Awards & Honors

Four undergraduate students studying architecture in Professor Loukia Tsafoulia’s spring 2017 Advanced Studio, “Transient Spaces: Building Shelter in Crisis Contexts,” were awarded a first place prize for student work in the Cities of Tomorrow competition by Project Earth 2, a climate change and social development platform.

Their project, titled “Weaving Communities: A Bazaar Weekend,” reconsidered the possibilities of a refugee camp in Greece, taking into account communal growth, greater stability, and empowerment of individuals.

Seeking to identify innovative urban and architectural concepts that would provide suitable infrastructure for long-term inhabitation, the Project Earth 2 challenge is a response to the millions of refugees already living in camps around the world and the anticipation that 200 million more people could become climate refugees by 2050.

The students — Samantha Ong, Juan Vallejo, Emir Abdul-Emir, and Daniella Vega-Ortiz, all from the B Arch program — also received a 2017 RTF Sustainability Award for their work in the urban design category by Rethinking the Future, a hub for architecture and design in the era of climate change.