The Columbus Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA Columbus) announced last night the seven winners of their annual architecture awards competition. Over 45 entries were submitted, and the final results included six Central Ohio projects. “The submissions are examples of the wide variety of projects Central Ohio architects are building and designing throughout the United States and the world,” said Gwen Berlekamp, Executive Director at AIA Columbus.

AIA Columbus announced its 2014 Architecture Award winners, recognizing the design work completed by local architecture firms in Ohio. The recipients, which included two honor awards and four merit awards, were chosen out of a total 45 submissions projects. Entries were judged by a jury of architects led by lead juror Michael Wilkinson, AIA, principal of Chicago-based Wilkinson Design Corporation; Mark Sexton, FAIA, principal of Chicago-based Krueck + Sexton Architects; and Catherine Baker, AIA, principal at Chicago-based Landon Bone Baker Architects.

A home office is often a great way to begin a business, but moving into a separate office space can be a wonderful way to grow it. When Tim Lai was let go from a job at a bigger architecture firm in 2010, he saw it as an opportunity to start his own practice. His wife, Eliza Ho, was able to help it get started.

‘Willow Theater’, a temporary and fully recyclable stage, has been has been constructed at the royal welsh college of music & drama in cardiff, wales. The project, the collaborative work of Tim Lai and Brad Steinmetz, has won the 2013 world stage design award. The theater will function as an important local venue, hosting performance pieces, exhibitions, seminars and workshops, seating up to 150 guests.

Wining entry of World Stage Design sustainable theater design competition 2013, Willow was constructed at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Cardiff, Wales for the 10-day international festival of theater, opera, and dance. A major art installation and venue for different performances, lectures, and conferences, the Willow is fully functional and can seat 150 people.

Situated in the center of an antiquated courtyard in Cardiff, Wales, a flurry of white fabric strips waved like pennants in the breeze. Making their way through the fluttering fabric, awe-struck visitors carefully wove through a forest of translucent panels artfully suspended from metal scaffolding before entering the interior of this impressive performance space.

As the designers, operators and proprietors of the Franklinton food truck cafeteria, he and his partner, Eliza Ho, are constantly multitasking. The two-person boutique architecture firm partners with some of the city’s tiniest dining institutions with a feisty and bold initiative: to use design to make their Columbus better, one food truck, bird mural and vegan diner at a time.

It’ll be a food truck festival every weekday at a new dining destination in Franklinton. Dinin’ Hall is scheduled to open April 30 at 400 W. Rich St., an industrial project converted into an artist community.

Perhaps the most visible symbol of the area’s revival is a mural that since last summer has covered a wall once continually tagged with graffiti. An arts nonprofit organization and some neighborhood activists led the way for cleaning up the wall, a selling point at the time for Best.

Murals can perk up urban neighborhoods, but so can a cluster of food trucks. Architect Tim Lai and his wife, designer Eliza Ho, will showcase the idea in an exhibit called “Good Design in Hard Times,” which they say should inspire struggling neighborhoods.

Tim Lai and Eliza Ho are an architect and designer who started their boutique architecture and design firm two years ago and have created beautiful, streamlined spaces for Grandview’s Glass Axis, a multiuse art studio and gallery, and the local business Candle Lab. They are currently designing Clintonville’s City Beet Cafe next to Pattycake Bakery.

Lai and Ho devised three ideas for future use of Clintonville Theater– a mixed-use development, a park and a community market – each using part of the theater building in some capacity.