School of Design students recognized in two competitions

This month, School of Design students and faculty have gained recognition beyond the classroom in two different competitions.

A team led by Architecture Lecturer Keith VanDerSys won first place in the 2010 Emerging New York Architects open ideas competition.

VanDerSys’ team included School of Design student Marisa Bernstein and alumni Young Joon Choi and Marguerite Graham.

The group submitted a proposal for an arts center that integrates the “infrastructure” and “urban context” of the Manhattan and Bronx Highbridge communities of New York City, according to the competition’s website.

VanDerSys, who heads the architecture firm PEG Office of Landscape and Architecture, said the group got involved in the contest because “it is a well-respected competition held each year” and is “a chance to test out ideas.”

VanDerSys spent a few days “thinking, sketching and developing a strategy” with PEG-OLA partner and Landscape Architecture Professor Karen M’Closkey, and then asked some former students to collaborate in the project’s development.

After a month of planning and “working nonstop for about two weeks,” Bernstein said, the group submitted their proposal on Jan. 15.

“It’s important to collaborate with students,” VanDerSys said, as it “brings in a new perspective.”

“It was my first design competition,” Bernstein said, adding that the project was a good way “to get [her] feet wet.”

As winners, VanDerSys’ firm and the students will receive $5,000, a work of art made by an up-and-coming New York City artist and an invitation to judge in the 2012 competition.

Penn was represented in Brazil’s International Design Competition as well.

School of Design Masters in Architecture and Masters in Landscape Architecture student Nicolas Koff and School of Design alumni Kwei Chang, Vincent Leung and Alex Muller won honorable mention in the competition, which called for proposals to build a Homeless World Cup Youth and Women’s Leadership Center near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

According to Koff, the students found the project interesting because of its “humanistic aim.”

Koff explained that the competition addressed sustainability and social justice by asking participants to create a model for an educational center and soccer field.

The main component, according to Koff, was to “build a structure at minimum cost using local materials.”

With a $90,000 budget, the group chose to use bamboo and cana amarga, a sturdy type of local cane, in their model.

“The idea was to have the building stride along with ecosystem — not to be a separate entity,” Koff said.

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