The medals, which are awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) to three architecture graduates, have for the first time in the programme’s history been given to individuals who all studied at the same university – the Bartlett School of Architecture in London.
Kizhi Island by Ben Hayes restoration sequence
Ben Hayes received the Bronze Silver Medal for his project Kizhi Island, which proposes the reconstruction of 250 wooden Orthodox churches on a six-kilometre-wide isle in northern Russia.
The Part II graduate analysed the influence of romanticism on the ecclesiastical architecture of the former Soviet Union, before designing a museum and restoration centre to facilitate the dismantling and restoration of different kinds of churches.
The Silver Bronze Medal was awarded to Part I graduate Ness Lafoy for her design for a community hub serving the 50,000 residents of the archipelago surrounding Helsinki.
Helsinki Archipelago Town Hall by Ness Lafoy
The conceptual Helsinki Archipelago Town Hall comprises a floating clubhouse and hotel to accommodate islanders travelling to the mainland. It would incorporate a postal service for remote islands, as well as a council meeting place for addressing transport issues.
Helsinki Archipelago Town Hall interior by Ness Lafoy
The Dissertation Medal, which is awarded in recognition of a research project, was given to Tamsin Hanke for Magnitogorsk: Utopian vision of spatial socialism. This theoretical research explores how a socialist political ideology was developed in the Russian city of Magnitogorsk between 1930 and 1953.
Helsinki Archipelago Town Hall daily routine by Ness Lafoy
Speaking about the winners, RIBA President Stephen Hodder said: “They overcame intense competition from the best students of architecture around the world and truly shined with their innovative, challenging and thought-provoking projects.”
Helsinki Archipelago Town Hall night view by Ness Lafoy
“This is an unprecedented achievement,” said Bartlett director Marcos Cruz. “It’s due to the extraordinary talent and dedication of our students and staff. It is also a reflection of the school’s commitment to keeping our staff and students at the forefront of innovation, ideas, and excellence in architecture.”
The medal recipients were announced in a ceremony this evening at the RIBA headquarters in London.
The animation was created by a team of students and university professors at the School of Art and Art History, which will move into the new structure once it’s complete, together with American firm Steven Holl Architects and BNIM.
The movie takes viewers on a journey through the interior, beginning at the bottom of a long ramp on the ground floor and panning upwards, showing the different levels that the studio describes as “shifted layers where one floor plate slides past another.”
It then shows the view back down this ramp towards the entrance, where some of the curved glazed courts that cut into the rectangular building can be seen.
The film then travels up the stairs to the top floor and along a corridor to a light-filled gallery, showing off the channel-glass lightwells and daylight filtered through perforated stainless steel panels.
The view into different areas of the building across the central forum is explored next, before flying across the void to another gallery and terrace on the other side.
Positioned adjacent to the existing award-winning Art West Building by Steven Holl, the Visual Arts building will relocate teaching spaces from a 1936 building that was badly damaged when the campus flooded in 2008.
The new building will be used by students in the ceramics, sculpture, metals, photography, print-making and 3D multimedia departments. It will also feature graduate student studios, faculty and staff studios, plus offices and gallery space.
This timber structure clad in recycled food packaging houses a temporary library and book exchange and was designed and built by architecture students in Cēsis, Latvia (+ slideshow).
Summer school students and tutors from Riga Technical University (RTU) modelled the Story Tower on a giant wooden lamp, creating a sheltered destination for people to duck inside and find something to read.
Shelves are integrated within the tapered walls and are filled with books on the lowest levels, placing them at easy-reaching height for visitors.
Students spent two weeks designing the miniature library and built it over three and a half days using reclaimed materials.
The frame and floor were made from locally-sourced soft timber, while recycled Tetra Pak juice cartons were folded, cut and mounted to create the waterproof roof shingles.
Students attached a total of 2250 shingles to pre-fabricated panels, then carried them to the site along with the wooden frames.
Now complete, the book exchange is stocked with unwanted books from a local library that is currently undergoing a refurbishment.
“We sought to use the locally established concept of a free book exchange to create a dialogue between diverse groups and individuals of the town,” said the design team. “[It is] a place where books can be deposited before making a journey, exchanged after finishing a journey or simply borrowed while waiting for a bus.”
The structure is semi-permanent and will stay in the town square until the main library re-opens in 18 months time.
“The tower’s location is the precise point where local shifts taking place within the town are most visible,” the team added, referring to its position between the train station, bus terminus and library.
The Story Tower is the built result of the Building Works Unit run by Theodore Molloy, Niklavs Paegle and Thomas Randall-Page during two weeks in August at the RTU International Architecture Summer school, Cēsis, Latvia 2013.
Designed and built with 9 students, the Story Tower sits in the small city of Cēsis in a busy square between the train and bus station and the civic library and is built intirely from locally sourced and recycled materials – Timber and Tetra-Pak.
We sought to use the locally established concept of a free book exchange to create a dialogue be- tween diverse groups and individuals of the town. A place where books could be deposited before making a journey, exchanged after finishing a journey or simply borrowed whilst waiting for a bus. The tower’s location is the precise point where local shifts taking place within the town are most visi- ble. It is the front door step of Cēsis where the rhythm of the town is most exposed.
The form of the building was conceived as an urban scale lamp, providing light and a place to read 24 hours a day. During winter when day light is short the tower will act as an illuminated external reading room. The building is semi perminent and is designed to stand until the library re-opens in its refurbished premises in 18 months time.
The 2 week workshop guides students through an accelerated production process, compressing local research, brief development, conceptualising, designing, detailing, fabrication, construction, and use in to only two weeks. The workshop allows students to understand the implications of actions early in the design process by feeling their effects first hand.
The Story Tower itself was designed at the beginning of the second week and constructed in three and a half days. It is comprised of three simple elements: a floor to welcome people in, a book shelf structure, and upon this a roof/lampshade to shelter the user.
The floor and structure are from locally sourced soft wood and the cladding is made form Tetra Pak shingles, a material more commonly used for milk cartons. Our workshop was donated a 100kg roll of tetra pack that was damaged and therefore unusable for cartons however we saw huge potential in the material as it is designed to be water proof and is easy to fold, cut and fix.
The team spent a day making 1:1 scale silver origami mock-ups exploring how we could best use the material reflecting light, creating openings, and most importantly shedding water. All 2250 shingles were individually hand made buy the students and fixed to prefabricated panels before they were carried to the site along with the prefabricated frame elements. This streamlined process allowed the team to construct a building with just two days spent on site.
The team also built a relationship with the local library and its staff who are currently undergoing an overhaul of their premises and stock and are in the process of refurbishing the existing library. Through conversation the director agreed to stock the book exchange from their unwanted books and to maintain the structure for the future as a public library out-post. The concept of a book ex- change also links into a local problem whereby many people, particularly of the older generation, have collections of books that they no longer want.
In a post-internet age books find themselves between intrinsic worth and monetary irrelevance, many are both as valuable as ever but with out resale value. The Story tower was designed to celebrate the individual reader and the notion of sharing and exchange.
Viewed from a distance the population of Cēsis, like many regional towns across Europe, can be seen to be shrinking. When viewed close-up however, this local shift has a more human dimension. What emerges is a small but important flow of newcomers to the town bringing new ideas, stories and ventures. The Tower, at the interchange of these diverse groups stands as a monument for the stories brought by new arrivers and the long survivors of Cēsis.  Tutors: Theodore Molloy, Niklavs Paegle, Thomas Randall-Page Students: Artūrs Tols (LV), Christof Nichterlein (DE), Dumitru Eremciuc (MD), Natascha Häutle (DE), Rūta Austriņa (LV), Signe Pelne (LV), Tanja Diesterhof (DE), Ulkar Orujova (AZ), Zoe Katsamani (GR).
Now here is a pretty clever idea that can actually be utilized. Most sidewalks have a neat metal fence, so how about integrating slots in such a way that they double up as a secure parking for cycles! Two-in-one solution that takes care of parking and fences; awesome!
Le designer Paweł Czyżewski a eu l’excellente idée de s’inspirer du modèle de voiture 1938 Type 57 SC Atalante Coupe pour imaginer avec une modélisation 3D ce Concept Bugatti Gangloff. Magnifiquement réalisée, ce projet est à découvrir sur son portfolio et dans la suite de l’article.
While exploring the many hubs at London Design Festival last month we came across “Bon-Voyager,” a modest display of creative concept products by a select group of young Korean designers. Supported by Korea Design Membership, a government-run initiative to nurture the nation’s best design talent, and presented by University…
Le photographe Julian Germain réalise depuis 2004 des photographies de salles de classe à travers le monde. Avec sa série « Classroom Portraits », ce photographe anglais s’intéresse à ce lieu que nous avons tous connu dans notre enfance, reflet de nos cultures et de nos différences. Plus d’images dans la suite.
This series of hand drawings by Bartlett School of Architecture graduate Ned Scott presents a science-fiction world in which London grows a jungle of crops for fuel and food next to Buckingham Palace.
Above: The Mall
The War Rooms, St. James’s Park imagines a future in which the UK’s energy supply has been cut following a war over energy resources in 2050.
Above: The Mall – detail
Scott presents a closed-loop agricultural system where London provides energy and food for itself without relying on imports.
Above: Smart Grid
An anaerobic digester would stand on the outskirts of St. James’s Park, filled with vertiginous crops.
Above: MP’s House
A sky-scraping ‘energy tower’ nearby would have plants growing on every floor, and a smart grid would be installed for efficient energy use.
Above: MP’s House – detail
Scott was inspired by Ebenezer Howard, the late 20th century thinker whose utopian writings led to the creation of several ‘garden cities’ in Britain.
The War Rooms takes a science-fictional premise in which the UK’s energy supply networks are terminated following an Energy War in 2050.
Above: Aerial Perspective
The project explores the implications of the decentralisation of the UK’s energy networks and the implementation of a closed-loop agrarian economy.
Above: Aerial Perspective – detail
The science-fictional scenario presented and the subsequent urban strategies proposed address the challenges the UK faces regarding energy security and fuel poverty, and speculates on the hypothetical consequences of a future where the many risks associated with the UK’s long-term energy strategy come to bear
Above: Anaerobic Disaster
The War Rooms, St. James’s Park introduces an institutional framework for agrarian reform, inspired by Ebenezer Howard, which operates on three simultaneous scales representative of the three protagonists of Clifford D. Simak’s ‘City’: Man, Dog and Ant.
Movie: plants take over the offices of London’s commercial district Canary Wharf in this movie by Oxford Brookes architecture graduate Richard Black.
Black imagines the workplaces as a series of indoor gardens, where flowers sprout up between desks and pollen floats into the atmosphere through new openings in the existing glazed facades.
The project stems from research into London’s office culture, in particular that of Canary Wharf. In the vastness of these office spaces the needs of the individual are largely overlooked and the repetitive, generic offices with their catalogue furniture offer little more than a place to work. The proposal is an attempt to open up these closed office cultures in which the basic needs of the individual have been forgotten. Floors are opened up and internal orchid gardens created.
The Symbiotic Office changes the way in which people use office spaces, creating internal relaxation zones where individuals can pause for thought, host meetings, eat their lunch or drink a cup of tea. In the digital age where the traditional place of work is a fluid concept, the project strives to highlight the importance of face-to-face interactions and to create an office space which not only boosts productivity, but one which the workers can enjoy.
The film itself is a representation of this proposal. Created in 3DS Max, rendered in Vray and composited in Adobe After Effects; it envisages an office in which these generic spaces open up to internal gardens and relaxation zones.
Dezeen Screen: this movie by Jonathan Gales of architectural animation studio Factory Fifteen imagines the whole of London as a construction site, caught in a state of change that could mean dramatic decay or intensive development. Watch the movie »
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