In 2020, the RIBA Research Fund received a record number of applications. These have now been assessed by the Research Grants Sub-Committee and the RIBA are pleased to announce the details of the recipients and their projects.
Awarded annually, the RIBA Research Fund is intended to support individuals - at any stage of their career - who would like to conduct a piece of independent research to benefit architects and the wider profession. This year, £30,000 has been awarded to support five research projects.
The 2020 recipients of the RIBA Research Fund are:
Julia Crawford: Mien Ruys: 'The Mother of Modernism' (£5,000)
The aim of the project is to produce a large format book detailing the work of the Dutch landscape architect Mien Ruys. As modernist design did not gain a foothold in Britain, Mien (called the 'mother of modernism' in Holland) remains relatively unknown in the UK. The goal is to introduce her work to a new audience through this publication. Mien Ruys was a fascinating and important designer, albeit so far neglected in the UK, whose work continues to influence contemporary landscape architects, garden designers and architects today.
Tumpa Husna Yasmin Fellows: Exposing the Barriers in Architecture from a FAME (Female Architects of Minority Ethnic) perspective (£7,000)
FAME (female architects of minority ethnic) collective is a research-based network founded to support women of diverse backgrounds and ethnicities in architecture. FAME’s research aims to unpack the barriers in architecture, by responding to an urgent need to understand how race and gender affects established practitioners, young scholars and students, from diverse backgrounds and practices.
Michael McMahon: Reuse in Architecture: Making Out of Waste and Ruin (£4,000)
UK Architects have declared a climate and biodiversity emergency so what do we do next? Reuse in Architecture: Making Out of Waste and Ruin will question how reuse and circular construction can be enabled and promoted in order to address the devastating reality of waste and emissions in the built environment of London. By collating and sharing best practice examples, the project will offer tangible ways that built environment professionals can overhaul the way we think about and managing waste.
Francesca Piazzoni and Frances Darlington-Pollock: Designing Care: Countering the Urban Exclusion of Older Women (£7,000)
Older women across the UK face urban exclusion: cities neglect their needs while reifying sexist and ageist relations of power. The Designing Care project wants to reverse this trend by proposing new policy and spatial interventions to help empower older women.
Jack Richards and Jo Sharples: BUILD UP - Empowering Domestic Clients to Commission Zero Carbon Architecture (£7,000)
Small practices play a vital role in communicating the importance of environmental upgrade to their domestic clients, but face significant barriers when delivering sustainable projects. ‘Build-Up’ develops resources to support clients, consultants and contractors to create zero carbon architecture. The research culminates in an exhibition of experimental building fragments in their local high street shop.
On announcement of the 2020 recipients, RIBA President Alan Jones said:
“The importance of research in the development of the architects’ profession and how it practices cannot be underestimated. Research methodologies structure investigation and workload, reducing risk and increasing the potential for innovation.
“The support and advancement of valuable architectural research and its timely dissemination is crucial to the profession’s continued awareness, development, and resilience.
“I am delighted to see the breadth of research in this year’s awarded projects, both academic and practice based. The RIBA is proud to support the 2020 Research Fund recipients, and their work to challenge some of the most important social and environmental issues facing architects and society today.”
Bob Brown, Chair of the Research Grants Sub-Committee also added:
“One attribute running through the research proposals and projects awarded funding this year is the sense of creativity embedded in their research practice, reconfiguring both the questions being interrogated and how those questions are approached. Such creativity is vital to addressing the challenges facing wider society.”
The RIBA Research Grants Sub-Committee comprises: Professor Robert Brown, University of Plymouth (Chair); Laura Evans, Howland Evans Architects; Dr Saul Golden, Ulster University; David Hills, DSDHA; Dr Mhairi McVicar, Cardiff University; Meryl Townley, van Heyningen and Haward Architects; Jessie Turnbull, MICA Architects; Dr Stephen Walker, The University of Manchester.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 application cycle opened later in the year and decisions were finalised in early 2021.
