For this year’s R+D Awards jury, it was not enough for prospective winners to ask the right questions, divest their savings, lose sleep, try, fail, and try and fail again in order to finally—finally!—reach a viable solution. Indeed, says juror Randy Deutsch, AIA, “if the result is not beautiful and/or elegant, even if it’s really good for the environment and good for people, it hasn’t gone quite far enough.”
Which is to say that the bar was set extremely high for this year’s slate of five citation and five honorable mention recipients. Beyond communicating their purpose and process to near perfection, the multidisciplinary teams tackled a range of topics—from material health to automation and ecology—and showcased, as juror Tom Chung, AIA, put it, “what value architects and designers bring in this world.”
JURY
Top: Randy Deutsch, Jackilin Hah Bloom; Bottom: Florencia Pita, Tom Chung
Jackilin Hah Bloom and Florencia Pita are the founders and partners of Pita & Bloom, in Los Angeles. Established in 2010, the firm was a finalist in MoMA PS1’s Young Architects Program in 2014 and contributed to the U.S. Pavilion’s exhibit at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale. Bloom and Pita are both instructors at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc); Bloom teaches and coordinates design studios, while Pita teaches design studios and visual studies and is SCI-Arc’s graduate thesis coordinator.
Tom Chung, AIA, is a principal at Leers Weinzapfel Associates, in Boston. Born in Seoul, South Korea, and raised in the United States, Chung earned degrees in architecture from the University of Virginia and Harvard Graduate School of Design. He teaches at architecture schools throughout the Boston area and presents nationally on designing with mass timber.
Randy Deutsch, AIA, is the associate director for graduate studies and a clinical associate professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. A recognized leader in design technology, Deutsch has designed more than 100 sustainable projects and authored several books, including Convergence: The Redesign of Design (Wiley, 2017).
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Citation: Buoyant Ecologies Float Lab Aims to Save Communities Above and Below Water
To preserve and promote indigenous marine life, the Architectural Ecologies Lab at the California College of the Arts turned to the phenomenon of biofouling.
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Citation: Limb, a Fantastical Take on Timber Construction
University of Michigan faculty members Steven Mankouche, Peter von Bülow, and Kasey Vliet leverage the inherent strength of tree crotches to create 3D structures.
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Citation: MineralBuilt, a New CMU Block Designed by Architects
In searching for a product with the strength of concrete but flexibility of wood framing, Francisco Gomes and Dabney Staub created their own building block.
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Citation: Robotic Needle Felting Stitches New Possibilities
University of Michigan faculty members Tsz Yan Ng, Wesley McGee, and Asa Peller take the age-old process to the next level: automation.
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Citation: Thinness Redefines Lightweight Concrete
Aptum Architecture, in Syracuse, N.Y., and global concrete manufacturer Cemex create a 10-foot-tall pavilion with walls that are a mere 2 centimeters thick.
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Honorable Mention: Functional Façade, Made with a Robot for Cornell Tech’s Emma and Georgina Bloomberg Center
Automation helped Morphosis and A. Zahner Co. realize a bespoke rainscreen for the innovative academic building in New York.
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Honorable Mention: Here East Gantry, a Medley of Studios From a Kit of Parts
HawkinsBrown Architects deploys WikiHouse software to output 23 memorable studios in a steel gantry in London.
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Honorable Mention: Hydroformed Shading, a Metal Feature Shaped by Water
For Harvard University's Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Behnisch Architekten created a system that would minimize the building's energy load and maximize visual interest.
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Honorable Mention: Precautionary List, a User-Friendly Guide to Green
As part of Perkins+Will's effort to make the construction process more transparent, the firm created a free, online database of materials and chemicals often found in building products.
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Honorable Mention: Social Sensory Architectures Offers Comfort and Healing Through Design
University of Michigan assistant professor Sean Ahlquist explores the impact of architecture on autism and sensory processing disorder.
