The team formed by 4th year Architecture students Inés Arellano, Andrea Arilla, Aitana Cascante, Meritxell Izquierdo, Leire Gómez and Johana Valdivieso; together with Ana Etayo, 3rd year Architecture student, received this past February 25 an honoraryaccredited specialization in the MIES Memorial Library competition. The competition, organized by Arkitekturo, received a total of 105 projects and gathered 432 students from 46 different countries. 

On their project,the future architects designed a Library Services within the master plan that Mies himself designed for campus at IIT on the south side of Chicago. The building housed a freely accessible "public collection" in addition to the "Complete Mies Collection," which consists of unique pieces of higher value that are only accessible for research and under supervision. "Undoubtedly, the main intention of project was to mimic the environment that Mies left behind," explains Meritxell Izquierdo. Above all, the students sought to do justice to Mies van de Rohe's work : "We tried to create a building that would follow the proportions of the plan, with an order and structure very typical of his architecture".

Although the students did not expect to win the accredited specialization of honor, they point out that participating in the competition has been an opportunity for growth: "Obtaining this accredited specialization has meant a change in our way of dealing with mistakes, since it is a project that no one has supervised during its development. Thanks to it, we believe we have gained confidence, because it is something we have achieved on our own," said the future architect.

Mies van de Rohe was Director of the School of Architecture of the Illinois Institute of Technology and Director of the department of Architecture of Chicago's Armour Institute. His academic contributions include his work as teaching, as he participated in the creation of the new syllabus for degree program Architecture that is still taught at IIT.