School of Architecture Students Named Asian Design Award Winners

Receiving five Gold Awards, seven Silver Awards, two Bronze Awards and nine Awards of Excellence, Syracuse University was the largest 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 “Not to Be Defined,” which explores the philosophy of continuous renewal and redefinition, drawing on wisdom from ancient texts and insights from modern thinkers like Hegel, Howard Dawber, Brett Adcock, and Arata Isozaki. It underscores the transformative power of innovation, where technologies like telephones, cars, and the internet have continuously evolved, reshaping societal norms and everyday life. This spirit of change extends to design, which is no longer confined to serving clients, but is a strategic, socially responsible discipline that explores virtual, experimental, and future spaces. Design now reimagines frameworks, business models, and processes, becoming an intellectual property in itself. The core idea rejects fixed boundaries imposed by traditional disciplines or self-definition, advocating for adaptability, openness, and the pursuit of new paradigms to navigate and shape the future.

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 2024 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.