Rodriguez Wins Award at Architecture Workshop in South Korea

Daniel Rodriguez’s summer was seemingly anything but a time to really relax — but as a result of his hard work and the knowledge and experience he gained, it will certainly make his 2018 summer an unforgetable, memorable and rewarding one.

Rodriguez, a junior double major in architecture and Spanish, spent 10 summer weeks doing an undergraduate research project called, “Investigating Tensegrity: Experiments in Light Construction,” with a fellow student, Vicenta Martinez Govea and with faculty mentorship from Architecture Associate Professor Daniel Lopez-Perez, PhD. Rodriguez and Govea presented their project at the USD Summer Research Colloquium on August 9 in the Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice.

But that occurred mere days after Rodriguez returned to the United States following the chance to spend the first week of August in South Korea. There, at the request of Lopez-Perez, he participated in the Busan International Architectural Design Workshop at Dongseo University.

“It was an intense one week design studio where a group of three people had to propose a solution to a specific city-owned site,” said Rodriguez, a USD McNair Scholar. “We had to re-imagine and design a project that would urbanize, yet remain consistent with the cultural, social, historical and economic aspects of that specific location.”

Rodriguez, who was granted a travel award through the Office of the Provost's Enhanced Student-Faculty Interaction Fund, said he worked under the tutorship of Professor Daixin Dai, from Tongji University, who guided his group through the design process.

“My project, titled ‘Compass,’ was sensitive to the surrounding locations and integrated different design concepts like an underground park and plaza, underground pedestrian corridors and shops, and pedestrian bridges.”

On the workshop’s final day, Rodriguez’s group was judged by professors from all over the world and city officials and was chosen as a prize winner by the Busan Metropolitan Council, which was presented by its chairman.

“I am deeply grateful to my advisor and summer research mentor Dr. Lopez-Perez for exposing me to this type of opportunity and work,” Rodriguez said.

— Ryan T. Blystone