Two teams of recent graduates from American University of Sharjah (AUS) were awarded first and second place in Fresh at the INDEX International Design Exhibition. The teams were honored for work they did as part of the Audi-Fab Design Build Studio, a fifth-year architecture studio taught by Assistant Professor Emily Baker last year. The winning entries will be exhibited as part of this inaugural feature at INDEX UAE 2015, which will be held May 18-21 2015 at the Dubai World Trade Centre.

Fresh is a juried award which allows students and recent graduates to exhibit their work to an international audience of peers, customers and potential employers at INDEX UAE 2015.

The winning submission was by Ibtisam Talal and Maria Kalaiji. The project was developed as a way to make an interior partition into an acoustically absorbent and diffusive surface that reduces noise in loud interior spaces. Students explored the potential of new fabrication technologies to create innovative ways of constructing interior space. The project was a combination of felt, steel and GFRP (glass-fiber reinforced polymer), and students created multiple prototypes along the way to crafting the final piece. The result is a warm and inviting undulating surface, both constructible and functional.

The second-place winner, a project called Luminous Wave by Maryam Hosny and Merehan Kika, used the flexible properties of perforated plywood to create a beautiful and surprisingly simple ceiling surface that incorporated lighting and sound absorption for acoustic comfort.

"These students were incredibly dedicated to their process, and it shows. I am glad that the larger community of designers in the UAE will get a chance to see the exciting work coming out of AUS," said Baker.