Kristian Rome Tacbian, a fourth-year Architecture student at the University of Santo Tomas (UST), finished fourth during the 13th Asian Contest of Architectural Rookie’s Award (ACARA) held at Danang Architecture University (DAU) in Danang, Vietnam. This marked the second consecutive year of participation for the College of Architecture (CA) in this prestigious competition.
The competition, held on the last day of the three-day event, featured student presentations critiqued by a distinguished jury composed of prominent Asian architects, professors and members of the Asia United Architecture Association — the organization that has hosted ACARA for thirteen consecutive years.
Tacbian’s impressive presentation of his work, titled “Oddities,” earned him an internship offer at Bio-architecture Formosana in Taiwan.
The event commenced with an opening ceremony on the first day, followed by a site visit that served as the focus of the student workshop in the succeeding days. The 20 competition participants from thirteen countries, including Tacbian, collaborated with select DAU students during the workshop to develop design proposals for the redevelopment of the two ends of the Trang Thi Ly Bridge crossing the Han River.
The next ACARA is scheduled to take place in China in 2025.