Two best graduation thesis projects by Huijin Zheng and Patrick Geske have been awarded with the 2016 SCI-Arc Gehry Prize, directed by Hernan Diaz Alonso. The 2016 Graduate Thesis Weekend culminated at the school's graduation ceremony this weekend. 

The 81 thesis projects were reviewed by over 50 critics including SCI-Arc faculty and invited guests including Thom Mayne, Francisco Pardo, Jennifer Siegal (M.Arch ’94) Jeffrey Kipnis, Didier Faustino, Dominique Jakob, Brendan MacFarlane, Barbara Bestor (M.Arch ’94), Pippo Ciorra, special thesis advisor Brett Steele and Graduate Thesis Coordinator Florencia Pita.

Huijin Zheng's winning thesis project 'Coexistence/Coherence' wins 2016 Gehry Prize at SCI-Arc

After a thriving comments and critics, the jury has selected two student as the winners of 2016 Gehry Prize, which is the most prestigious award of the SCI-Arch. Huijin Zheng won the prize with her 'Coexistence/Coherence' thesis project, while Patrick Geske wins the prize with his 'coincidentally' project. Meanwhile, Merit Graduate Thesis Awards were given to Daniel Hapton, Elena Larionova, Kenji Hattori, Anhuar Farah Made Jaber, Christian Kisereu, Majeda Alhina, Oscar Abrahamsson, Paul Krist and Polina Alexeeva.

Huijin Zheng's winning thesis project 'Coexistence/Coherence' wins 2016 Gehry Prize at SCI-Arc

The concept of 'Coexistence/Coherence' by Huijin Zheng focuses on 'fragmentation' of Eero Saarinen’s MIT chapel-Zheng's project resolves the inherent nature of the chapel and transforms it into a new 'variability' by playing with light and space, decentralizing the chapel's oculus. 

Huijin Zheng's winning thesis project 'Coexistence/Coherence' wins 2016 Gehry Prize at SCI-Arc

''Distortion brings typical cathedral languages back to MIT chapel, with contrast between simpleness and complexity, order and disorder,’ explained Huijin Zheng. ''Ruins, with a disappearance of original overall impression, are dead moments of architecture, and are going to be reconstructed in the future. in order to bring ruins back to life, it needs to be integrated with new material and imagination.''

Huijin Zheng's winning thesis project 'Coexistence/Coherence' wins 2016 Gehry Prize at SCI-Arc

Huijin Zheng's winning thesis project 'Coexistence/Coherence' wins 2016 Gehry Prize at SCI-Arc

Patrick Geske's winning thesis project 'Coincidentally' wins 2016 Gehry Prize at SCI-Arc

Patrick Geske's prize-winning project titled 'Coincidentally' is shaped by a convention centre, which needs three types of space; the hallway, the open floor and the object. 

''While here they function together as a singular thing and are formally related to one another, these three types of spaces exist as three differentiated wholes,’ explains Patrick Geske. ''The open floor is housed by a shed, the hallway becomes a continuous bent extrusion, and the object celebrates form in banal places, existing as enigmatic signposts against the background of the convention floor, where they stand as attestants to barthes’ claim that ‘the mark of the utopian is the quotidian.''

Patrick Geske's winning thesis project 'Coincidentally' wins 2016 Gehry Prize at SCI-Arc

Patrick Geske's winning thesis project 'Coincidentally' wins 2016 Gehry Prize at SCI-Arc

Patrick Geske, jury at SCI-Arc

Polina Alexeeva, jury at SCI-Arc

The juried exhibition of exceptional thesis projects by 2016 graduates, featuring the 2016 Gehry Prize winning theses, and a selection of best graduate thesis projects, will be on view in the SCI-Arc Gallery from September 23 – October 2.

All images courtesy of SCI-Arc

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