undergraduate work

“Arlecchino,” the colorful, floral-patterned architectural installation adorning the wall and floor of the College of Architecture’s Azimuth Cafe, has helped earn its designer, Los Angeles artist Elena Manferdini, a $50,000 United States Artists Fellowship.

No textbooks, no tests, no scantrons — Prof. Rodney Hill’s creativity class doesn’t have a trace of the elements found in a traditional college course, instead relying on discovery and innovation; it’s not every class that requires students to sign a non-disclosure agreement before attending lectures.

Teams of third-year construction science students grappled with an ethical scenario in a competition for an Ethics in the Construction Industry class. A panel of industry pros evaluated their work and chose a winner.

As higher education leaders across the nation wrangle with budget constraints and consider reforms aimed at doing more with less, Texas A&M College of Architecture educators continue to embrace the studio, the time-tested cornerstone of design education, as the most critical component of modern design pedagogy.

As a semifinalist in a national solar power design competition, a student team from the Texas A&M College of Architecture’s Design Process class is building a portable solar-powered umbrella capable of powering portable electronic devices.

Ryan Wilhelm ’12, a Texas A&M undergraduate construction science student, talks about his internship at the company's New Orleans office in a video. Wilhelm, from Dumas, Texas, was put in charge of a group working on a portion of a half-mile long floodwall.

A herd of bony dinosaurs and other creatures created by students in a Texas A&M sophomore design studio invaded the College of Architecture’s Langford Atrium this fall providing a fanciful setting for the amusement of passersby.

Texas A&M construction science students who spent the spring 2011 semester studying abroad in London praised their academic and social experiences in a story and video posted on TAMU Times, the university’s news website.

An innovative design for a downtown Austin, Texas senior urban housing facility created by Akshay Sangolli, a Master of Architecture student at Texas A&M, earned a merit award the American Institute of Architect’s New Urban Models For Aging competition.

Last summer undergraduate visualization students in a graphic design class led by Donna Hajash, a senior visualization lecturer, integrated color, texture and typography to create revealing biographical self portraits.

Staff at the Texas A&M College of Architecture Digital Fabrication Facility, aka Architecture Ranch, helped engineering students build a hybrid race car that won first place in a contest at a NASCAR track in New Hampshire. The car's carbon fiber body panels were fabricated on the CNC mill.

Brandon Vento, a third-year environmental design student at Texas A&M and his brother Coulton, a Kingwood High School student, have developed FlashPics, a free iPhone photo application that’s drawn raves from reviewers and an article in The Tribune, their hometown newspaper.

Students in a construction science class are preparing bids for an off-the-electrical-grid high school concept based on a project in Addison, Texas, where they took a site tour led by contractor Satterfield & Pontikes.

Peter Lang, associate professor of architecture, discussed his border studio initiatives in the Los Lomas colonia at the June 24-26 Dwell on Design conference in L. A. His students developed survival strategies and partnered with colonia residents to improve the border community.

Landscape architecture students’ designs of educational butterfly gardens and a master plan-level analysis of “green,” low-impact development techniques for a portion of the university campus earned awards from the Texas chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.