David W. Hinson, Frederick S. Norman, and Justin Miller of Auburn University’s School of Architecture were honored as the 2009-2010 ACSA/AIA Housing Design Education Award recipients for their DESIGNhabitat program. The ACSA/AIA Housing Design Education Award is granted jointly by Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and the American Institute of Architects, Housing & Custom Residential Knowledge Committee (AIA, HCR KC) to recognize the importance of good education in housing design to produce architects ready for practice in a wide range of areas and able to be capable leaders and contributors to their communities.

The DESIGNhabitat program is an ongoing collaboration between the School of Architecture and the Alabama Association of Habitat Affiliates. From its inception in 2001, the partnership has been a vehicle for applying the energy and talents of the School of Architecture to the challenge of designing and constructing high quality affordable housing in the state and across the region. The program utilizes the ‘learning by doing’ paradigm that has long been an integral part of the School’s culture and is seen as a means to both train architects-to-be with the skills to succeed in practice and as a way to cultivate the values of community engagement, leadership, and service.

Hinson, Norman and Miller will be formally presented their award at the 98th ACSA Annual Meeting to be held March 4-7, 2010 in New Orleans, LA.

A team of Auburn University students won a competition January 15, 2010 for the design of a pedestrian bridge that Volkswagen Group of America will build as part of its new assembly plant in Chattanooga, TN. Of eight awards given, Auburn Design-Build students won four.

Volkswagen announced the winners on Friday at the Hunter Museum in Chattanooga. AU’s first place team received $2,500. Three other teams received awards, including $1000 given by the Chattanooga chapter of the American Institute of Architects, and two honorable mentions worth $500 each.

A student team from the University of Tennessee won second place, followed by a Georgia Tech team with third.

The Master of Design Build program is an interdisciplinary post-professional graduate degree aimed at preparing architecture and construction management students for practice in integrated project teams. The program is delivered via a partnership between the School of Architecture and the McWhorter School of Building Science. Each of the five Auburn teams was comprised of two students from each disciplinary “track” within the program. The first place team members were Michael Glenboski and Dylan Cook (Design Track) along with Ben Loftin and Ty Maloney (Construction Track). The students worked under the direction of Prof. Joshua Emig.

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Daniel Splaingard, Auburn University School of Architecture graduate and Rural Studio alum, is one of the 2009-2012 recipients of the Frederick P. Rose Architectural Fellowship. Splaingard begins the three-year fellowship with Bickerdike Redevelopment Corporation in Chicago this month.

Visit http://www.rosefellowship.org/fellows/byyear/danielsplaingard/ for more on Splaingard and the fellowship.