APDesign architecture student from Medicine Lodge wins MANKO design competition
Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2016
MANHATTAN — Brock Traffas, a fourth-year architecture student at Kansas State University, is receiving a $5,000 scholarship as the winner of a College of Architecture, Planning & Design, or APDesign, competition sponsored by MANKO Window Systems in Manhattan.
Traffas, Medicine Lodge, was the competition judges' top selection for his project design of the Crossroads Campground in Kansas City.
The design was an assignment in his fourth-year comprehensive studio class, requiring students to integrate conceptual and technical knowledge into one complete project for a presentation with drawings, renderings and models. Following a review, one student from each studio was selected to compete for the MANKO award, with each developing a narrative slide presentation to present to judges, who were all established practitioners in the field.
Traffas was a student in the BNIM Studio taught by four rotating BNIM professionals during the fall semester: Greg Sheldon associate principal; James Pfeiffer, associate principal; Carley Pumphrey, an APDesign alumna; and Elvis Achelpohl, an APDesign alumnus. BNIM has been in partnership with the College of Architecture, Planning & Design since 2011 to offer fourth-year architectural design studios to students in the architecture department in the fall and summer semesters. The university's BNIM team varies from year to year, but Sheldon and Pfeiffer have led the studio since its inception. Each of the team members commutes to campus from their Kansas City base office on a different studio day to teach their fourth-year studio.
"The MANKO Prize, now in its fourth year, has become a highly coveted achievement at APDesign," said Tim de Noble, professor and dean of the college. "Each year the students attain new visions in design and leave the professionals in the jury astonished with their remarkably advanced work. MANKO'S commitment and generosity is helping us raise the bar higher with each passing year."
Images of the winning project can be found at http://apdesign.k-state.edu/arch/gallery.
The competition jury included Thomas Leslie, Pickard Chilton professor in architecture, Iowa State University; Paul Mankins, principal, substance architecture, Des Moines, Iowa; and Kevin Greischar, partner, DLR Group, Kansas City.
Traffas will study abroad in the 2016 spring semester at the Dessau Institute of Architecture in Dessau, Germany, and then complete his Master of Architecture in May 2017.
The following fourth-year architecture students also were selected for the MANKO competition:
Sydell Paul, Garden City, representing the studio of Dragoslav Simic, associate professor of architecture; and Zachary Pritchard, Manhattan, representing the studio of Todd Gabbard, associate professor of architecture.
From out of state: Kylie Schwaller, Kansas City, Missouri, representing the BNIM summer studio.
From out of country: Thomas Crane, Perth, Australia, representing the studio of Genevieve Baudoin, assistant professor of architecture.
