Architecture Competition Modular Home / Edition #2 Honorable mention – Cornell AAP

We’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to one of our Honorable mention winners for our "Modular Home / Edition #2" competition – Xuanyin Lin, Kewei Xu and Jiayu Su from United States!

Honorable mention winners from United States

All three of us are rising third-year B-Arch students at Cornell University. We were all not in the United States for our first year’s study because of the pandemic and we attended the study-away program provided by the university. It is because of this opportunity that three of us met each other and decided to design together and participate in the competition.

Brief information about the projects that you/your company have been involved with. For instance, what scale have you focused on/preferred, any significant projects where the company/ individuals have been involved?

In our design studios at Cornell University, we have focused on projects with varying scales, ranging from a local bus top to a medium-sized library. During the first year, the design focused more on generating idea and conceptualizing spaces; recently, we have been worked with integrative design more, designing buildings with strong concept while considering building technology, structure and sustainability.

What does architecture mean to you and what is the role of an architect in your society?

For us, architecture is the point of intersection, crossing and interconnection. Architecture communicates between the small scale - the individuals, the surrounding datums, the specific context - and the larger scale - the landscape, the regional context, the social discourse. Additionally, architecture is where experiential  pleasure coincides with technical practicality and  functional necessity. Architecture is at these intersecting points where some fascinating ideas would be generated.

Why do you participate in architecture competitions?

Architecture competitions offer us opportunities to learn in a fruitful way, empowering us to think creatively, challenge reality critically, and design innovatively. Beyond that, competitions also provide us a field to engage in the larger conversation of architecture, and also of the whole society. For this modular housing competition, it allows us to think specifically about the creation of affordable, sustainable, and user-friendly dwellings, considering the world-wide housing issue of modern society.

What advice would you give to individuals who struggle to decide whether it would be beneficial for them to participate in architecture competitions?

Participating in the competitions can not only help us practice the theories and design methods we learned in classes, but also a way to challenge your own limit. You will always learn new things throughout the process.