AIA New Hampshire Announces Winners of Its High School Design Competition

The New Hampshire Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIANH) has announced the results of its 2010-2011 High School Design Competition. Awards were distributed at the June AIA New Hampshire Chapter Meeting and Home Tour in Portsmouth, NH.

The AIANH Design Competition is a program that requires students to work on a theoretical project throughout the school year under the guidance of their instructors. AIANH volunteer architects visit the schools when possible to give critiques before the submissions are due. The program involves a design solution, a three-dimensional model, and a graphic plan of the project.

The AIANH Education Committee created the program for high school students to increase awareness of the relationships between space, human scale and function; gain experience in recognizing the various challenges in planning and designing indoor and outdoor spaces for specific uses; exercise analytical abilities and creativity in solving the problems; and gain experience in communicating planning and design ideas using scale drawings and models. This year’s project was for a Sustainable Living and Innovation Center that would serve to educate, promote, and test innovations in sustainable living and new green technologies. The program was for a highly adaptable building that looks to the future and would inspire the public’s imagination on how we live and interact with the environment.  Students were given specific building needs ant a site plan to work with. 

The AIANH High School Design Competition gives students a fun and challenging opportunity to develop their skills and to learn about the various aspects of planning and design. Students could work individually or in teams of two or three. Winners received cash awards to help with their college education.

Winners are:

Best Design, Overall Superiority, in all aspects of Design Solution, Model, and Graphic Presentation:

1. Brendan Rhoads and Patrick Kane, Pinkerton Academy
2. Camron Loiselle and Andrew Marino, Pinkerton Academy
3. Josh Clark-Kevan, Conval Regional High School

Best Model describing Design Solution:

1. Matthew Arsenault and Joel Asencio, Pinkerton Academy
2. Caina Brocenschi and Sean Paris, Pinkerton Academy
3. Adelaide Mckintosh, Hanover High School

Best Graphic presentation describing Design Solution:

1. Kristofer Bartol, Mike Evers, and Joshua Mele, Nashua High School
2. Alexander Hautanen, Conval Regional High School
3. Jason Garland, Conval Regional High School

The jurors were Bart Sapeta Assoc. AIA, Associate Professor of Architecture at Keene State College; Christina O’Brien AIA, SISR Architecture, Marlow, NH; and Dan Bartlett AIA, DB Architects, Keene, NH.

The three jurors came from relatively diverse professional backgrounds, which made for an interesting exchange of ideas and complimentary assessments. Consequently, the work was considered from a variety of perspectives and the submissions benefited by a more diverse consideration of their merits. The jury noted that many students responded with well thought-out concepts to the main competition goal of sustainability. Some designs focused on educational aspects of energy conservation and others more on the functioning of the building as an educational element itself. The jury was very pleased with the results. In presenting the awards lead juror Bart Sapeta noted that “we definitely saw a lot of emerging talent.”

The winning students’ teachers are also to be commended, as this competition requires guidance and support. They are Rolfe Voltaire, Pinkerton Academy; Lenny Harrison, Nashua High School; Karen Fabianski, ConVal Regional High School, and David Holloway, Hanover High School.