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I asked about provision for vehicular traffic in his urban planning scheme for a small, but growing, community in Circasia, Colombia. Diego patiently explained that, despite being predicted to double in size over the next twenty years or so, the small township was very poor, had few roads connected to the outside world, and the livelihoods of its citizens was centred around the surrounding forest.

Rather than dragging the town into the 21st Century with modern highways and so on, the urgent task was to accommodate the needs of a growing population in an area restricted in size, wealth and opportunity. It was Diego's elegant solution to the problem that earned him top honours.

RICHARD DIEHL AWARD WINNER
Top honours, because, in the words of the judges, Diego's superb use of digital tools demonstrated how reclaiming an area devastated by poor land management, can be used to foster human and social interaction. His project, "Circasia: Engaging the Creeks," redefined the relationship between the villages and creeks in Circasia, a rapidly growing coffee community in Colombia, by helping residents reconnect Circasia’s urban core to its agrarian landscape. His landscape and architectural interventions will help to change lives, increase the health of the community, reinforce cultural assets and raise the quality of life for its inhabitants.

The overgrown creeks, radiating from the centre of the township, had become little more than rubbish filled sewers, probably ridden with rats and other unsavoury creatures, yet constituted a sizeable proportion of the land available. Diego’s vision reclaimed the land, creating ribbons of dwellings, linked by cleared pathways.

The houses were also designed to be capable of simple modification and expansion as families grew - reflecting the social adhesion of family life in the country.

"I have always been interested in providing new and better opportunities for people, working almost exclusively in social urbanism," Diego said. "The scale doesn’t really matter; it can be a small vegetable garden providing food for a family or a whole new regional plan protecting people, water sources, forests, agricultural land and cultural assets."

"Diego's design assumes responsibility for the site and addresses a real-world problem that occurs in many areas of the world where misused land is discarded until someone takes on the challenge of fixing it," said Richard Diehl, chairman of the board of directors at Nemetschek Vectorworks. "I'm honoured to be part of this program as we pay tribute to fantastic designs and scholarship winners' potential to propel design, solve problems and renew culture. Students represent the next generation of creative potential, and Nemetschek Vectorworks is thrilled to help these students realise their career goals and make the world a better place."

Diego, a University of Pennsylvania Student took the top honours as the Richard Diehl Award Recipient. He was accompanied at the awards ceremony, though, by fifteen other students from eight countries, who each won a US $3000 bursary to support their studies in design at the accredited college or university of their choice, and whose schools will each get Vectorworks software licenses and training. In addition to earning a Vectorworks Design Scholarship and the Richard Diehl Award, Diego received an additional USD $7,000 bursary for having the top overall entry.

VECTORWORKS DESIGN SCHOLARSHIPS 2015
There is still a chance to become one of this year’s Design Scholars, and compete for the Richard Diehl Award yourself. The current round of the Nemetschek Vectorworks Design Scholarship has been underway for some months and doesn’t close until the end of August. Prizes will help to fund studies for each country’s winning entrant, and for the outright winner, which will be decided in the US later this year.

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