January 8, 2020
APDesign landscape architecture students receive international design recognition
Three landscape architecture graduate students from the College of Architecture, Planning & Design, or APDesign, landscape architecture and regional & community planning department earned a coveted honorable mention award in the NPO Asian Institute of Low Carbon Design at the ninth annual International Student Design Competition.
The theme of the 2019 competition, "Less is MOji — REboot the City," challenged students to addresses the problem of urban shrinkage in the Mojiko area in Kitakyushu, Japan. The competition asked students to redesign the urban landscape and to make a proposal for a low carbon urban project within this area. Urban shrinkage was considered as a real problem for the targeted area and the city of Kitakyushu.
Students were required to choose either the whole area of Mojiko or only one specific part. All proposals were required to contain one or more of the following features: urban shrinkage, low carbon city concept, overall sustainable concept, green space design, usage of renewable energy systems, sustainable transport systems, connection to the surrounding area.
Members from the APDesign team are all in the Master of Landscape Architecture program: James Ryan, team leader and fourth-year student, Kansas City, Missouri; Grant Pasowicz, fourth-year student, Overland Park; and Caleb Parker, fifth-year student, Haysville. The team represented APDesign and Kansas State University well and were the only team from the United States to earn recognition. View full-size images of the students' designs: Image 1, image 2, image 3 and image 4.
"I am very proud of our students for this recognition on an international sale," said Hyung Jin Kim, associate professor and advisor to the students. "They have been very responsive, dedicated and committed to their work. Although understanding very different sociocultural and environmental contexts of a Japanese city was a big challenge to them, students were able to come up with a creative solution for rebooting the existing city to their long-range city model which allows a highly compact human settlement as well as an abundantly restored ecosystem. I find it personally rewarding as I see our students develop ideas and skills over time and increase their confidence in competition. You'd be surprised how far they get you!"
The selection jury was represented by Bart Dewancker, jury chairman and professor at the University of Kitakyushu, Japan; and international jury: Zhu Wang, professor at Zhejiang University, China; Yue Fan, professor at Dalian University of Technology, China; Dian Zhou, professor at Xian Jiaotong University, China; Yiyin Tsai, professor at Chung Hua University, Taiwan; Mochamad Donny Koerniawan, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia; Fritz Akhmad Nuzir, Bandar Lampung University, Indonesia; Tanaphoom Wongbumru, Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi, Thailand; and Hiroatsu Fukuda, professor at the University of Kitakyushu, Japan.
Asian Institute of Low Carbon Design is a nonprofit, academic-based organization made as a network of students, researchers, and universities especially in Asia to enhance their knowledge in their fields of study or works which is related to the environment. This organization explores the emergence of innovative ideas and practices within the context of international low carbon city planning and architecture issues. The institute is designed as a primary means to investigate the ideas about responding to those issues highly related to the environment.