The results for A&DS and RIAS Student Awards for Architecture 2021

Over 75 entries were submitted for the A&DS and RIAS Student Awards for Architecture this year from all five Scottish schools of architecture. Following a challenging year of online courses, the proposals highlighted the resilience and creativity of architecture students in Scotland. The projects, spanning from the Scottish Highlands to Souika, Ahmedabad and Tokyo, tackled a variety of social and environmental issues and had a strong focus on the climate emergency.

As part of our annual student awards for architecture we host the Andy MacMillan Memorial Lecture. In 2021 this was given by Dr Jos Boys. You can watch it again here. 

Commended: St. Clement’s Urban Development 

Chow Ying Choi Angus, Robert Gordon University

St Clement’s Urban Development in Aberdeen demonstrated a mature understanding of how to tackle very real issues dealing with a post-oil city, morphology, climate change and density. The project managed differing scales well – both urban topographic scale with convincing detail of street level spaces.

Winner: Paradise Pomegranate: Walls, Wells & Selling 

Rachel Dunne, University of Edinburgh (ESALA)

The judges were impressed by the sensitive response, clearly reflecting a depth of understanding and knowledge of Ahmedabad’s Old City. The design worked effectively across different scales – the strategic, city scale as well as a finer-grain human scale. The images were evocative, especially the step wells and the pomegranate market places bridging the old city walls. Truly outstanding work by the student.

Commended: Moving Machairs; Standing Stones and Shifting Shells

Katie-May Munro/Sigi Whittle, University of Edinburgh (ESALA)

The project in South Uist is a testbed for alternative environmental and social sustainability. It brings together a sensitive multi-use response to community aspirations, setting out social and economic outcomes.

Highly Commended: Dundee Recycling Centre

Brendan Kerrisk, University of Dundee

Potentially demonstrating a new building typology in an urban setting which combines ideas on retrofit, recycling and reuse/remaking resources. A convincing presentation on a formal spatial and contextual level.

Highly Commended: The Last Straw: A Case for Reuse. Ratho Community Centre

Gergana Aleksandrova Negovanska, University of Edinburgh (ESALA)

A sustainable place-based narrative is at the heart of the project. With a limited intervention to the existing structure and use of locally available additional materials, The Last Straw demonstrates the principles of the circular economy in a very clear, convincing, thorough and engaging way.

Winner: Paradise Pomegranate: Walls, Wells & Selling 

Rachel Dunne, University of Edinburgh (ESALA)

An outstanding response which shows how sustainability can work at a detailed level to wider strategic considerations. The project mended the city walls, re-established the stepwells and introduced an infrastructure for a centralised fruit-network. The project makes use of the high levels of rainfall during the monsoon season by collecting water to provide a network of storage, reusing and natural cooling.

Learn more about this sustainable design project in this interview with Rachel Dunne. 

Highly Commended: Greek Revival – a place for a rainy day

Alfie Hollington, University of Strathclyde

A very clear and well-presented response to a Greek Thomson’s Caledonian Road church masterpiece ruin in the Gorbals, Glasgow. In terms of place-making, the new delicately inserted structure and the programme have a strong potential and would enliven the surrounding area. The formal response to the challenge of working with a building which has such an outstanding architectural heritage was confident and assured, and beautifully presented.

Winner: The Last Straw: A Case for Reuse, Ratho Community Centre

Gergana Aleksandrova Negovanska, University of Edinburgh (ESALA)

The judges were impressed by what is a thorough and enjoyable project that has a strong sustainability narrative at its heart. The ‘back story’ is well-explained, and the outcome is a modest but carefully planned group of community buildings for the community to gather and interact with nature. With a limited intervention to the existing structure and use of locally available additional materials, the concept is rooted in the ‘circular economy’.

Hear from Gergana Negovanska as she explores her award-winning project in this blog. 

Commended: The WireHouse

Elena Mileva, University of Strathclyde

Clear and colourful set of drawings of a cultural hub in an industrial area of Glasgow with a consistent graphic quality which engagingly communicates a positive agenda around creating a community resource and reuse of existing buildings.

Commended: The Garden of Acqua Alta - a series of processional performances

George-Michael Pop, University of Edinburgh (ESALA)

Clear and colourful set of drawings of a cultural hub in an industrial area of Glasgow with a consistent graphic quality which engagingly communicates a positive agenda around creating a community resource and reuse of existing buildings.

Commended: Place in Fiction: Follies of Fiction for the Hidden in Tokyo

Gie Eng Teh, University of Strathclyde

This project, drawn from a study of Haruki Murakami’s 1985 novel ‘Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World’, presents a set of drawings which weave narrative and design with some stand out sheets that have strong impact and graphic quality.

Commended: From Shadow to Light

Nassim Belgroune, University of Strathclyde

A committed and brave set of drawings sensitively engaging with place and culture in the Old Town of Souika.

Winner: The Cloud Cooperative

Tiia Partanen, University of Strathclyde

A beautifully balanced and seductive collection of images, graphics and text of many different types, each one succinctly adding to the clarity of the overall presentatio

The final, highly professional presentation showed great understanding of one of the core requirements of architectural design: to communicate with the viewer. The beautifully balanced and seductive collection of images, graphics and text succinctly adding layer upon layer of clarity as the viewer moves through the presentation.

Winner: The Cloud Cooperative

Tiia Partanen, University of Strathclyde

The judges were impressed by the research behind the creation of the brief for the project, the offer of a range of interconnected systems and structures to address the sustainability of current ‘connected society’ energy usage, and the representation of scalable prototype solutions for future mitigation, re-use and re-purposing of the bi-products to reduce ‘virgin’ energy consumption, was a highly commendable basis for the work.

Rather than being overpowered by such a wide-ranging brief, the student created and beautifully presented well thought out and aesthetically rich designs for a range of structures and considered uses of associated technologies to provide a whole city framework to tackle the identified issues.

Read an interview with Tiia Partanen, where she explores her award-winning project. 
 

The A&DS and RIAS Scottish Student Awards for Architecture 2021 are kindly sponsored by Marsh. We are very grateful for their support.