KUDOS Team Lubid! (Camarines Sur Polytechnic College)
The SketchUp Students Design Competition (SSDC) 2026 is one of the Asia-Pacific region’s premier student design competitions, bringing together emerging architects and designers to address real-world challenges through innovation, sustainability, and digital design. Under the theme “Inherited Futures,” students were challenged to transform existing buildings into meaningful spaces that honor cultural heritage while responding to the needs of future generations. The Philippines’ advancement to the Grand Finals highlights the world-class creativity, talent, and design excellence of Filipino students on the regional stage.
Weaving Tradition into Spatial Innovation: Philippine Representatives are Bound to Bali, Indonesia
Architecture is never created on a blank slate. Every building carries an environmental and cultural cost, securing history within its walls while anchoring local stories and climate wisdom. Rather than tearing down existing structures to build generic replacements, the SketchUp Student’s Design Competition (SSDC) APAC 2026 challenges emerging designers to look inward—treating inherited architecture not as static relics, but as raw materials for meaningful invention.
The SSDC 2026 Challenge
Instead of imposing foreign styles on a landscape–this year’s competition tasks for colleges, institutes, and university students across the Asia-Pacific region with a deep architectural archaeology. Talented participants investigate the structural flaws, triumphs, and memories of existing sites to uncover solutions rooted in their specific place, culture, and climate. The goal is simple yet transformative: to design a future that can be inherited.
Who Will Be Judging?
Christopher Brashar
Global Training Manager, SketchUp | Denver, USA
Christopher Brashar is a 3D design and visualization training leader with over 18 years of experience in the AEC industry. He specializes in developing global learning, certification, and training programs that connect 3D modeling education with professional practice.
Yang Soo In
Design Director, Lifethings | Adjunct Professor, Yonsei University | Seoul, South Korea
Yang Soo In is an architect, designer, and public artist known for his multidisciplinary approach to architecture, art, technology, and storytelling. As Design Director of Lifethings and an adjunct professor at Yonsei University, he explores how design can create meaningful connections with everyday life.
Kevin Hui
Architecture Educator, Content Creator & Co-founder, Archimarathon | Melbourne, Australia
Kevin Hui is an architecture educator and content creator dedicated to making architecture accessible to a wider audience. Through teaching, mentorship, and Archimarathon, he combines architectural knowledge with digital media to engage and educate a global community.
Meet the Philippines Representative: Team Lubid from Camarines Sur Polytechnic Colleges
Instead of imposing foreign styles on a landscape–this year’s competition tasks for colleges, institutes, and university students across the Asia-Pacific region with a deep architectural archaeology. Talented participants investigate the structural flaws, triumphs, and memories of existing sites to uncover solutions rooted in their specific place, culture, and climate. The goal is simple yet transformative: to design a future that can be inherited.
One out of nine Grant Finalists all over Asia-Pacific, Philippine’s Team Lubid from Camarines Sur Polytechnic Colleges, led by student designer Jhea Nicole N. Comandante alongside team members Ian Christopher A. Oliva and Michael Edgar P. Sarit, under the mentorship of Ar. Vanessa Ella Fay Bermido—is ready to showcase their knowledge and talent with Filipino pride.
Their official submission, Flow of Magindara: “Where the lake is bonded with Culture, Threaded by Stories, Rippled with Memory,” presents a cultural hub centered around three core identities of Buhi, Camarines Sur:
- The Sinarapan (The world’s smallest commercially harvested fish, endemic to Lake Buhi)
- Lake Buhi (The lifeblood of the local ecosystem)
- The Inabëg (Traditional handloom weaving unique to the area)
By reimagining an existing heritage structure and introducing vertical architecture, Team LUBID seamlessly weaves two floors through spatial harmony, bridging community life with their rich cultural legacy.
Let’s rally behind our student delegates as they showcase Filipino architecture on the APAC stage—head over to the official SSDC 2026 Home Page to explore their work, show your support, and follow every step of their inspiring journey.
Introduction: Written by Joshua Leyesa.
Sources: This arcle was adapted from “SketchUp Students Design Compeon 2026” originally published by Trimble SketchUp; “Team Lubid” official SSDC submission by Team Lubid from Camarines Sur Polytechnic Colleges. Wordtext Systems, Inc. (WSI) is an authorized distributor in the Philippines.
