Two students from Kansas State University’s College of Architecture, Planning & Design are getting national attention for a project built around concrete masonry design thinking, not just floor plans and renderings.
Patrick Rogers and Landon Cooper earned an Honorable Mention in the 2026 Concrete Masonry Student Competition, sponsored by the Concrete Masonry & Hardscapes Association and administered by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. Their entry, titled “Barcelona Welcome Center,” responded to this year’s theme by reimagining what a welcome center looks like for future travelers and communities, with concrete masonry products required as the primary material.
Set on Montjuïc in front of the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain, the proposal tackled a steep site, a 40-foot grade change across a 140-foot depth, or a 28.6% slope. Instead of following the site’s formal, symmetrical axis, the students offset the design to create a sequence of plazas, gardens, play areas, and gathering spaces that leads visitors upward to a terrace.
For mason contractors, the attention on masonry unit patterning is the takeaway. The students explored brickwork patterns and geometry to push concrete masonry beyond a “rigid module” look, aiming for a sense of movement while staying grounded in buildable ideas. The jury highlighted the project’s material expression, its relationship to place, and the way white concrete masonry fit the surrounding context.
Competition work like this is a reminder that the best masonry outcomes start early, when the design team is still deciding on unit size, coursing strategy, color range, and how pattern transitions land at corners, openings, and changes in elevation. When architects ask for expressive masonry, mason contractors bring the reality check on layout control, sample panels, and sequencing so the finished wall matches the intent on paper.
Read the full, original article from Archinect here.