Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) alumna Leslie Ponce-Diaz (MArch II ’25) was named a winner of ArchDaily’s Student Project Awards, and four GSD students were recognized by the jury. An international program celebrating the creativity and vision of students from across the globe, the Student Project Awards highlights students who are redefining architectural practice and discourse with inclusive, forward-thinking ideas that shape tomorrow’s built environment.
Ponce-Diaz was named one of three award winners for her project, “Escuelita Lochiel,” an educational architecture design that reimagines a historic one-room adobe schoolhouse in Lochiel, Arizona, as a bilingual learning environment rooted in cultural heritage, ecological awareness, and community resilience.
“As a Mexican American first-generation aspiring architect,” Ponce-Diaz explained, “my thesis was a love letter to honor the craft, culture, ecology, and educational advocacy for communities along the US–Mexico border.” She noted that her thesis advisor, Angela Pang, assistant professor in practice of Architecture, was critical to her success at the GSD, where Ponce-Diaz says she had the “opportunity to experience architecture from around the world, opening my eyes to design solutions that excite me for the future of our field.”
The work of four current GSD students was also recognized by the Student Project Awards jury. Ines Bici (MArch I ’27) and Daniel Jaraba’s (MArch I ’27) “Doughnuts, The Industrial-Domestic Continuum,” a mixed-use project, was shortlisted for the award, while two others were long-listed: Veronika Ikonnikova’s (MArch II ’27) refurbishment project, “Living Together at Marché Saint-Honoré” and Yiming Zhang’s (MArch I AP ’27) cultural architecture “Theatrical Reciprocity.”
