American Institute of Architects Middle East honors AUS students

Fifth-year architecture students from the American University of Sharjah College of Architecture, Art and Design (CAAD), led by Assistant Professor Emily Baker, were presented with a Design Merit Award by the American Institute of Architects' Middle East Chapter at a ceremony in Doha on November 14.

The award-winning project, completed in June 2014, was an acoustically absorptive wall that was designed, built and installed in the CAAD building at AUS. The design made use of CAAD Labs' digital fabrication facilities to create a visually striking and self-supporting wall out of curved folded stainless steel. The jury was impressed by the caliber of work done by the student team.

"I am very proud of the amount of work and dedication that went into making this project. The students developed the design from concept, to prototyping, to finished built work," said Baker. "They were able to learn from and collaborate with local acoustic engineers, source materials, manage the budget, and come to a sophisticated and innovative design solution. Design-build projects like this teach students all the coordination and cooperation that is required to realize their design ideas. I think they come out of this type of experience with greater confidence and ability to push innovation in design as future architects."