The Architects’ Journal Architecture News & Buildings
Every RIBA and ARB-accredited school in the UK was invited to nominate students for the fifth annual AJ Student Prize, which celebrates the best work across three categories: undergraduate, postgraduate and sustainability.
The three winners were selected by a judging panel consisting of Haworth Tompkins head of sustainability Diana Dina; 2020 winner and co-founder of POoR Collective Shawn Adams; returning judge Feilden Fowles co-founder Edmund Fowles; and Des Fagan, head of architecture at Lancaster University.
The undergraduate winner was Joe Russell of the Bartlett School of Architecture for his project Tightening the Green Belt: Oakwood Mews, Enfield N14.
His proposal for housing and a community centre formed out of salvaged depot materials took a hyper-localised approach to material sourcing.
The judges commended this approach saying that ‘more students need to be looking at their projects from an ecological standpoint with the same strong ambition’.
They praised the project for pushing boundaries, describing the quality of the visuals as 'breathtaking'.
Winner in the undergraduate category: Tightening the Green Belt by Joe Russell
Yousuf Khalil of the University of Cambridge won the postgraduate category with his project, Urban Canopies. This proposed a series of interventions for Pakistan’s railway communities in Lahore to facilitate a revival of ‘state-sanctioned’ slums. The judges described this ‘stunning, temple-like’ project as ‘iconic in its approach’ and leaving them ‘wanting to see more’.
They said the student ‘had not taken a single wrong move’ and designated it ‘incredibly memorable’ in how ‘so well considered’ it was.
This is the second time Khalil has won the AJ Student Prize. He won the undergraduate category back in 2018, the prize’s inaugural year, as a Part 1 architecture student at the Kingston School of Art. That time he won for his project Factory for Making Art, a reimagination of the Fore River Ironworks in Quincy, Massachusetts, which closed in 1986.
Winner in the postgraduate category: Urban Canopies by Yousuf Khalil
The University of Sheffield’s Elle Thompson and Ali Francis were awarded the sustainability prize for their ‘clever and mature’ collaborative project, Re-Housing Manchester, which proposes the reuse of the University of Manchester’s former UMIST Campus as housing co-operatives above community functions, operated by the Carbon Conscious Collective.
The judges were impressed by the duo’s rigorous sustainable approach and ‘carefully worked out social programme’, commenting: ‘A lot of thought has been put into post-occupation evaluation, which is very important for continued sustainable living’, and adding that they enjoyed the realist strategy taken.
‘It's a really sophisticated project about making an unloved building joyful,’ they said.
Winner of the sustainability award: Re-Housing Manchester by Elle Thompson and Ali Francis
The nominees and schools
| School | Region | Undergraduate nominee | Postgraduate nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anglia Ruskin University | East | James Taylor | – |
| Architectural Association | London | Sindi Dojaka | Thomas Faulkner |
| Arts University Bournemouth | South West | Mimi Deane | Christian Murphy |
| Birmingham City University | West Midlands | Hira Khan | Michelle Gartside |
| Cardiff University | Wales | Luke Hadley | Josh Towl |
| Centre for Alternative Technology | Wales | – | Freya Bruce, Simon Elliston, Polly Orton, Marvina Sinjari, Maria Tanasescu |
| Coventry University | West Midlands | Weronika Galecka | Jack Windridge |
| De Montfort University | East Midlands | Samuel Mcleod | Joseph White |
| Falmouth University | South West | Nathan Tipping-Stevenson | – |
| Glasgow School of Art | Scotland | Joseph Murray | Karlis Kukainis |
| Kingston University London | London | Keir Booton | Mungo Adam-Smith |
| Leeds Beckett University | Yorkshire | Jake Lord | Amy Ferguson |
| Liverpool John Moores University | North West | Ali Dahshan | Ed Taft |
| London Metropolitan University | London | Robin Simpson | Annette Desouza |
| The London School of Architecture | London | – | Sebastian Maher |
| London South Bank University | London | Timothy Percival | Ivan Ignatov |
| Loughborough University | East Midlands | Lewis Foster-Jeapes | Daniel Jordan |
| Newcastle University | North East | Joyce Lam | Jake Williams-Deoraj |
| Northumbria University | North East | Liam Philpot | Miranda Hornsby |
| Norwich University of the Arts | East | Luke Burrows | – |
| Nottingham Trent University | East Midlands | Louis Huband | Susannah Hudson |
| Oxford Brookes University | South and South East | Simon Bossen | Samuel Huntley |
| Queen’s University Belfast | Northern Ireland | Malgorzata Migut | Darcy Carroll |
| Ravensbourne University London | London | Dre Soliman | Jack Breakspear |
| Robert Gordon University | Scotland | – | Rafal Baczek |
| Royal College of Art | London | – | Anna Russell |
| Sheffield Hallam University | Yorkshire | Charles Mahony | Nathan Stocks |
| Ulster University | Northern Ireland | Conor Quinn | Zoë Gibson |
| University College London (The Bartlett) | London | Joe Russell | Annabelle Tan |
| University for the Creative Arts | South and South East | Elena Gruber | Keerthigan Thavaseelan |
| University of Bath | South West | Olivia Van Wersch | Benjamin Rowley, Georgina Rose, Lara Miller, Rachel Foreman, Ru Quan Phuah and Yanru He |
| University of Brighton | South and South East | Cicely Bryant | Zulf Rajwani |
| University of Cambridge | East | James Harrison | Yousuf Khalil |
| University of Central Lancashire | North West | Boniface Atu | Michal Ochnio |
| University of Dundee | Scotland | Maya Barnes | Mayya Potvar |
| University of East London | London | Hamda Jama | Dan Strassburg |
| University of Edinburgh | Scotland | Felix Wilson | Daniel Cutler and Charlie Donaldson |
| University of Greenwich | London | Devis Tako | William Munroe |
| University of Hertfordshire | South and South East | Sebastian Evans | Josip Pijevic |
| University of Huddersfield | Yorkshire | Ethan Barrett | Ana Stan |
| University of Kent | South and South East | Ian Angeles Canlas | Christopher Mahoney |
| University of Leeds | Yorkshire | Lauren George | – |
| University of Lincoln | East Midlands | Angus Lilburn | Thomas Bromley |
| University of Liverpool | North West | Zihan Zhang | Gemma Bartle, Bonnie Jackson and Victoria Robertson |
| University of Manchester/Manchester Metropolitan University | North West | Tom Scott | Millie Evans |
| University of Nottingham | East Midlands | Max Worrall | Christopher Bennett |
| University of Plymouth | South West | Dafyn Richards | Joshua Earl, Chris Trigg and Aaron Walkley |
| University of Portsmouth | South and South East | Benjamin Roe | Ben Robinson |
| University of Reading | South and South East | Daryl Cother | – |
| University of Sheffield | Yorkshire | Caitlin Pugh | Balraj Sehmi and Ben Warren |
| University of Strathclyde | Scotland | Catherine Campbell | Daniel Timofan |
| University of the Arts London | London | – | Alexandros Xenophontos |
| University of the West of England | South West | James Reed | Yonas Berhe |
| University of Wales Trinity Saint David | Wales | James Aneurin | – |
| University of Westminster | London | Reece Murray | Rebecca Kelly |
| University of Wolverhampton | West Midlands | Hardeep Ratna | – |
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