School of Architecture Students Named Asian Design Award Winners

Receiving four Gold Awards, one Silver Award, three Bronze Awards and six Awards of Excellence, Syracuse University was the biggest winner among all participating schools.

Co-organized by the Asia Architecture and Urbanism Alliance (AAUA) and the Asian Design Award (ADA), the competition is committed to creating the largest, most in-depth, and most influential professional and authoritative design exchange event among universities in Asian countries and regions.

This year’s competition theme was “GEDANKEN EXPERIMENT,” or how to design as a thought experiment. In modern times, the so-called “experiment” is a practical operation realized by physical means in the real world, which is usually inseparable from the scientific field. However, it has many broader definitions. German-born physicist Albert Einstein used the term “gedankenexperiment” to describe his unique approach of using conceptual rather than actual experiments in creating the theory of relativity. Conducting thought experiments in design is not only a kind of intellectual game, but also a process of grasping key issues.

The closure of theater buildings, high-density office buildings and commercial complexes during the pandemic required new design and transformation experiments. If the pandemic continues, designs will change to match market demand. Entrants were asked to submit projects that displayed high-level design and bottom-line thinking and challenged the purely human-centered approach to development and economic practice.

The award-judging committee—including prestigious professional architects, planners, landscape architects, professors, chairs and deans from design schools in Asia—reviewed submissions from more than 400 universities worldwide.

The Syracuse University School of Architecture students who received a 2022 Asian Design Award are listed below. All participating students and instructors of the award-winning works will receive a certificate at the awards annual meeting at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts.