Dec 8 2006
The winners of the inaugural RIBA President’s Research Awards were announced last night in an awards ceremony at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). The awards, which aim to celebrate and increase the profile of architectural research were announced at the RIBA President’s Medals Student Awards 2006 in association with Atkins at the RIBA, 66 Portland Place, London W1.
The annual awards have two categories, Outstanding PhD every year, and either Outstanding University-led Research or Outstanding Practice-led Research in alternate years. This year’s winner of the Outstanding PhD was Dr. Rajat Gupta of Oxford Brookes University for his PhD, entitled Investigating the potential for local carbon dioxide reductions: developing a Geographic Information System - based domestic energy, carbon counting and carbon reduction model. The thesis describes the development and validation of a domestic energy carbon counting and carbon reduction model (DECoRuM) for urban scale assessments of the cost benefits of a wide range of energy efficient and renewable energy options.
Dr. Wendy Pullan of the University of Cambridge won the award for Outstanding University-led Research with her work, Conflict in Cities: Architecture and Urban order in Divided Jerusalem. The research, funded by the ESRC, concerns urban development in Jerusalem, exploring in particular the security wall that traverses the countryside in the region and the main road that runs towards Damascus gate.
The judges, chaired by Jane Rendell, Director of Architectural Research at the Bartlett School of Architecture UCL, comprised: Richard Coyne, University of Edinburgh, Architecture Department; Andrew Ballantyne of the University of Newcastle, School of Architecture; Brian Ford, Head of School of the Built Environment, Director of the Institute of Architecture, University of Nottingham; and Simon Allford, AHMM and RIBA Vice President for Education.
The other shortlisted entries for Outstanding PhD included: Dr Yeoryia Manolopoulou of the Bartlett School of Architecture for her thesis Drawing on Chance: Indeterminacy, Perception and Design; Dr Torwong Chenvidyakam of the University of Cambridge for The Fluid Mechanics of Pre-cooled Ventilation; and Dr Alan Owen Williams of the University of Sheffield for The Typology of Industrial Buildings.
Shortlisted entries for Outstanding University-led Research category included: Professor Peter Blundell Jones of the University of Sheffield for Gunnar Asplund;
Jonathan Hill of the Bartlett School of Architecture UCL for Actions in Architecture; and Professor Neil Jackson of the University of Liverpool for Saltaire: Building Morphology and social Hierarchy.
The judges were impressed by the quality and diversity of the entries in both classes.