutia, Constanza Jara, Felipe Igualt.
Students: Fifth year architecture students
Country: Chile

Located in Puerto Cisnes in the southern region of Chile, the structure functions as a lookout point open to four horizons that present different visual scales, situating the spectator in the midst of the landscape.

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Project Title: Festival Israel Pavilion (Bezalel Academy Of Arts and Design)
Tutors: Deborah Pinto Fdeda, Ifat Finkelman
Students: Liran Messer, Stav Dror and Moti Bachar
Country: Israel

This black rectilinear volume stretches across Zion Square in the heart of Jerusalem. The structure is designed to be an impromptu multipurpose venue. With the deployment of the canvases around the perimeter, the structure can hold lectures, concerts, video screenings, or even theater productions. While the structure is completely transparent during the day, it has the ability to enclose itself at night.

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Project Title: Atelier U20 (Technical University of Kaiserslautern)
Tutors: Stefan Krötsch, Dr.-Ing. Jürgen Graf, Andreas Kretzer
Students: Johannes Ackermann, Soheyl Aslani, Sandra Gressung, Sonja Hiegle, Annika Koch, Alina Kohl, Tobias Kohlstruck, Bei Liu, Konrad Peter, Viktor Poteschkin, Sascha Ritschel, Arved Sartorius, Manuel Scheib, Nicolas Treitz, Tobias Vogel, Lukas Weber, Lu Yuan, Ying Zhang
Country: Germany

This exquisite wooden community center was developed with the input of 25 refugees to serve as a focal point for the community housed at a refugee camp in Mannheim. The building itself is designed to create an ebb and flow between interior and exterior. Multiple exterior courtyards provide the venue spaces for various recreational programs: a garden, yard, and seating areas.

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Project Title: Metallic Textiles in the Digital Age (Tamkang University)
Tutors: Chen Cheng Chen
Students: Lin Chin Ying
Country: Taiwan

A compilation of octahedrons made from 1.5-millimeter aluminum sheets create an intriguing structure. This Rhino + Grasshopper-generated design was stamped, plasma cut, and assembled together into a highly reflective gestural installation.

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Project Title: Vestal de la extensión (Universidad Católica de Valparaíso)
Students: Bruno Marambio
Country: Chile

This 30-square-meter extension project was built utilizing low-cost materials and designed as a two-person bedroom large enough to add a small crib in the future. Because the residence is inhabited by a biologist, the extension was designed to be permeable to its surroundings, blurring the line between interior and exterior and between nature and constructed space.

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Project Title: The Arm Outdoor Theater Pavilion (University of Arkansas)
Studio Name: John G Williams Visiting Professor Design/Build Studio
Tutors: William E. Massie, Angela Carpenter
Students: Austin Autrey, Christian Campbell, Nathan Clark, John Collamore, Molly Evans, Chelsea Garrison, Lexie Glass, Derek Hukill, Evan Hursley, Scott Kervin, Rafael Segura, Christine Wass
Country: USA

Mirroring the “drive-in” 20th-century Americana theaters--intended as a critique of modern smartphone video consumption--the Arm Outdoor Pavilion is an open-air venue where viewers gather together. Constructed from bright orange laser cut tube steel, the cantilevering project incorporates intersections inspired by 16th-century Japanese woodworking for extra strength.

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Project Title: ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion (Universität Stuttgart)
Studio Name: M.Sc. Program - Integrative Technologies and Architectural Design Research
Tutors: Achim Menges, Dr.-Ing. Jan Knippers
Students: Miguel Aflalo, Bahar Al Bahar, Lotte Aldinger, Chris Arias, Léonard Balas, Jingcheng Chen, Federico Forestiero, Dominga Garufi, Pedro Giachini, Kyriaki Goti, Sachin Gupta, Olga Kalina, Shir Katz, Bruno Knychalla, Shamil Lallani, Patricio Lara, Ayoub Lharchi, Dongyuan Liu, Yencheng Lu, Georgia Margariti, Alexandre Mballa, Behrooz Tahanzadeh, Hans Jakob Wagner, Benedikt Wannemacher, Nikolaos Xenos, Andre Zolnerkevic, Paula Baptista, Kevin Croneigh, Tatsunori Shibuya, Nicoló Temperi, Manon Uhlen, Li Wenhan
Country: Germany

This glass and carbon fiber reinforced composite was assembled entirely by robots, resulting in an exceptionally lightweight and stiff structure that can easily span and cantilever distances that conventional materials can’t. The ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion was formed from over 184 kilometers of composite fiber, and is intended to serve as a proof-of-concept for scalable long span fiber composite constructions.

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Project Title: RISE (University of Texas at Austin)
Tutors: Coleman Coker
Students: Eric Alexander, Sara Bensalem, Mitch Flora, Hannah Frossard, James Holliday, Hannah Ivancie, Joshua Leger, Max Mahaffey, Olakunie Oni, Qianhui Miao, Michelle Sifre, Sebastian Sonderegger Rojas, and Neive Tierney.
Country: USA

Peeking its head just above the midwestern grass, RISE is a forward-thinking wetland observation platform for birdwatching and contemplation. The six-foot-high structure is accessible via a 70-foot long ramp, and covered in a 90-foot wall of lumber. The horizontal structure has minimal environmental and visual impact.

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Project Title: Espaço Lúdico (Instituição de Ensino em Juiz de Fora-MG)
Tutors: Filipe Leonardo Oliveira Ribeiro, Hudson Gonçalves Martins e Saulo Monteiro Costa Dias
Students: Bruno Fajardo Meneghitti, Cascio Raposo Machado, Deisiane Rodrigues Gonzaga, Derec Martonni Souza Santos, Eliana Talia Araujo Souza , Francisco de Assis Junior, Gabriel Palmeira Portes, George Ambrosio, Ingrid Tavares Ribeiro, João Paulo Vidal Fernandes, Ludmila Ribeiro Brasil, Mariana de Moraes Borges, Marcio Alves Ribeiro, Otavio Augusto de Amorim, Poliana de Araujo Cruz and Raissa Ribeiro Ramos
Country: Brazil

This installation is the result of a workshop attended by students of Architecture and Urbanism, which was organized by a group of teachers who proposed to create a meeting point which was experimental in character, playful and contextually connected to its location.

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Project Title: Lions Park Shade (Auburn University)
Studio Name: Rural Studio
Tutors: Andrew Freear, Steve Long, Xavier Vendrell
Students: Callie Eitzen, Julia Long, Daniel Toner, Alex Therrien
Country: USA

Lions Park Shade is a series of open-air pavilions that provide visitors with shade. The placement of these structures is coordinated with recently planted trees which will create multilayered canopies that stretch across the park as seasons change. The North-South oriented structures create carefully curated shadows with very little material.

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Project Title: A•lava (Aalto University of Arts Design and Architecture)
Studio Name: Wood Program Studio 2016-17
Tutors: Pekka Heikkinen, Philip Tidwell, Willem van Bolderen
Students: Sonja Äärilä, Alba Aguilar, Emilia Almqvist Jansson, Mathias Björkman, Caio Cintra, Rodrigo Giorgi, Riccardo Guerri, Noora Kassinen, Loreto Mancilla Bahamonde, Elsa Mendoza, Guido Mitidieri, Teodor Nilson, Tatsuro Sakata, Andrea Settimi, Heidi Silvennoinen, Hannah Smith, Kire Stavrov, Jianlin Sun, Kenji Takahashi, Paul Texereau.
Country: Finland

Placed in the center of Helsinki, this wooden summer stage is a clever venue. Triangular shapes pierce a woven wooden shell that envelops the site. The structure is oriented at a different angle to the city grid, giving it its own presence. Wooden benches and lights allow the structure to safely entertain a few dozen people at a time.

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Project Title: Patio de la Conmemoración (Universidad Viña del Mar)
Tutors: Joaquin Bustamante
Students: Franco Gorgerino, Diego Salas y Jose Pablo Caceres
Country: Chile

This intervention on one of the University’s least-used patios sought to reactivate the space and commemorate Pablo Ascencio, a former student of the school who passed away in a tragic manner. Four collective swings of 220 x 80 centimeters were added to the site, inviting users to gather and enjoy their leisure time in the company of others. An empty space symbolizes Ascencio’s absence, with nothing but a vertical metal sheet that functions as a plaque inscribed with messages written by Ascencio.

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Project Title: Upcycling Agrowaste Pavilion (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)
Tutors: Gustavo Crembil, Mae-ling Lokko
Students: Melissa Donelly, Haley Hahn, Jenna Kulek, Miguel Lantigua, Flavia Macchiavello, Amy Masie, Briana McLoughlin, Alexander Rench, Elizabeth Robison, Abby Speight-Robitaille, Kristen Van Gilst, Benjamin Wojcik
Country: USA
Funded by the Rotch Foundation

This custom-built shed is composed of recycled cellulose panels that are made using flour and starch as a binding agent. Three different types of panel follow Truchet tiling patterns. Currently used as a campus kiosk, the pavilion was designed as a cheap, easily-constructed prototype for the Chale Wote Festival in Ghana.

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Project Title: Latsu (University of Westminster)
Tutors: Sami Rintala, Tom Raymont
Students: Alberto De Castro Moreno, Allaster Grant, Amad Hussain, Ana Diaconu, Carla Hora, Jessmine Bath, Joshua Corden, Maryam Saleemi, Ola Hjelen, Wan Wong, Tudor Cristescu, Yagmur Yurtbulmus
Country: UK

This “laavu” or shelter was constructed in nine days by 12 students in the Punkaharju forests of eastern Finland. The timber structure balances on a base of rocks, allowing for the inclusion of a sunken fire-pit and gathering place. The staggered timber structure includes a sloping roof to keep the elements at bay.

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Project Title: Lone Tree (University of Utah)
Studio Name: DesignBuildBLUFF
Tutors: Jose Galarza, Atsushi Yamamoto, Hiroko Yamamoto
Students: Mojdeh Azani, Eric Blyth, Matthew Cranney, Adam DeChant, Drew Emeney, Diego Garrido, Fausto Guerrero, Lauren Henrie, Jaebeom Hyun, Katja Lund, Christine McAllister, Matt Meyers, Jason Robb, Shane M. Stephenson, Kohei Takegawa, Scott Thorne, Julia Warner
Country: USA

Lone Tree serves as a model for much needed affordable yet culturally sensitive housing for the neglected Navajo Nation. Although comprising a relatively simple pitched roof structure in form, the structure is offset along its axis to provide extra volume. The offset volumes create areas of shade and shelter on the building’s exterior.

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Project Title: Cardboard Project (Universidad de Valladolid)
Studio Name: Colectivo Efimerarq
Tutors: Gemma Ramon Cueto
Students: Filippo Albertini, Teresa Bahillo León, Rubén Hernández Carretero, Sven Neumann, Antonio Olavarrieta Acebo, Katalin Rodríguez Martín, David Senovilla Ramos, Jesús Javier Zaera Martín
Country: Spain

This project was the result of a workshop that explores the constructive possibilities of cardboard. The intervention consists of a twisting cardboard structure that surrounds pillars, creating a series of diverse spaces that vary in height.

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Project Title: Bento Box (Woodbury University)
Studio Name: 4B
Tutors: Jeanine Centuori
Students: Andrew Ancira, Alex Kim, Jason Bravo, Ronnie Rubio
Country: USA

Bento Box is constructed for Thomas Jefferson High School in Los Angeles, California. Intended to spur the students’ curiosity towards architecture and design, the project investigates how scaleable furniture can tackle programmatic requirements and direct social interactions.

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Project Title: Saw-Mill Shelter (Architectural Association School of Architecture)
Tutors: Martin Self, Emmanuel Vercruysse, Charley Brentnall, Zachary Mollica
Students: Aitor Almaraz, Kevin Kim, Wayne Oh, Laura Welsh, Mariela Costanz, Reyes Munoz, Mengyun Mao, Pedro Jose Bran Redondo, Tudor Tenea, Veda Barath Pabbathi, Xin Tu, Yanxiu Chen, Rolando Madrigal Torres, Diego Jose Saenz Penagos, Evgenia Spyridonos, En-Kai Kuo, Eleni McKirahan, Paolo Michele Salvetti, Trianzani Sulshi
Country: United Kingdom

The AA’s Saw-Mill Shelter is a Tensile Timber Anticlastic structure. The intricate tensile construction forms a net over the work area of the site. The shelter’s peculiar shape was determined through digital physics simulations along with real-life bending and tension tests, resulting in a thin yet practical hyperbolic skin strung across the top of columns.

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Project Title: Chale Wote Pavilion (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)
Studio Name: CASE
Tutors: Demetrios Comodromos, Josh Draper, Mae-ling Lokko, Anna Dyson
Students: Elijah Coley, Irina Matos, Vivian Mok, Amaory B. Portorreal, Kenta Posey, Sarah Reynolds, Cody Seipp, Allison Turner, Elaine Zhang, Simon Zhang
Country: USA
Funded by the Rotch Foundation, AMBIS Tech and CASE

This fascinating shading structure is made almost entirely of agricultural byproducts. The panels of the shelter are made from coconut husk fibers and soy binders. These panels are then bolted together to form a kiosk. As power tools weren’t available to aid in construction, the elements of the design were prefabricated as far as possible, with students cramming any many panels as they could fit into their luggage in order to finish the project at the Chale Wote festival in Ghana.

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Project Title: R.E.D. (Universidad Marista de Mérida)
Tutors: Román Cordero and Izbeth Mendoza
Students: Daniel Apolinar, Luis Calderón, Juan Castillo, Yuliana Chan, Mauricio Díaz, María E. Flores, Henry Guzmán, Jorge Madera, Alejandro Martinez, Valentina Muñoz, Juan Monforte, Alejandrina Rivero, Mariana Rubio, Andrea Santos, Renán Solís, Hernando Valenzuela, Ricardo Villares.
Country: Mexico

This ephemeral installation attempts to interrupt the accelerated rhythm of urban life, presenting itself to users as a series of new possibilities when navigating Mexico City. Situated in the city center’s oldest park, this project was built with PVC pipes, showcasing what can be achieved with a small budget and a creative group of students.

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Project Title: Nomadic Bookstore (Architectural Association School of Architecture)
Studio Name: AA Museum Lab
Tutors: Giulia Foscari and Harikleia Karamali
Students: Adrian Ma, Arslan Arkallayev, Federica Sofia Zambeletti, George Fergusson, Linus Cheng, Lloyd Lee, Ludovica Cirillo, Martina Contento, Olympia Simopoulou, Sebastian Serzysko, Tyler Camille Bollier
Country: United Kingdom
External Contributor: Ekaterina Golovatyuk

The AA’s Museum Lab erected a “Nomadic Bookstore” in the middle of Milan’s Brera Design District. The store itself offers a selection of Lars Muller Publishers’ books on design, architecture, and photography. The store’s defining feature is its massive LED roof that projects titles of Lars Muller books. The current iteration isn’t the project’s final incarnation: future iterations will include pneumatic flaps that allow the store to automatically close for the night.

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Project Title: BYOA: Bring Your Own Air / Algae (Cornell University)
Tutors: Rychiee Espinosa
Students: Laura Kimmel, Cristina Medina-Gonzalez, Christopher Andras, Ruby Kaur, Yao Mi, Sisi Yu
Country: USA

BYOA is an indoor shelter erected from thin steel members, 3D printed joints, and lots of suspended algae. A network of tubes and air pumps provide CO2 to the algae, allowing it to grow and eventually be cultivated. Due to their weight and the way they are mounted, each pod remains oriented in the same direction, giving the illusion of sky terraces that surround the structure.

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Project Title: Casa de la Partera (Universidad Iberoamericana)
Students: Roberto Contreras, Belvet Echevarria, Eliseo Lucero, Mónica Petriciolli, Adrián Sánchez
Country: Mexico

What social role should an architect adopt in a third-world country? The workshop for which this project was created explores architecture’s potential as an active promoter of social improvement. The result was a space for the midwives of the indigenous “Tzeltal” community to comfortably perform their work and tend to the needs of pregnant women and newborns. The replicable model was built with local techniques and materials.

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Project Title: Confluence Hall (University of Colorado Denver)
Studio Name: Design Build
Tutors: Rick Sommerfeld, William Koning, Andy Paddock
Students: Sofia Bruni, Adam Buehler, Joshua Chandler, Robert Chesnovar, Marika Davis, Meghan Duarte-Silva, Carl Faler, Eileen Gehlhausen, Sasha Godinez, Kelsey Grundman, Kurt Hartmann, Ryan Helle, Ryan Johnson, Danielle Jones, Benyamin Khezri, Alex LaVoy, Alexander Martin, Joel Miller, Olivia Mott, Mason Farrell, Ali Reed, Brandom Smith, Rebekka Thy, Hunter Wells, Lidia West, Kelsey Wotila, Liezl van Wyk
Country: USA

Confluence Hall serves as a community space for Colorado’s Outward Bound House School just outside of Moab, Utah. Built by 27 students in 19 weeks, the structure is constructed on top of an old double-wide trailer in order to save costs. The sleek building is programmatically flexible and provides shaded semi-outdoor spaces for occupants.

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Project Title: Forest Cradle (Lund School of Architecture, Trondheim School of Architecture, Chalmers School of Architecture, Umeå School of Architecture)
Studio Name: ARKNAT
Students: Eva Troive, Martin A S Vevatne, Maren Lovise, Louise Hansson, Anton Valek
Country: Sweden, Norway

The result of a two-week-long collaborative workshop between a few Scandinavian Universities, Forest Cradle is a floating wooden platform anchored to surrounding trees along a Swedish hiking trail. The 20-square-meter structure shifts as one moves over it and gives the sense of suspension in a forest canopy. The sloped seating area provides hikers with rest and relaxation and a view of the surrounding foliage.

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Project Title: Opuntia (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú)
Studio Name: Taller V (Seinfeld + Ferrer)
Students: Natalia Manrique, Abigail Rivera, Vanessa Zapata
Country: Peru

This small, habitable module’s geometry is based on the unique xylem structure of the “tuna” plant—also known as prickly pear cactus. Due to its organic form, the structure blends into the context it was designed for.

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Project Title: From Landscape to Roofscape (Delft University of Technology)
Students: Ellen Rouwendal and Laura Katharina Strähle
Country: The Netherlands

This self-directed project by two students at the Delft University of Technology resulted in a community center in a village in West Kenya. Inspired by the local custom of gathering under acacia trees, the key to the project is its 64-square-meter, column-free reciprocal roof constructed of bamboo. The open design and courtyard ensure that the structure is continuously ventilated to offer comfort in Kenya’s climate.

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