The 24th Annual CISC Architectural Student Design Competition was quite the success for UW architecture students this year. All top three prizes were awarded to students from Professor Terri Meyer Boake’s ARCH 570: Architectural Steel Design course.
The competition invites students from across Canadian architecture and engineering schools to work together in designing an observation platform that uses architecturally exposed structural steel (AESS).
The first place award went to Aeolian Soundscape by Darren Miranda and Sophie Longval. Their design, located along the Dalhousie Mountain Trail in Nova Scotia, is a wind-driven structure with a musical twist, based on their inspiration of wind harps. As visitors ascend the structure, the resonant properties of steel cables and tubes will produce a melodic hum. The design also includes a ramp for accessibility needs.
Miranda and Longval describe Aeolian Soundscape as a project born from curiosity, collaboration, and a shared fascination with the relationship between nature and design.
Miranda’s interest in architecture began with its blend of mathematics and visual arts, and the beauty of requiring both imagination and precision. Longval was similarly drawn to the field for how it balanced “creativity, logic, and human connection.” Longval emphasized the experiential side of architecture: “I’m drawn to how expressive forms and material systems shape how users feel and interact with their surroundings.”
For Aeolian Soundscape, the pair followed the competition’s theme of ascent while using the properties of steel to connect people with the elements.
“We wanted to account for accessibility, incorporate a natural element through wind and sound, and create an interesting viewpoint at the top platform of the tower,” Miranda said.
Longval added that the project was “inspired by a storm that swept through the neighbourhood,” an experience that made her reflect on the power and beauty of nature. “We wanted to celebrate structural steel in an unconventional way—showing that it can be both beautiful and practical,” she said.
Their design evolved from early ideas about astronomy to exploring how wind could generate sound through steel pipes and cables. The team drew inspiration from works such as the Blackpool High Tide Organ, the Sound of Wind chapel in Japan, and the Singing Ringing Tree in Burnley — all of which use natural forces to create resonance.
“The rest of the project was built around that concept,” Miranda explained. “We chose a site along a trail with windmills in the distance to enhance that narrative.”
What ultimately made their project stand out, the pair agreed, was its clarity and execution. “Every element of the design is tied back to the central concept,” Longval said. Miranda added that their detailed 3D model allowed “viewers to really understand what it would be like to experience the structure — from walking below it to standing at the top.”
When asked what they learned from the experience, both highlighted growth through collaboration and persistence. “There were moments I doubted the concept, but pushing through helped me realize how important it is to trust your intuition,” Longval said.
As for advice to other students considering entering design competitions, Miranda encouraged flexibility. “Avoid being too set on one idea early on — stay open to change, but always keep a strong core concept.”
Longval’s advice sparked a more personal note, advising students, “Start from something meaningful to you. Your passion will show through your work.”
The second place award went to Cindy Ma and Mahara Falif. Their design, Weathered Lines, is an observation platform located near the Don River in Toronto and faces the historic East Don Trestle. As visitors ascend the structure, the framed views guide them to noticing both the rail bridge and river, encouraging reflection on the transformation of the Don River from an ecological landscape to an industrial site and how it has come to symbolize renewal.
Ma, formerly a student from Eastwood Collegiate Institute in Kitchener, developed her background in architecture during high school, where she experimented with a variety of mediums. As for Falif, her interest stemmed from her formative years spent in the low-income community of Region Park, Toronto, where throughout high school, the community saw many buildings be built or brought down during a revitalization program and through community consultation.
According to Ma, for the pair, entering the competition served “as a break” from “brain draining” work on their theses, because it gave them the chance to “exercise [their]design brain,” given how research-heavy their thesis work can be.
To decide on the concept and location for their design, they researched the site’s natural and cultural heritage. The design, which was tested and created using Rhino and D5 Render, is essentially, “an observation tower” with different views upon ascent and descent.. This dual view was one of their main goals, and was meant to “[honor] the natural heritage as well as the industrial heritage of the site.”
Asked what made their design stand out among other entries, Ma and Falif highlighted the importance of a design’s narrative in giving a project an edge. Falif added that the story behind a design increases its potential real-world application, which “really helps with driving it and imagining it as a real built project.”
Falif and Ma encourage any students considering entering an architecture competition to go for it. To Falif, such competitions enable the chance to “figure out who you are as a designer” and explore one’s values. “I think people appreciate the authenticity and sometimes it’s what gives the edge [to] your entry that is needed to really shine in a competition. It’s not about finding the perfect precedent and putting it on your site. It’s about what you want to do with it in some sense.”
The third place recipients were Yev Stepanyuk and Sadie Berzins. Their design, Stairway to Heaven, is located at Stanley Park’s Hallelujah Point in Vancouver. Stepanyuk and Berzins did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
