UB Architecture Students Take Top Honors Among 230 Design Teams in Major International Competition

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A team of three graduate students in the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning has been selected from among 230 international design teams as one of three first-place winners in an important international design competition.

A second UB team placed among 11 teams from six continents that received honorable mention.

The competition was held in conjunction with "Designing for the 21st Century III," a major international conference on universal design that will be held in December in Rio de Janeiro.

The winning UB team was led by Amzi Zahed of Bangalore, India, and included Jason Atkins of Jamestown and Natasha Luthra of Pune, India. The other two winning teams were from Chile's Universidad Mayor and San Francisco State University. Eleven project teams from six continents received honorable in the competition, among them the second team from UB.

Brian Carter, dean of the UB School of Architecture and Planning, noted that "our students' proposals for this important international competition are both inventive and inspiring. Not only have they addressed the important architectural questions raised here, but, at the same time, their design proposals suggest new and innovative ways of building, planning communities, conserving resources and improving the quality of life for people with modest means.

"These are all critical issues today and the thinking and ideas highlighted by our students are very clearly creative and without boundaries," Carter added.

The objective of the competition was to encourage designers, educators, students and policymakers to address issues of universal design in diverse cultural and economic environments. Competing teams were required to work with a geographic site of their own selection or choose from one of three proposed sites in Brazil, India or Haiti.

Beth Tauke and Dennis Andrejko, associate professors in the UB Department of Architecture, were faculty advisors for the winning team, which designed a multi-phase community center for the Karimadom Colony, the second largest slum in Trivandrum, the capital of Kerala in southern India.

The design consists of several buildings and exterior environments constructed along a horizontal axis and connected in part by a stunning interior/exterior hallway. The structures include a vocational center and retail areas, a primary health center, a seminar/wedding hall and outdoor recreation areas. The design calls for the conversion of existing government housing to a women's shelter and child-care center, and the construction of administrative areas and a computer center. Recycling and water-treatment centers also are part of the overall design.

The students say their center design is based on Kerala's traditional quadrangular building structure and constructed in strict accordance with the Indian principles of "Tachu Sastra" (Science of Architecture). The major use areas -- some of which are extroverted, others introverted by function -- propose to create and propagate a sustainable community.

The buildings use local materials and existing infrastructure. Construction in later phases would require hands-on community involvement. The proposal employs low-cost and passive technologies and integrates built forms with the landscape to enhance both natural and man-made environments.

One of the most intriguing of the project's design elements is the "hallway," an interior/exterior structure that connects different areas of the center. It protects against sun and rain while remaining permeable to south and east winds. It would be made of compacted earth, burnt brick, lime mortar made of sea shells, treated bamboo shoots, split bamboo and a visually arresting roof made of a sealed jute-weave canvas.

The UB team that received honorable mention consists of Leslie Weaver of Buffalo, James Carr of New Zealand and Tasneem Dalal of India. They also designed a community-use facility for Kerala, which they call "Portable Empowerment." The interior of the community center, constructed of natural local materials, is beautifully illuminated by colored natural light filtered through recycled glass bottles. Integrated with the center are a courtyard, wedding hall and cable cars capable of moving throughout the village as "portable" educational and health facilities.

Their proposed project uses many biodegradable local materials and would result in a strong, durable center, while also preventing deforestation. Their plan offers a number of benefits to the community, says the team, including job creation, on-site production, the use of transferable technologies, market opportunities and materials.