SCI-Arc Alumnus Wins Grand Prize at AIA|LA / ACLA 2×8: Resilience

SCI-Arc is proud to share that alumnus Werakul Srihahsan (M.Arch 2 ’25) took home the Grand Prize at the AIA Los Angeles / ACLA 2×8: Resilience Student Exhibition, Competition, and Scholarship.

Werakul’s thesis project, Instructed Matter, reimagines ceramic through the lens of on-site robotic fabrication. Rather than treating ceramic as static or prefabricated, the project explores its capacity for adaptive, site-responsive expression at multiple scales, from tabletop printer to full robotic prototyping. By making the act of fabrication itself central to design, the work reveals how architectural form can emerge from a material’s behavior and production logic.

This approach resonates deeply with the Resilience theme: ceramic becomes not only a medium of structural and tectonic exploration but a flexible architectural language capable of responding to technological and environmental challenges. The project imagines resilient responses that are expressive, adaptive, and inseparable from the act of making, aligning with 2×8’s call for forward-looking ideas that confront uncertainty and change.

Developed under faculty advisor Herwig Baumgartner, the project was recognized at the awards event, where Werakul was present for the announcement.