RIBA East are delighted to announce the regional 2023 Student Award winners.
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.
Henrique Lemos of the University of Hertfordshire was chosen as the 2023 RIBA East Student Award winner by Programme Leader, Luigi Pintacuda.
Henrique was given an urban housing brief to demonstrate how density and proximity improves life quality, reduces transportation, construction, and heating and achieves better land use and public realm.
Luigi said: "This project expands upon the 'More Density, More Quality, More City' brief by proposing a design solution rooted in people's perception of space. It aims to create a new addition to the city that transforms elements into a tangible landmark within the 15-minute city concept put forth by Carlos Moreno. This project simultaneously serves as a disruptive element within the urban fabric while also appearing as a long-standing presence, akin to the St Albans Cathedral tower. Henrique's design scheme encompasses a complex system comprising two towers and an intersecting hard landscape, taking inspiration from Cedric Price's 'Invisible Sandwich.' The overarching goal is to enhance the quality of living at both the domestic and public scales by fostering density.
Henrique's proposal demonstrates a mature approach to addressing critical architectural issues prevalent in the UK, such as the housing crisis and the decline of the high street. It synthesises responses into a well-proportioned, human-scale resolution, presenting a new paradigm for conceiving cities and buildings. This proposal acts as a significant milestone in reimagining urban living and construction methods."
Thaslima Begum is the 2023 RIBA East Student Award winner for Anglia Ruskin University, chosen by Carla Molinari, Course Leader.
For her third-year project, Thaslima was asked to explore the past and current methods of teaching architecture, and to reflect on the contemporary challenges of the profession and how these should be taken into consideration and affect the future learning experience of architecture students.
Carla said: "This year, Year 3 students were asked to design a School of Architecture for the future, focusing on a sustainable and equitable design that integrates technological, economic and aesthetic aspects. Students explored the past and current methods of teaching architecture and reflected on the contemporary challenges of our profession and how these should be taken into consideration and affect the future learning experience of architecture students.
Thaslima’s project of a School of Architecture for the future is an awe-inspiring testament to the power of reusing materials and sustainable design principles. It stands as a remarkable example of how education can be seamlessly integrated with environmental consciousness. The project's core emphasis on reusing materials not only fosters a sense of responsibility towards our planet but also serves as an inspiring catalyst for students to explore the fascinating world of materials and renovation methods. In an era fraught with the challenges of climate change, this project assumes paramount significance, shedding light on the urgent need to shift our design paradigms towards sustainable practices. Its innovative and transformative approach to teaching architecture sets the stage for a future generation of architects who are not only skilled but also deeply committed to creating a sustainable world through their creative endeavours."
Jack May wins the 2023 RIBA East Student Award from the University of Suffolk, chosen by Leon Crascall, Course Leader.
Jack was briefed to design and create a community for an unrepresented group of people, encouraging him to reflect on spaces of confinement and their potential to be overcome through architecture. Jack decided to focus his design on recently released prison inmates and those on parole to increase the success of the rehabilitation process in the UK.
Leon said: "Jack’s work during the three years of the architecture course at the University of Suffolk was extraordinary in all aspects of architectural education: capacity for innovation, design skills, support for colleagues and constant work on improving his own ideas, and beliefs.
Throughout his academic journey, Jack has displayed worthy qualities that led him to this day. While not always in the limelight, his consistent commitment to the academic mission, coupled with his fresh perspective and unyielding curiosity, have left an indelible mark on both his colleagues and tutors alike. With his approach to architecture, Jack has proven time and again that his tenacity and personal interest can bring about transformative outcomes.
Jack's final project focused on a parolees’ housing initiative and the revitalization of public spaces within the former military barracks of HMS Ganges at Shotley Gate, close to Ipswich. This project not only exemplifies his design skills and innovative thinking, but it also addresses a pressing societal issue with profound ethical implications. By exploring the challenges faced by parolees and the need for dignified housing options, Jack's work showcases his deep empathy and consideration for individuals who are often overlooked. The tension between the close volumes, and the open landscape, the dialogue between the existing neighbourhood and the ruins of the barrack, and the ability to mediate the social and safety aspects of the project, transformed a potentially risky and conflictual theme in an open, honest and positive debate on that middle-area between captivity and freedom, metaphorically represented by the canopy surrounding his stones.
Jack's humility, reliability, and extraordinary work ethic have made him a valuable asset to his peers, faculty, and the wider community. He has served as a source of inspiration, showcasing the power of passion and curiosity to drive transformative change."
Kelsey Fordham of Norwich University of the Arts is the school's RIBA East Student Award winner for 2023, selected by George Themistokleous, Senior Lecturer, and the course teaching staff, for her final project 'The Frozen Palimpsest'.
"The Maritime Archaeology Research Centre, located at the eastern edge of Hastings, where the Rock-A-Nore beach meets the cliff of East Hill, proposes a contemporary articulation of the local community with the physical environment of the seashore.
The project draws from the material history of the fishing community, displaying shipwrecks in a reconstructed dynamic landscape that incorporates physical remains, visitor experience, and building transformation.
The building itself is devised to be transformed by its environment, by its users and by the local community. The gallery space, designed to be regularly flooded by the high tides, becomes a floating landscape that connects with the historical network of the Channel’s shipwrecks. This is further enhanced through the mediation of the camera lens: using cinematic framing techniques, the space of the project choregraphs the synaesthetic experience of the entangled relations between cliff and sea, navigation and accident.
Outside, new and reused, purpose-fabricated and salvaged materials are combined into a fragile building skin designed to be constantly transformed, maintained, reused, scavenged, repaired."
Isaac Simmonds-Douglas is the 2023 RIBA East Student Award winner from the University of Cambridge, as the top overall student in Year 3.
Sarah Hare and Richard Lavington, Design Fellows for Year 3, said: "This year we were exploring the structure of place within the urban context of Islington, St Luke’s Gardens. This was done through the study of apartment living and London squares. Isaac studied the Berlin apartment buildings from 19th Century to the modern ‘plattenbauten' housing of post-war Berlin. Particular interest was developed for the ‘Berliner Zimmer’ which was developed into a unique design, in the first term, for a communal room that contained the vertical circulation of an apartment building. Isaac's design developed depth and poché which was three dimensionally rich and exciting. Isaac brings with him passion, enthusiasm and huge talent, backed up with hours of research, drawn and found, which leads to an iterative design method that is mature and finessed.
Isaac's culminating design started with a detailed analysis of Covent Garden Square and its historical, political and cultural changes over its lifetime. As he worked into the site in Islington, many of these factors reappeared as a critique of the existing Square (St Luke’s Gardens) and its definition through the dominance of the church. Alongside this early mapping, a ‘found’ square appeared through the overlaying of maps of the area ‘marked’ by two existing 1960s residential towers that led to the definition of a new residential square. The conversations around the differences between these two squares were the essence of the thesis. The mixed-use project proposed is impressive in scale in relation to the brief, covering the full extent of the area proposed for consideration. The project is also always original and poetic from concept through to detail from the two squares through to the sequined skin that covers and unites the varied forms of the full extent of the plan.
Isaac has contributed deeply to the studio discussions, broadening and opening it and by setting the standard so high through the quality and beauty of his work."
