Three student teams from the U of A Rome Program in the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design were among 12 finalist teams in the 2023-24 International Competition presented by L'Art Urbain dans les Territoires.

This international competition is open to multidisciplinary teams of students from all schools in the living environment (architecture, town planning, landscaping, surveyors, geography, sociology, etc.). The theme for the 2023-24 competition was "Ecological transition, new uses: the Territories in their diversity are bearers of solutions."

Through their designs for the International Competition, each team is charged with comparing the existing state and the projected state. This comparison takes the form of a graphic layout illustrating a program of intentions intended to improve the environment and the living conditions of the inhabitants. This method allows the quality of the proposals to be assessed and also sparks debate on the definition of urban art.

Finalists Karsen Koziol and Caitlyn Reilly, with their project Manes and Minds: Community Wellness Center, also were selected by the faculty-led jury for a mention in the contest's Quality of Social Life category, for which they were awarded 500 euros. Koziol graduated in December 2023, and Reilly graduated in May 2024.

Students Raquel Gamboa, Keelyn O'Malley and Alex White, with their project Agricultural Sanctuary, and Cole Chaney, Grace James and Lindsi Shipley, with their project Active Greenway, were the other U of A finalists in the 2023-2024 International Competition. James and Shipley graduated in December 2023. Gamboa, O'Malley, White and Chaney graduated in May 2024.

This group of eight, who studied in Rome in the fall 2023 semester, are the latest in a record of success for Fay Jones School design students. In total, 31 Fay Jones School students at the U of A Rome Center have been recognized since the Rome faculty began integrating the competition in the school's Architectural Design Studio in 2012.

In addition, a team with three Fay Jones School architecture students won special mention in the 2023 Reinventing Cities competition, an international competition that stimulates sustainable and innovative development in cities across the world. This was the first time the university had entered this competition, which is organized by C40, a global network of mayors of the world's leading cities that are united in confronting climate change.

"The sustained success of Fay Jones School architecture students in international competitions over a 12-year period is remarkable and reflects the potency of teaching at the University of Arkansas Rome Center," said John Folan, professor and head of the Department of Architecture. "Students are consistently embracing the opportunity of being abroad as a platform for the productive exploration of positive urban futures through design. Sensibilities cultivated on the home campus complemented by personal experiences and possibilities illuminated in working with Professor Kranis and his colleagues at the Rome Center are resulting in bold yet sensitive vision. Resonance of this work with one international prize jury after the other speaks volumes to the shared commitment of the faculty and students."

Andrew J. Kranis, LEED AP, FAAR, is Faculty of Architecture at the U of A Rome Center. He mentored these students in the fall 2023 semester, and he introduced this competition to U of A architecture students back in 2012.

Kranis is a multiple-award-winning educator whose students of Architectural Design at Rome study centers through the U of A, Temple University, Pantheon Institute and ACCENT Global have been consistently recognized in international urban design competitions.

"I was extremely proud to have represented the Fay Jones School and the great work of all the past academic years' architectural design students on June 24, at the Grande Arche de la Défense in Paris," Kranis said. "Our student projects showed a sophistication and global outlook that beautifully complemented the design proposals by other prize-winning teams this year, from Poland, Togo and Cameroon. In addition to offering an early career boost to our winners, I believe such international competitions can enhance their competencies in the essential professional skills of collaboration and verbal and visual communication."

This international student competition, which began in the early 1990s, emerged from the seminar of a legendary French urban planner, Robert Auzelle. His pioneering work led to the creation of a state-sponsored annual roundtable for French urbanism professionals, and in turn to a call for proposals from graduate and undergraduate institutions around the world, which has become the Concours International arturbain.fr, Kranis said.

Preliminary judging is done by the professional committee in France. Then, once finalists have been announced, it is up to the instructors from all participating institutions to evaluate the nine to 18 short-listed projects on the basis of architectural quality, respect for the environment and quality of social life. The numbers are tallied, along with an anonymous "internet jury" survey, to determine the overall Prix International and the winners in each of the three judging bases.

Kranis brought the competition to the attention of professors Francesco Bedeschi and Davide Vitali when he began teaching studio at the U of A Rome Center in 2012. They were very open to it and have joined him in offering the chance to compete to U of A students and affiliates at the Rome Center several times.

The Rome Center has never failed to reach at least finalist standing in all the years its students have taken part in the competition, Kranis said.

Manes and Minds Project

The Manes and Minds: Community Wellness Center project is sited in the Testaccia district, a growing area of ​​central Rome. This mixed-income neighborhood is home to a wide range of populations and amenities, and it includes a vast plot of green space that could constitute an important attraction for the local community.

Horse breeding, horse riding and equine therapy activities have been proven to have benefits for the physical fitness and health of people of all ages. The leisure and well-being center project by Koziol and Reilly, which focuses on "manes and (serenity of) minds," reappropriates the local ecosystem, with public convivial spaces and an equestrian center with a therapeutic vocation. It also introduces, into this vast disused urban space, a rainwater retention system and a circular economy circuit.

The project promotes the development of existing ecosystems while welcoming new green spaces, gardens, an aquatic ecosystem and a new animal habitat. It also encourages outdoor activities. The restoration of existing buildings helps preserve the identity of the neighborhood while creating more open spaces, more visible and more functional, for engaging in neighborhood life. And this new neighborhood heart connects various intergenerational groups, offering them all the benefits of therapeutic activities.