Annually organized by the Delft University Fund, the TU Delft Best Graduate Award brings well-deserved attention to those students who performed exceptionally well in their graduation thesis. This year’s award short-listed a total of eight students, all of which were carefully selected by their respective study departments and given the opportunity to present their excellent thesis projects online. Amongst the many projects presented, the prestigious title of TU Delft Best Graduate 2021 went to ir. Zhuo-ming Shia, a graduate of the Faculty of Architecture and alumnus of the Addis Ababa Living Lab studio. Deservedly recognized, his project entailed the development of a socially responsible process for global housing design, responding to the course’s prompt to improving the dwelling conditions of the many inhabitants of the Ethiopian capital who are challenged with improper housing relocations that fail to consider their needs. Zhuo-ming’s project not only targets the need for high-quality homes that are sustainably designed and suit the people for whom they are built, but it also addresses the reality of limiting circumstances that existing construction approaches may impose. In taking such concerns into consideration, Zhuo-ming designed a participatory housing design largely based on the reality of Addis Ababa’s residents, in Ethiopia, providing a proposal that clearly shows how this collaborative method can be applied in real life.
