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Student Commendations

Architecture:

RIBA President's Medals

2012

Richard Breen (Part 1 - Bronze medal) and Amy Linford (Part 2 - Silver medal) have been short-listed for this year's RIBA President's Medals. Winners will be announced in Dec 2012. This is a major achievement on behalf of the students and the School.

2011

Joanna Doherty (Stage 6 Graduate 2011)

Joanna was commended in the RIBA President's Medals 2011 for her dissertation Constructing the ‘other’: the role of space in continuing conflict in Northern Ireland, judges commented that Joanna's work was 'a scholarly written, beautifully observed, and well-written piece'.

Pamphlet Architecture 32

Matt Ozga-Lawn - PhD by Creative Practice

Matt won the prestigious Pamphlet Architecture competition in 2011 together with James Craig, under the name of Stasus: a starting point, from which explorations and forays into the unknown are attempted, documented and mapped. Focusing on the collaborative work of Matt Ozga-Lawn and James A. Craig, Stasus aims to be a rich and divergent zone for discourse on architecture and its interrelated fields and disciplines. Matt and James won the competition for their project titled 'resilience', published in Pamphlet Architecture 32.

This is the first occasion anyone from the UK (outside Bartlett and the AA) has been awarded the prize and Matt will be the youngest of the British pamphleteers. Matt is studying his PhD with APL and now offers some teaching on our BA Architecture programme.

Mark Dorrian, Professor of Architecture Research said: "Matt Ozga-Lawn's success in the competition for Pamphlet Architecture 32 is a fantastic achievement.  It will bring significant international attention to him and to Newcastle University, and will feed into our efforts to establish Newcastle University as one of the top global schools for architectural design." 

Director of Architecture Graham Farmer said: "Matt's innovative and significant work will make an important contribution both to the reputation of Architecture at Newcastle and to the taught programmes at both undergraduate and postgraduate level".

View their winning work on the Stasus website.

RIBA North East Hadrian's Awards

2012

Hanna Benihoud (Stage 6 Graduate 2012) and Lam Nguyen (Stage 3 Graduate 2012)

Hanna was awarded first place in the North East RIBA Hadrian Awards 2012 for her Part 2 design proposal for a safe house situation on the roof top of Eldon Square, this safe house which looks like a plant room to on-lookers would provide a refuge for vulnerable men. Judges were impressed by Hanna's intellectual approach and felt this project was 'of its time'.

Jennie Webb (Stage 6 Graduate 2012) was commended for her NE Voice Photographic Institute proposal which looked to bridge the gap between school and work-life by teaching photography to young people; helping them to further understand the built environment and strengthen ownership of their city.

Lam Nguyen (Stage 3 Graduate 2012) was awarded first place for the Part 1 prize for his after-image project, replacing an iconic structure with something even more impressive to create a living, growing neighbourhood.

2011

James Longfield (Stage 6 Graduate 2011) and Hugh Craft (Stage 3 Graduate 2011)

James was awarded first place in the North East RIBA Hadrian Awards 2011 for his Part 2 design thesis entitled "The Ruins of the Bank of England". Hugh Craft was awarded first place for his Part 1 "Mind the Gap" project set in Gateshead.

Graham Farmer, Director of Architecture in the School said "This is a fantastic achievement - and worthy recognition for some excellent work".

To view the award winning work please visit our image gallery, via the link below.

RIBA Forgotten Spaces Competition

School alumni Dan Kerr and Will Mawson of MawsonKerr Architects are the winners of the RIBA Forgotten Spaces competition. Their winning project titled Tyne Tee is an eco driving range at the Staithes on the Tyne and can be viewed here.

Troldtekt Award 2012

Amy Linford (stage 6 graduate 2011-12)

Part 2 Graduate Amy Linford is the first to win a special award by the Troldtekt Award committee. Amy won the award for her '(Fabric)ation' proposal which created a new and unique Troldtekt panel with an uneven, curvy surface. For more information about Amy's concept visit the Arch Daily web page featuring images of Amy's work and video footage about the award.

To view our gallery series of Amy's award winning work visit the Amy Linford gallery series.

MArch Students Present at Development Conference

Four MArch Stage 6 students (Victoria Brown, Suzanne Croft, April Murray and Annabel Ward) presented their work at the Researchers in Development Network Conference (RiDNet) at Leeds University in Oct 2012. The focus of the conference was reflexive approaches to practical issues, and the challenges faced when conducting fieldwork in development contexts. The students spoke about their recent experiences conducting fieldwork in informal settlements in Bangkok and how they adopted visual methods of communication to overcome the language barrier. The four students are currently doing a Linked Research module with Peter Kellett which included 2 months fieldwork in Bangkok where they were supervised by Dr Norn Chutapruttikorn of Bangkok University who completed his PhD in Newcastle last year.

Peabody Housing Association - Big Housing Competition 2012

Peabody celebrated its 150th anniversary this year by launching an architectural competition titled '150 Homes for 150 Years' the competition asked entrants to develop a proposal for an exemplar housing development of approximately 150 homes on a four-acre site in Plaistow, Newham. A separate conceptual competition ran along side this to highlight the design talent among practices that did not meet the pre-qualification criteria for the main design competition.

James Perry & Claire Harper (2008 graduates) were announced as the winners of the conceptual competition, winning a cash prize of £10,000.

Claire and James graduated from Newcastle University in 2008.  Claire is currently a research student, writing a PhD on 'the implications of higher urban densities for housing design'.  James works as an architectural assistant; he is a qualified planner and is currently working towards his part III qualification.

Finnish Institute: Mind Over Matter

The Finnish Institute in London organised a graduation project for architecture students in collaboration with Newcastle University.

The brief for the project titled The New Finnish Institute in Newcastle was to design a space for an imaginary Finnish Institute in Newcastle. The jury chose stage 3 Graduate Jack Lines as the winning project, from 21 strong proposals.

For more information on this project please click here to visit the Finnish Institute website.

 

Planning:

Ashfield Student Design Competition Success

Richard Sobols, Stage 3 BA Town Planning student, has been awarded a runner up prize in a competition to design an open space for Kirkby Town Centre.  'The panel applauded the comprehensive and thorough analysis of the site and surroundings.  They found the proposal to be a well-structured, thoughtful and rigorous approach to the site'. Details of the competition can be found at: http://www.opun.org.uk/ashfield-design-competition/

COST Action UAE

Montse Ferres, a student of our MA Planning and Environment Research programme, has been awarded with a grant to attend the COST Action UAE training school that is going to take place in Malmoe, 26-28 of November. COST is a European Union programme aimed at reducing the fragmentation in European research investments and opening the European Research Area to cooperation worldwide.

 

Research:

Giles Worsley Travel Fellowship

PhD student Tom Brigden won the British School at Rome's Giles Worsley Travel Fellowship, a three month residential fellowship at the British School at Rome awarded each year to an architect or architectural historian.

IRDR Young Scientist Bursary

PhD student Goran Erfani has been awarded one of the IRDR (The Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction) young scientist bursaries to attend the Urban Change in Iran Conference which will be held at University College London (8-9 November 2012). Competition was tough for these awards, with over 30 applicants for 3 awards.

SBSE Jeffrey Cook PhD Student Travel Scholarship Success

Islam Abohela (PhD SAPL) has been awarded the SBSE Jeffrey Cook Student Travel Scholarship. This scholarship is funded to honour the late Jeffrey Cook of Arizona State University and is offered to two recipients; one from the USA and the other from any other country. Islam will use the scholarship to travel to PLEA 2012 in Lima, Peru, in November to present his paper "Validating CFD Simulation Results".

The Mexican Social Housing Institute and UNAM (Autonomous University of Mexico) best Doctoral Prize

Jaime Hernandez (PhD Graduate 2011)

Jaime was awarded second prize for his thesis 'El Parque de mi Barrio: Production and Consumption of Open Spaces in Popular Settlements in Bogota', commended as the best doctoral dissertation related to housing in Iberoamerica (Spain, Portugal and Latin America). 

Dr Peter Kellett, his supervisor whilst at Newcastle University, said "This is really significant recognition for the high quality of Jaime's work. This is very encouraging for all of us, and reminds us that our postgraduate students are producing very high quality research which is recognised well beyond the University".