At the end of each academic year auto*des*sys collects projects created through the form.Z Joint Study Program and publishes the annual form.Z Joint Study Report. One of the traditions the program and its report have established is the presentation of annual awards for exceptional work by students. This year six awards of distinction and six honorable mentions have been granted.

The nominated projects were divided in six categories: Architectural Design, Interior Design, Fabrication, Product and Industrial Design, Visualization/Illustration, and High Schools.

Architecture graduate student Lorraine Ong was selected to receive the form.Z Joint Study Program Award of Distinction for Fabrication. The award was presented at a dinner ceremony sponsored by auto*des*sys during the ACADIA Conference in October 2006 in Louisville, Kentucky. Congratulations and prizes were extended by Chris Yessios, President and CEO of auto*des*sys.

Ong submitted one of her projects from last semester's studio in digital design & concrete fabrication with Professors Nader Tehrani and Athanasssios Economou.

The goal of the project was to utilize current digital tools (form.Z) in the conceptualization of a design and its concrete fabrication method. The digital method explored the usage of a simple geometric pattern as a module manipulated to transform from solid to void. In this way, a simple wall can easily undergo a transformation of permeability.

"Although there are endless possibilities of rules or functions which may change the process of morphoses but still arrive at the same point; this study shows one particular variation - an opening starting from the center of the module, which gradually elongates to create four curved corner pieces," said Ong. "The process starts out by creating a script in form-z to map the gradual progression from solid to void. This script is reinterpreted in 3d taking into account module variations in the z-axis. The result is the gradual decomposition or unfolding of the solid wall in all 3-axises. A final step creates a two module negative imprint (formwork) for which the panels may be casted out of concrete."

Currently in its 15th year, the form.Z Joint Study Program involves over 250 Universities and some high schools worldwide. The program is sponsored by auto*des*sys Inc. to facilitate the learning of the new digital tools - 3D.