Announcing winners of the 2019 UBC ArchEng Design Competition

May 14, 2019

Every year, Fast + Epp challenges UBC architecture and engineering students to collaborate on a design challenge. This year’s challenge was to design a Minimal Research Station that would be sufficient to house six adults for one night. The challenge was based on our research shelter project located on Triangle Island, off the Northern coast of Vancouver Island.

“In the design world, although these two disciplines work together with the same end goal, they often want to take different paths towards that goal, each with its own agenda. To achieve a successful project in today’s challenging building environment, everyone on the team must pull together,” explains the competition poster.

The winners and runner up of this year’s competition include:

  1. 1st Place: Team G – Tim Stockton, Nick Penner, Nahal Jafari ($1500 prize)
  2. 2nd Place: Team P – Harika Maddu, Alex Francheville ($500 prize)
  3. Honourable Mention: Team O – Retwa Liu, Zoli Chen, Lukas Vajda, Yuhan Kang

 

For the first place team, the judges were impressed by the shaping of the cabin to reduce its impact on its surroundings and its vulnerability to the high winds loads, together with clearly presented considerations of constructability using a minimum number of structural pieces. Internally, the space is planned efficiently and innovatively, leading to a spacious living and working environment well-suited to the requirements of the researchers.

First place rendering

 

For the second place team, the judges commended the form of the building to reduce its front exposure to wind while providing a sheltered space at the rear. The internal layout is practical and thoughtfully considered, providing a living and working space which would meet the needs of the researchers.

Second place rendering

 

Fast + Epp thanks all the competition submissions, and congratulates the winning teams!