The RIBA East Midlands Student Award 2021 at Part 1 has been awarded to Claudia Johnson, a recent graduate from Loughborough University’s School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering.
The panel felt that Claudia’s project, Inundation to Fabrication, which explores methods of flood and drought management in Rwanda, using locally-sourced materials and weaving techniques, clearly demonstrated its sustainability credentials, with this approach literally woven in from start to finish. In the words of one judge: “the project stayed in the heart as well as the mind.”
Maddie Rutherford-Browne, a recent Part 1 graduate from Nottingham Trent University, was awarded a commendation for her project, A Place To Grow, which also clearly demonstrated sustainability at its core, referencing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and expanding upon each of these in her online presentation to the panel. Two further commendations were awarded at Part 2 - to Makhan Johal, a recent graduate from Nottingham Trent University, for his project exploring the repurposing of the Derby Assembly Rooms - and to Conor Vale from the University of Nottingham for his approach to building disassembly in a Leicester-based project, The House of the City. The panel noted the quality of all of the awards nominees.
The RIBA East Midlands Education Group received a total of eight nominations for this year's awards from five schools of architecture, all with RIBA-validated courses across the East Midlands. A total of seven candidates were shortlisted and presented their work on Thursday 28 October via an online event to a panel of judges.
The judging panel, led by (outgoing) RIBA East Midlands Education Group Chair, Regional Chair and Regional Director of Watson Batty Architects, Richard Crowson, also comprised of; Dr Jose Hernandez, Director, Pick Everard; Professor Rachel Sara; amd Oscar Naddermier, Professor of Architecture, Birmingham City University.
