California's architecture students showcase their best work in this year's AIA|LA 2x8:Exchange

Now in its 13th iteration, the competition received participation from 16 schools throughout the state to participate in the annual show. In celebration of California's unrivaled diversity in academic pedagogy and programming, each school selects two students to represent the program's ethos and vision. This week the American Institute of Architects Los Angeles chapter features work from architecture students in California. The 2x8:Exchange is a three-pronged program that provides students the opportunity to submit their work for the competition, be apart of the student exhibition, as well as provide scholarship opportunities. 

Open to the public, this year's student exhibition takes place in Culver City at the Helms Design Center. Focusing on a forward-thinking take of gallery presentation and setting the show features VR immersion stations, a zero-waste plan, and an ornate display of student work in this one-of-a-kind pop up gallery. Unique to this particular show are the materials used to create a winding "art walk" gallery that allows for guests to navigate through the exhibition space. 

Below are this years winners and their projects.

Honor Award - $5,000 Scholarship
Project: housEMOJI
Student: Ryan (Hung V.) Nguyen
School: Cal Poly - Pomona
Jury Notes: "We appreciate the careful look at the vernacular of a gable roof house typology and how complex the interactions of space have been evolved through a re-look at this common typology. It has offered a complexity that adds enough interest in special conditions to an otherwise very simple program."

Merit Award - $2,500 Scholarship
Project: Urban Fog
Student: Zizheng Icarus Wu
School: California College of the Arts (CCA)
Jury Notes: "Architecturally, there is a lightness to the structure that has many interesting layering and programmatic uses. From an experiential point of view, this project is about inhabiting a cloud. Being in the fog is going to be a different experience every time one walks into it; not knowing what to expect from the space, how the light filters through the layers, will be quite compelling. There is a lot going on but the program will evolve much interest for a complex space."

Merit Award - $2,500 Scholarship
Project: Suitcase Archipelago
Student: Marwan Bamasood + Eric Soifer
School: California College of the Arts (CCA)
Jury Notes: "The strongest asset of this project is the programmatic thinking and the systematic approach to how the components of this resort interconnect and how they approached sustainability, which is otherwise a byproduct or a waste, and turning into a positive by creating a consumable product for the resort. There was a really big depth of thinking beyond just the esthetic and the architecture."

Citation Award - $1,000 Scholarship
Project: 4300 Degnan
Student: Ban Sheni and Fabian Dietrich
School: USC
Jury Notes: "We all got a lot of joy out of reading the cartoon and the graphic novel that accompany the work, the simplicity and clarity of the forms and how the architecture can pull us in – we appreciated the humor that was brought to this project and thought that the depth of study expressed in the graphics was really compelling."

Citation Award - $1,000 Scholarship
Project: LA, I Fold
Student: Dutra Brown and Anastasia Tokmakova
School: SCI-ARC
Jury Notes: "We were impressed with the graphic clarity of the presentation, the boldness of the elevations and sectional studies, the clarity of the diagrams and the power of a really beautifully articulated model."

Honorable Mention Award - $500 Scholarship
Project: La Serpiente
Student: Emilio Bustos
School: East Los Angeles College
Jury Notes: "This is a really strong investigation where the designers studied a numbers of different influences which resulted in a very clean and compelling form. The clarity and consistency of the graphics drew us into the project, helped enliven the drawings and allowed us to inhabit this otherwise 2 dimensional project."

Honorable Mention Award - $500 Scholarship
Project: Meditation Center
Student: Hugo Ho
School: LAIAD
Jury Notes: "One of the most compelling elements of this project is the fact that the designers took their inspiration from written text and created a strong system of rules and order out of it. It is clearly represented and we can see how the translation from word into built form works. The next level investigation of this project is how you inhabit this meditation center and what are the spaces that have evolved from this manipulation."

Honorable Mention Award - $500 Scholarship
Project: Bridge Housing Prototype
Student: Rikako Sho
School: Otis
Jury Notes: "We loved the program and what this project is addressing with teenagers homelessness, being such a big issue in Los Angeles. The plans are very thoughtful and well articulated and we really appreciated the thought given to creating privacy within a large open framework – that really drew us in."

Exhibition Information: 2x8:Exchange
Date: Thursday May 8, 2019 - Closes Friday, June 7, 2019
Where: Helms Design Center Trade Showroom, Studio B. 8745 Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232