Awards: The RIBA President's Medals Student Awards 2015

RIBA Silver Medal: Finn Wilkie (Mackintosh School Of Architecture): The Heteroglossic City

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) announced the President’s Medals Student Awards at a special event in London this December. The awards are recognised as the world’s most prestigious in architectural education. In 2015, the RIBA invited 340 schools of architecture in 65 countries to submit entries that were then judged over three days by independent panels of international experts, including architects, academics, designers and artists.

The RIBA President’s Medals Student Awards are aimed at promoting excellence in the study of architecture, rewarding talent, and encouraging architectural debate worldwide.

The awards ceremony is held in December each year, in RIBA headquarters in central London, and categories include the Bronze Medal for Part 1, the Silver Medal for Part 2 and the Dissertation Medal.

Judging the Bronze and Silver Medals, 2015 | Video © RIBA

RIBA Silver Medal

Finn Wilkie (Mackintosh School of Architecture)

The Heteroglossic City: A polemic against critical reconstruction in Berlin
The project (tutored by Robert Mantho) investigates the historical background of Berlin’s highly-controlled planning system before setting out a new strategy for architectural intervention. This is illustrated through the ‘Bauforum’, a platform to explore a more dialogue-focused approach to each particular planning context.

RIBA Bronze Medal

Boon Yik Chung (Bartlett, UCL)

Space as the Third Teacher: An alternative classroom typology promoting creative learning and play
To explore the notion of flexibility in classroom design, the author researched schools in Amsterdam and Rotterdam designed by Herman Hertzberger, and also drew on his own personal experiences of school spaces in Malaysia. The project (tutored by Rhys Cannon and Colin Herperger) concludes that ambiguous, open-ended spaces rather than wholly flexible rooms provide the best learning environments.

Boon Yik Chung (Bartlett School of Architecture): Space as the Third Teacher

RIBA Dissertation Medal

Marie Price (University of Westminster)

The Overlooked Back Garden: Voyeurism in the English back garden supervised by Harold Charrington
The dissertation explores the concept of voyeurism in the wider sense of people-watching to explore the tension between the private and the overlooked. The dissertation considers degrees of overlooking at different scales (from the city, the street, from within the houses, and from within the garden) by resorting to historiography, empirical data and case-study analysis, and digital mapping technology.

Other awards and commendations

Silver Medal High Commendation:

Marcus Rothnie and Marshall Inglis (Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture): ‘Chlorophyllous Urbanism: Mumbai’

Silver Medal Commendations:

Gemma Wheeler (Cardiff University): ‘Re-Storying the Workhouse: An alternative conservation strategy’

Alistair Wood (De Montfort University): ‘Lofoten Seasonal Fishery’

Bronze Medal High Commendation:

Douglas Miller (Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL): ‘The San Francisco Columbarium’

Douglas Miller (Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL): ‘The San Francisco Columbarium’

Bronze Medal Commendations:

Sophie Barks (University of Nottingham): ‘The Mnemonic Guild’

Hong Xi (Nanjing University, China): ‘Academic Landscape: Regenerate a riverside warehouse as an emblem of active learning’

Dissertation Medal Commendations:

Zeina Al-Derry (Architectural Association): ‘The Melancholic City of Mirages’
Irene Klokkari (University of Brighton): ‘Memories of Famagusta: Recapturing the image of the city through the memories of refugees’
Niamh Lincoln (University of Sheffield): ‘Tempelhof – Articulating the Void’

Serjeant Medal for Excellence in Drawing:

Part 1: Andrew Chard (Oxford Brookes): ‘The Lost Dockyard’

Part 2: Benjamin Ferns*, (Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL): ‘Pontifical Academy Of Sciences’

The UK office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) also awarded the SOM Foundation UK Fellowships selected from this year’s entries for the RIBA President’s Medals.

SOM Foundation Fellowship:

Part 1: *Douglas Miller (Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL): ‘The San Francisco Columbarium’
Part 2: *Benjamin Ferns (Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL): ‘Pontifical Academy Of Sciences’

All nominated projects and previous winners can be viewed online at:
http://www.presidentsmedals.com/