The Next Generation of Design
The ALA Student Merit Awards recognize outstanding student work in architecture and provide students with an opportunity to share their projects with the professional community. Submissions are judged anonymously by practicing architects, and selected projects are published alongside past professional award winners. Every student who submits a project also receives a complimentary ALA Student Membership, providing access to professional resources and networking opportunities.
Each year, outstanding student work is selected for recognition. The featured project demonstrates the creativity, design thinking, and architectural exploration that the awards aim to celebrate.
ALA Student Merit Award - Bronze Prize Winner
“Crystal Canopy is a dance and community center for South Boston, built on the idea that a shared activity can bring strangers together. Its signature is a large fan of steel trusses that span over 100 feet, paired with a support diaphragm that keeps them stable. Floor hand from steel cables so that almost the entire interior can be given to people, whether they are dancing or watching. Thin concrete strips open the courtyard to the street while framing attention on the performance stage, and the fan itself screens out heavy traffic and harsh sun. The result reads as both a civic gesture and a piece of structural bravado.”
Congratulations to the ALA Student Merit Award Bronze Prize Winners, Aidan Callow and Zakariya Rizvi as well as their design studio professor Randy Deutsch.
