Folk tales inspire EVDS students' winning building design

Two masters of architecture students have won a prestigious international design competition with a building design that draws on folk tales and storytelling, beating out more than 2,000 entries from 56 countries.

Now in their third year in the Master of Architecture program in the Faculty of Environmental Design, Ryan Turner and Ronli Mak are the winners of the Vectorworks Design Scholarship Program. The international award is funded by Vectorworks Inc., a globally-sold building information modelling and computer-aided drafting software suite, designed for the architecture, landscape and entertainment industries.

Mak and Turner originally created their project, The Centre for Folktale Communication, for professor Brian Sinclair’s Comprehensive Design Studio class in their second year. The pair received a $3,000 USD scholarship for their repackaged final project as well as training and copies of Vectorworks’ award-winning design software for the faculty’s computer labs.

Winning design creates a space for stories and sense of wonder

The Centre for Folktale Communication is derived from the central concept of the value and importance of storytelling, which is universally shared by everyone and carries deep roots in mankind's heritage.

“Humanity’s most primitive method of communicating cultural values from generation to generation has been via folk tales," says Turner. “We asked ourselves, 'What if architecture celebrated the stories of our heritage — the imaginative realm reflected by our core cultural values?'”

The final result was a downward-spiralling inversion of the traditional fairy tale castle, that featured a suspended bridge and performance space. 

Team combined artistic and technical approaches into design

“For both Ronli and I, winning this award is a major achievement for us as architecture students," says Turner. “As young and relatively fresh designers, there is nothing more fulfilling than to produce academic work recognized and appreciated at a global scale.”

Mak notes that the combination of their respective talents — the blending of artistry with technical acumen — defined both the nature of the project and their success.

“Ryan and I share some specific core values when it comes to design, but approach it from opposite ends of the spectrum; Ryan is more technical, while my background and experience is more artistic," says Mak. "When those forces complement each other around a unified concept, the results can be really exciting.”

Class furthers students' understanding of the built environment

Sinclair’s Comprehensive Design Studio class takes master of architecture students through the complete process of architectural design, from concept through to actual constructability. By all accounts, it is one of the most intensive processes in the three-year program.

Turner credits the Comprehensive Design Studio process in helping to hone the final product that resulted in the Vectorworks win.

“Working with Dr. Sinclair has been the most exciting experience along my academic road,” says Turner. “He kept Ronli and I on our toes, always pushing us further than we believed possible.”

For Sinclair, the focus of the class extends beyond the work done on the page, pushing students to extend their cultural and philosophical understanding of the built environment.

“Comprehensive Studio demands technical competency, but at the same time, I want students to look at the psychological meaning behind the act of design,” says Sinclair. “It's the marriage of a really good, really provocative idea with a technically sound design.

“Ryan and Ronli succeeded in combining these concepts to a tremendous degree while also focusing on the feel and sense of wonder in the space they created. This is where they created something very special; what they accomplished transcends from mere building to architecture.”