Meet the student recipients of the AIA Chicago Foundation 2023 Diversity Scholarship and Chicago Award in Architecture

The AIA Chicago Foundation's board of trustees has announced recipients of the 2023 Diversity Scholarship and the Chicago Award in Architecture-Student Award. In an effort to support and "retain diverse talent" within the city of Chicago by "recognizing the value of new and unique voices in the profession. 

The Diversity Scholarship awards up to two students from three notable Chicago architecture programs (Illinois Institute of Technology, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the University of Illinois Chicago) with a $5,000 scholarship from over two two years. In addition to the scholarship money, both students are also paired with a mentor from the AIA Chicago chapter to receive guidance during their architecture education.

This year's 2023 Diversity Scholarship winners:

• Jocelyn Hernandez from the University of Illinois Chicago
• Jamia Smith from the University of Illinois Chicago

The Chicago Award in Architecture – Student Award winners are selected through a juried competition where student projects are reviewed from universities within the AIA Chicago region. First, second, and third prize winners are awarded with a cash prize. Explore this year's student winners and brief details about each project below.

1st Place Winner (Benn–Johnck Award) 

The Seam by Trae Horne and Moid Ali (Illinois Institute of Technology)
Professor(s): Gustavo Utrabo and Brianda Mireles

Project excerpt: "The Seam transitions from the dunes of Lençóis Maranhenses in Brazil to the oasis of Queimada dos Britos, a community within the dunes. Using bamboo as green infrastructure and renewable building material, the Seam invests time in land regeneration. The proposed interventions, in tandem with native planting and bamboo, prevent further erosion and create a dormant dune. The Seam reclaims the land while giving building resources back to the community. Each year builds upon the last, learning by doing." Read more about the project here.

2nd Place Winner

Non-Collapse "Home" Vertical Seasonal Migration Community and Neighborhood in Madagascar by Rui Wang (The School of the Art Institute in Chicago)
Professor(s): Monika Thadhani, Berenika Boberska, & Charles Pipal

Project excerpt: "Climate change has a great continuous impact on the whole world, on every continent and every country, but it doesn’t treat everyone equally. In some ways, it exacerbates and even creates poverty in some regions in the world. People who live in an underdeveloped environment or have already been burdened by poverty while they don’t have enough ability to cope with problems brought by climate change and extreme weather. Under these circumstances, losing everything, being tired of rebuilding their home, lack of food, water, and electricity, people are forced to leave their home, being the “Climate Refugee” [...] The design is going to build up a climate-resilient, sustainable, and self-sufficient community and neighborhood structure, to transform the permanent long-distance horizontal migration into a seasonal vertical migration. The design brings a new meaning to seasonal migration in the community. Based on local climate features, the project reorganized the community structure and programs to separate seasonal human activities, dividing it into two suitable “seasonal communities” which are above the ground and below the land to make it possible to achieve a seasonal migration in the community when the season changes, instead of travel for a long distance." Read more about the project here.

3rd Place Winner

When We Live Alone – Spatial Prototypel for Single Urban Living by Ziqi Huang (The School of the Art Institute of Chicago)
Proffessor: Monika Thadhani

Project excerpt: "Before, single people need to adapt to the urban space. In this project, my goal is to establish a novel way of living for individuals who live alone, where living spaces and urban spaces are dynamic and customized to people's preferences and lifestyles. The new community spaces will be designed based on various needs, lifestyles, of people and demographics of people. The living space of single dwellers will no longer be isolated from the public space of the city, but rather seamlessly integrated into the city. This project proposes a flexible methodology that can adapt to different environments and community locations. By identifying the fixed elements and their positions through a design sequence and logic which show in my drawings, the remaining space can be altered to meet the specific needs of the people." Read more about the project here.

Honorable Mention

Stitching Networks: Transitioning 'Scapes by Bryan Cruz López & Tasmia Kamal (The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Professor: Sara Bartumeus

Project excerpt: "This project aims to find new public space and landscape models and structures for the city of Montcada i Reixac that link neighborhoods in the municipality and reinforce their morphological richness and their dynamic and connected condition to become a local and territorial articulation defined by a singular commitment in the city-nature relationship, capable of achieving optimal urban social and ecological cohesion. The projects aim to redesign spaces generated by mobility infrastructures–that used to disrupt continuities between fabrics and landscapes–as active connectors between neighborhoods, people, and its urban and natural landscapes. It also focuses on reconnecting landscape and urban fragments, promoting social cohesion and environmental qualities with human-centered tactics." Read more about the project here.

Learn more about the AIA Chicago Foundation scholarship programs here and the Chicago Award in Architecture competition program here.