 News
NewSchool of Architecture and Design Team Wins First Place at International Design Competition
5/9/2012
Undergraduate team earns three titles in collegiate division: Top Sustainable Mock Firm, Top Architecture Mock Firm and first place overall with the MCM Group Mock Firms International Skyscraper Award Media Contact:  The winning NSAD team at the Mock Firm competition (left to right): Carlos Sandoval, Monika Banakaite, Lam Thanh Nguyen, Brandon Nash, and Wilfred Briones.San Diego—May 9, 2012—A NewSchool of Architecture and Design (NSAD) team won the MCM Group Mock Firms International Skyscraper Award, the highest honor in the international 2012 Mock Firms Competition collegiate division held in Chicago May 3–4. The undergraduate team, which also won the titles of Top Sustainable Mock Firm and Top Architecture Mock Firm, was among six finalist teams in the competition’s college division, formally called the International Skyscraper division. The finalists also included a second NSAD team composed of graduate students. The winning team members, who named their mock firm Capsule Architecture Lab, are all undergraduate students in NSAD’s Bachelor of Architecture program: Monika Banakaite, Wilfred Briones, Brandon Nash, Lam Thanh Nguyen and Carlos Sandoval. The group’s NSAD faculty mentor was Raul Diaz, a principal with Roesling Nakamura Terada Architects. As the overall winner of the competition, the student team receives a $1,000 prize sponsored by the MCM Group International, an award-winning studio of planners and architects that has developed more than 2,000 projects around the world. Their primary practice areas include sustainable design, leisure and tourism and cultural and heritage projects. The other NSAD finalist team, SALT (Sustainable: Architecture: Landscape: Technology), was made up of graduate students in the Master of Architecture program: Ann Capinguian, Kevin Colbert, Daniel Kwak and Rodrigo Villalon. The group’s NSAD faculty mentor was Daniela Deutsch of the architecture firm exitecture. “We are proud of our two student teams that demonstrated as finalists the quality and professionalism that we encourage in all our students,” said NSAD President Steve Altman. “At NSAD we have made global experience part of our mission. This competition, with its focus on a hypothetical project in China, was an opportunity for our students to show how they can successfully apply their technical and creative backgrounds at an international level.”  Daniel Shirk (third from right) of MCM Group International joins NSAD Mock Firm team members Lam Thanh Nguyen, Wilfred Briones, Monika Banakaite, Carlos Sandoval and Brandon Nash to present the MCM Group Mock Firms International Skyscraper Award in Chicago. MCM sponsored the winning team’s $1,000 prize. The competition, which includes a separate category for secondary school students, provides students with practice in creating and participating in a simulated architectural design firm in preparation for the work environment. Other finalist teams at the collegiate level were from Cornell University, Drexel University, Higher Technical School of Architecture (Spain), and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. NSAD was the only school in this year’s college competition with more than one team represented in the finals. For the competition, the collegiate teams developed a “mock” design/build firm and prepared a project proposal for a skyscraper based on the competition’s theme of “versatility,” which was defined as varied building uses and adaptability. The site of the conceptual project was Beijing, China. During the final competition, teams pitched their design concepts directly to some of the industry’s leading design/build professionals to receive immediate feedback and critique. The collegiate teams competed in the categories of marketing, construction, organization, engineering, architecture and sustainability, in addition to the top overall mock firm. Updated 07/27/2012 to include quote from NSAD President Steve Altman, and add names of competing schools. Professional title for Raul Diaz corrected. About NewSchool of Architecture and Design |
 
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