AMES, Iowa –– Two teams of Iowa State University third-year architecture students are recipients of the 2025 Richard F. Hansen Prize in Architecture awarded by the ISU Department of Architecture. 

Iowa State alumni Richard F. and Barbara E. Hansen established the Hansen Prize in 2004 to recognize the winner(s) of a design studio competition held in conjunction with the Richard F. Hansen Lecture in Architecture. 

Jurors for this year’s competition included Hansen guest lecturer Francesco Garofalo, the founder of Openfabric, and architecture faculty Kimberly Zarecor and Vladimir Kulic. 

Eleven students presented projects completed in the fall 2024 third-year architecture studio sections taught by Anna Aversing, Justin Burnham, Kevin Lair, Virginia Melnyk, Consuelo Nunez Cuiffa and Brent Schipper. 

Grace Morhardt, from Indianola, and Sebastian Salamanca, from Des Moines, were recognized for their project “Kin,” created in Nunez Cuiffa’s studio. Olivia Maasdam, from Knoxville, and Meredith Petellin, from Enumclaw, Washington, were honored for their project “Phase IV,” developed in Lair’s studio. Each team received $1,500. 

Kin

Kin by Grace Morhardt and Sebastian Salamanca

“Kin” is a conceptual care facility at the Ledges State Park in Madrid. The property would include an outdoor garden, animal rehab space, a winter garden and a plant/science/human education space. The facility would be suspended by a framework truss array, spanning from the farm fields to the ravines leading into the Des Moines River.  

Suspending “Kin” above the park allows their facility to operate freely with the ability to adapt, rather than be halted by human intervention or natural disasters, said Morhardt. 

“We wanted to create a space where rehabilitation was at the center,” Morhardt said. “Whether that was for humans, plants, animals or the environment, ‘Kin’ is an attempt to connect all of these lifeforms while allowing the facility to not be as impacted by the ever-changing landscape of the park.” 

Phase IV

Phase IV by Olivia Maasdam and Meredith Petellin

Looking to make prescribed prairie burns an interactive experience, “Phase IV” is a space to show the community what it takes to maintain the Westbrook Artists‘ Site in Winterset. The facility would house a central courtyard, space to store equipment, a soil and water testing area, a prairie restoration education space, offices and a prairie burn viewing area. The site is home to native tallgrass prairie that has become dependent on fire and human intervention over the last few hundred years. 

“Our project aims to rehabilitate the land around the site through a series of landscape interventions,” Maasdam said. “Through prescribed burn practices and erosion prevention, we’ve choreographed moments between the burn staff and the community to bring people closer to the landscape.” 

Contacts

Olivia Maasdam, Third-year Architecture Student, maasdamo@iastate.edu
Grace Morhardt, Third-year Architecture Student, glm1@iastate.edu
Meredith Petellin, Third-year Architecture Student, merepet@iastate.edu
Sebastian Salamanca, Third-year Architecture Student, sebsal@iastate.edu
Lauren Johnson, Communications Specialist, College of Design, laujohn2@iastate.edu 

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