ConVal Students Place in AIANH Competition - ConVal Regional High School

Two of Karen Fabianski’s Engineering and Design students received honors at the American Institute of Architects New Hampshire Chapter (AIANH) 2016 Design Contest.

The contest was based on the premise that the 35th America’s Cup will be held in Portsmouth, NH. Students were asked to design a Youth Education Pavilion, a highly visible structure to tell the story of the race, the history of sailing, and to introduce local youth to sailing. They were given program parameters and a site plan of Odiorne Point to work with.

KJ Ammon took 2nd place for Best Model describing the Design Solution. Hannah Cheneau received a Jurors’ Citation for Overall Design Idea and Model Quality.

The educational objectives of the design competition were to:

• increase awareness of the relationships between space, human scale and function.

• gain experience in recognizing the various challenges in planning and designing indoor and outdoor spaces for specific uses.

• exercise analytical abilities and creativity in solving the problems defined by the competition participant

• practice communicating the planning and design ideas utilizing scale drawings and models

In addition, a fundamental goal of this building was to embrace sustainability principles in order to reduce the overall impact of the building in the environment. The design had to incorporate innovative green building strategies such as:

• increased energy efficiency through the use of natural day lighting and smart shading systems

• water efficiency through the use of low flow fixtures

• the use of renewable energy to help achieve Net Zero energy consumption

• materials which will reduce consumption, pollution and waste

• materials that will be durable and do not require special maintenance.

Local architect Len Pagano assisted Ms. Fabianski with project. The models crafted by Ammon and Cheneau are currently on display in the ConVal Library/Learning Commons.