Architecture student builds his future by looking at what already exists

During his senior year in high school, Paul Pederson was trying to decide on what to study in college.

It turned out to be an easy process – one of his teachers provided the answer.

“He was giving some kind of example in class and said something like ‘If Paul goes into architecture …’,” said Pederson, a Clarkston, Washington native. “And I was actually looking at either going into engineering or architecture. I thought architecture leaned more toward the artistic side of building, so that’s what I decided to follow.”

Since then, Pederson, who will graduate in May, has delved into multiple facets of the architectural world. He’s discovered his passion for adaptive reuse, traveled across the country as a member of the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) and won a Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society award, which he used to immerse himself into learning about architecture in Asia.

“Paul has stood out as an excellent student and is very thoughtful in his design approach,” said Leonie Bunte, assistant professor in U of I’s College of Art and Architecture (CAA). “He has a genuine commitment to developing his ideas, both conceptually and technically.”

The art of architecture

Pederson’s a-ha moment surrounding adaptive reuse, the practice of repurposing an existing structure for a new or different use, was twofold: part excitement about the practice and part indictment against the alternative.

“The most sustainable building is one that already exists,” he said. “The cost of construction is high, both in terms of the carbon footprint it leaves and the financial implications, so the less you have to tear down to rebuild, the better."

By studying several examples of adaptive reuse on the U of I campus, like the Art and Architecture South building, Pederson realized that the practice is not only better for the environment, but it also challenges an architect to think about different ways to remodel a building.

During his trip to Asia last summer, Pederson was exposed to the idea of Kintsugi, a Japanese pottery repair tradition where a piece of art is broken, then re-built with the same pieces. The cracks are bonded with a lacquer that emphasizes the cracks rather than hiding them.

“The character of the break becomes the identifying characteristic of the pot,” said Pederson. “I find that fascinating because I think adaptive reuse in buildings can do the exact same thing.”

Using environmentally friendly materials in adaptive reuse also allows the architect to build with local materials – like creating more wood features in a timber-heavy location like Idaho. 

Pederson was able to create several wood-based designs in his Fall 25 Designing with Logs studio with that idea in mind.

“I think there’s a lot of opportunity to design with logs – they have a lot of character,” he said. “The problem is they are a challenging building material and the way we build with them really hasn’t really evolved since the early 1900s. But with all of the technology we have now, maybe we should see if it’s possible to bring that type of design to the present day."

Field trip

While appreciating the artistic side of adaptive reuse, Pederson also thinks there is a lot of opportunity to explore it – especially in bigger urban areas. He went on U of I’s Education Abroad trip to Asia during the summer of 2025 to experience it for himself.

Led by Xiao Hu, architecture professor at CAA, the group visited and studied key architectural sites in Singapore and Maylasia.

Pederson’s interest in adaptive reuse resonated in George Town, a section of Penang, Malaysia, that UNESCO, a United Nations agency that promotes international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture, has designated a World Heritage Cityscape. The area has maintained its 18th and 19th century buildings through adaptive reuse and environmentally friendly modernization.

“I had a passive interest in adaptive reuse before the trip, but I really learned a lot that excited me about it during the trip,” Pederson said. “Penang was my favorite place to visit. It had a strong culture that was really reinforced by modernizing the older architecture in George Town.”

In Singapore, Pederson appreciated the city’s commitment to green space. In an area that features more than 6 million people and multiple high-rise buildings, government agencies have incentivized property owners to create rooftop gardens, vertical greenery and ground-level communal gardens as part of the country’s Green Plan 2030 to bring more nature into an urban environment.

Pederson, who was recently elected president of AIAS’s U of I chapter, plans to pursue his master’s in architecture after graduation and wants to research opportunities in adaptive reuse architecture.

In the meantime, he’s also exploring another possible career angle – teaching. He’s been a teaching assistant for Bunte in Architectural Design I and II this year and said the experience has helped him in multiple ways.

“I really enjoy it,” he said. “I think teaching may be something I do eventually, but I also think it’s helped me be a better student by showing me I can be more teachable.”