AIA Weekend Competition

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Two weekends ago was the AIA (American Institute for Architects) yearly Virginia weekend competition. It is a weekend competition that starts at 5pm on Friday and is due by 9am on Monday. It’s between four Universities: Virginia Tech, University of Virginia, Hampton Roads of VCU, and the Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center (Virginia Tech in DC). Ten students get chosen from each school and then the forty get judged together. The overall winner gets about a $2,000-$3,000 prize and the accompanying recognition.

Last Year

Last year, I didn’t do it. I was only a semester and a couple of weeks into my architectural studies and we had learned nothing architectural. We hardly knew what a plan or section was, let alone how to draft one. I had zero knowledge of architectural softwares (which isn’t necessary, but helpful), but I also did not know how to draw by hand. We also didn’t hear of the competition until that Friday at 5 o’clock when we were all getting ready to leave studio. I don’t know why our studio professor didn’t think to inform us beforehand, or why the school didn’t send out a reminder, but they didn’t and they didn’t do it this year.

Since last year, it had been on my mental calendar. I didn’t know exactly when it was going to be. I thought it was at the end of January, but it ended up being the weekend between the 10th and 12th of February. It was redemption for myself, to see if I could do it. Last year, I used the prompt for my software class and it took me a semester to do it. It’s an extreme challenge to design a building and put together a thoughtful board (a 24×36 sheet of paper that contains diagrams and/or renderings of your design) in a weekend.

This Year

This year, the prompt was to design a workshop-house for two artists in an L-shaped lot about 18 feet wide and 86 feet long in Charlottesville. It had to include a living space for two adults (private and shared areas), working spaces (to accommodate different art manifestations), exhibition spaces open to the public, educational spaces available for workshops and lectures, and outside spaces for working and living. My first reaction to reading the prompt was frustration. Last semester, we designed two houses, and the semester before that we ended with houses. My portfolio is going to be a portfolio of houses! I also think that a house is the worst prompt you can give a student at the beginning of their education because we all come with preconceived notions of what a house is. From early childhood, we draw a house with two walls and a pitched roof. It’s difficult to disassociate your notions of what a house is and the living spaces a house needs (bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, etc) and to create something unique. I think there’s a variety of non-house projects that are more appropriate to inspire creativity in students. 

In hindsight, a predefined lot for the competition was extremely helpful. It limited the number of decisions you could make and forced you to focus on the space in between which you could control. Without constraints, there’re unlimited decisions you can make, from its shape to where you place the entryway. For us, it was determined, and the key was how to address it. I had two goals while I was working on the competition: the first was to have fun, to work on something I enjoyed putting together, without worrying about trying to win or impress the judges and the second, was to limit my use of orthogonal edges. At first, I was at a loss for what to do, so I made a 3/16 scale inch model of the site. This helped me to visualize the space in a more direct context. Then, I thought about how could I make it a dynamic space for both the artists and the public. To me, the unique shape of the plot invited movement through it.

The Design

Ultimately, I came up with something that I thought was fun and put together a board that I was proud of. In the end, my title was Urban Treehouse and the project statement reads as follows, “The urban treehouse is a collection of hanging and grounded public and private spaces that shift between interior and exterior. The street level circulation through the spaces is an extension of the main street mall that simultaneously acts as a sculpture garden and outdoor gallery for the artists to showcase their work. There is an indoor public exhibition and educational space that can be used for workshops and lectures. On either side of the alley, there is a storefront and gallery space for the artists to exhibit and sell their work. The uniqueness of the space invites passerby’s in to explore. The second floor is private spaces dedicated to a communal kitchen, two studios and an outdoor terrace. A connection to the ground floor storefront exists if the artists want to invite the public up. The third floor is the most private and consists of two individual living spaces. Overall, it is a unique set of spaces aimed at inspiring those who inhabit and visit it.”

The Result

I placed third in the competition alongside my friend Patrick. Out of 118 students, I still cannot believe it. In a design related field, it’s easy to look at other student’s work, especially those who have been in the program for years and think, “wow, that’s’ amazing, I don’t know if I could do that.” Doubt about ability and capability are constant companions. Placing in this competition has validated that I might have good ideas, or at least good ideas, for those three judges. Of course, if there were three different judges, my design may not have been chosen.