A Mississippi State architecture student was recently named a finalist in the 2025 Timber Design Competition at the Timber Construction Conference in Pretoria, South Africa.
Paulina Fernandez, a senior architecture major from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, placed ninth out of 130 entries from nine universities across the world for her project HALO: A Haven of Eternal Rest.
Fernandez began this design during her spring architecture studio, led by MSU School of Architecture Associate Professor Jacob Gines, who is the MSU’s Mississippi Lumber Manufacturers Association Endowed Professor in Innovative Wood Construction and Design.
Fernandez said she was excited about the studio, which includes a mass timber project, because she had done research on forestry and wood when serving as the school’s Method Studio Undergraduate Research Fellow in 2023, also under Gines.
After hearing about Mississippi State’s renowned architecture program, Fernandez knew she had to be part of it. A year into college elsewhere, she decided to pack up and head to Starkville to continue her studies.
“I feel like this is my second home,” she said. “I want to continue to make the College of Architecture, Art and Design proud. No matter where I go, I’m a Bulldog always. That’s never going to change.”
The theme for this year’s Fourth-Year Mass Timber Capstone Studio was “Memory and Consciousness” and students were encouraged to design sacral architecture using mass timber. Fernandez chose to design a cemetery and said she had a lot of people question her unique choice.
“Designing for death is not thought of, but the truth is that the death of a loved one is a defining moment in our lives,” she said. “I really wanted to honor grief through architecture. I wanted to make people feel that their loved ones rest peacefully and are alive in memory projected in the timelessness of the mass timber.”
Fernandez said Gines supported her throughout the project and encouraged her to submit her work to the competition, which invited participants to submit projects that “highlight the transformative potential of engineered timber as a building technology.”
“Paulina’s award-winning project reimagines conventional approaches through a graceful, spiraling lattice of laminated roundwood,” Gines said. “The structure delicately frames the threshold between heaven and earth, instilling a solemn presence at the sacred site.”
Fernandez said, “Being a finalist in an international competition was very eye-opening for me and really made me more confident about my work. I feel like I’m in the right place, and I’m meant to be in this profession.”
In addition to the boost of confidence, Fernandez said this project and experience have helped solidify her future plans.
“I learned a lot; it was challenging but truly rewarding,” she said. “I want to learn more. Once I get my degree, I don’t want to stop learning. I’m interested to see what other things I can do as an architect.”
She plans to pursue graduate studies and continue to learn and improve her work.
“I don’t want to just be a good architect, I want to be great. That’s something the School of Architecture at Mississippi State does—it pushes you to reach your max potential and impress the world.”
The Timber Design Competition is an initiative of the York Timbers Research Chair and is organized through collaboration with Earthworld Architects and Interiors, Mass Timber Technologies, Pretoria Institute of Architecture, ProtoBuilding, Sawmilling South Africa, South African Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, University of Pretoria, and Fibre Processing and Manufacturing SETA. In its third year, the competition highlights and rewards excellence in timber-based architectural design.