The RIBA Student Prizes at Brighton, Canterbury and Kent are funded by the Lovell Memorial Trust, a charity administered by the RIBA regional office.
The Trust was set up in 1939, in memory of the architect Richard Goulburn Lovell who founded the South Eastern Society of Architects in 1928.
Local RIBA Branches award Student Prizes at Schools of Architecture in the region, at the End of Year.
Congratulations to this year’s Student Prize winners.
Brighton School of Architecture Judges
- Paul Zara, Conran & Partners (Chair, RIBA Sussex Branch)
- Andy Parsons, Yelo Architects
- Rebecca Woodward, Conran & Partners
Canterbury School of Architecture UCA Judges
- Danka Stefan, Guy Hollaway Architects (Chair, RIBA Canterbury Branch)
- David Gullick, Clague LLP
- Andy MacFee, Andy MacFee Architects
- Victoria Pope, Hazle McCormack Young LLP
- Fiona Raley, Studio Sam Causer (Chair, RIBA Conservation Group)
Kent School of Architecture Judges
- Bernard Hyde (Chair, RIBA West Kent Branch)
- Glenn Ball
- Malcolm Hammond
- Mark Physsas, Mark Physsas Architects
Brighton School of Architecture
Michael Holland
Joint Winner, Degree Prize for overall excellence for a graduating Part 1 student
Michael’s project, an imagined International Amateur Film Festival travels to cities across the globe, by sea and by river. Upon arrival, six giant festival machines walk, crab-like, using hydraulics and cushioned feet to haul themselves onto the river banks.
Together, the machines house cinemas, food halls and workshops. The judges described the project as ‘showing exemplary thought; beautifully hand-drawn”.
Agata Malinowska
Joint Winner, Degree Prize for overall excellence for a graduating Part 1 student
Agata imagined a School of Visionary Architecture set in the future. She explains: ‘the current British system of education is outdated and architects have become too close to the commercial world. It should be more open, to stimulate our creativity’.
The School would be literally attached to traditional Georgian buildings and to London’s Nelson’s Column. The judges said ‘Agata’s Archigram-inspired drawing took our breath away’.
Edward Crump
Diploma Prize for overall excellence for a graduating Part 2 student
Edward’s project ‘The Architectural Algorithm’ took as its basis the conflict on the boundary between the digital world and the physical world. He designed and built robots, which analysed a site around Brighton’s Preston Road railway viaduct.
The data they collected formed fed into the design for a Land Registry Dispute Resolution Centre – with the building itself exploring ways that territory and boundaries constantly reshape each other. The judges described Edward’s project as ‘extraordinary … the future is happening now’.
Canterbury School of Architecture UCA
Paul Lloyd Johnson
Degree Prize for overall excellence for a graduating Part 1 student
Paul’s project ‘Embaixada de Azulejos’ is an imagined building in Portugal that both celebrates and manufactures the traditionsl tiles found all over Lisbon.
The building is divided between the office and factory spaces by a flight of 270 steps, which extend down from a church above the site. Rotatable panels test the tiles outside the building. The judges particularly praised Paul’s ‘fresh and novel response and originality of presentation’.
Ben Ravensdale
Diploma Prize for overall excellence for a graduating Part 2 student
The judges admired Ben’s unique project presentation through a highly detailed model. He looked at what would happen if coca farming and cocaine production were to be legalised in Colombia – ‘the world’s first Narcostate’.
The major cartels would be in a building in the centre of Bogota, with the outer galleria replaced by a production line and the internal courtyard as the headquarters - ‘a hedonistic psychosis of Narcomannerism representing the Colombian dream’.
Kent School of Architecture
Rebecca Kelly
Degree Prize for overall excellence for a graduating Part 1 student
Rebecca’s project responded to a brief to design a new and inclusive building for Chatham Historic Dockyard. She imagined Leviathan, a sea monster washed up by a storm and beached in the River Medway, where its carcass would give new life to the area.
The judges said of Rebecca’s project that it has ‘plenty of surprise and delight; and a sense of vitality and optimism, with a great interplay between external and internal spaces’.
Alex Bean
Diploma Prize for overall excellence for a graduating Part 2 student
Alex visualised a salt farm near Rye in East Sussex, where the River Rother meets the Royal Military Canal – originally, a salt marsh.
He explains: ‘In a post-Brexit industrial landscape, where developing indigenous industry is of growing importance, the rich mineral history of the site offers an opportunity to showcase salt for its health benefits’. Salt is harvested seasonally from the pans and processed and refined in the plant, where guests can stay and enjoy salt bathing.
The judges said of Alex’s project: ‘The factory building appears as a modern shipwreck on the canal landscape, a rusting hulk as an iconic representation of our age; and, at the same time, a true reflection of the nature of the materials in both a practical and ironic way’.
