The RIBA East Student Award aims to promote excellence and reward talent in the study and education of architecture.
Entry is open to those studying architecture at the five schools of architecture in the East of England, and is judged by course leaders and tutors. Congratulations go to all of this year’s RIBA East Student Award winners.
Sebastian Evans is the recipient of the 2022 RIBA East Student Award at the University of Hertfordshire.
Project: The Workstation
Dr Luigi Pintacuda, Programme Leader at the University of Hertfordshire, commented:
"Sebastian's project is a response to the brief – 'How we live and how we work' – examining living and working conditions through architecture within Welwyn Garden City in the post Covid period. The project conceptually draws inspiration in form from the analysis of the wider contextual area, with each structure comprising the 'Workstation', representative of a division of the outlined (graphically mapped) Garden City.
The proposal connects with the surrounding urban infrastructure through the carefully designed public / open space, which meanders through the carved programmatic clusters, and in turn connect to key urban elements.
The analysis of the city, and the speculation on human behaviour in the time after the epidemic, combined with a carefully considered programme, creativity, considerations in sustainable construction and improving the lives of the building users, makes this an exemplar project".
Thank you to Hertfordshire Association of Architects Chair, Simon Knight for presenting the award to Sebastian at the ceremony on 26 May.
Caitlin Meier is the recipient of the RIBA East Student Award at Norwich University of the Arts.
Project: The Seed Generator
Raymond Quek, course leader, commented:
"Caitlin has been a consistently strong student across all areas, in particular she is a very sensitive designer whose projects show a delightful play of morphology, material texture and colour and spatial experience, correlated to an understanding of the social, political and urban situations. Her work is exemplary also in technical resolution, supported by a clear ethical direction in the face of the climate emergency we face collectively."
In a world where bees are facing extinction, this is a project for Barcelona called, ‘The Seed Generator’; a seed bank and research centre focused on increasing El Poblenou’s biodiversity and protesting the beekeeping ban. The facility studies, stores and distributes beekeeping flora to the urban gardens of Barcelona. There are three key elements of the project - the fracturing roofs, the trees, and the seed cathedral. The seed cathedral is the pinnacle point of a visitor’s journey through the structure. The concept came from a vending machine - distributing and providing the local people with seeds for the urban gardens in a beautiful and celebratory way; inspired by the captivating and seemingly random pattern of seed dispersal.
Thank you to RIBA East Regional Chair, Jerene Irwin for presenting the award to Caitlin at the ceremony on 16 June.
