London Met architecture students are celebrating a string of successes in the RIBA’s prestigious awards in 2024
Date: 16 December 2024
London Met architecture students are celebrating a string of successes in the RIBA’s prestigious awards this year, including a Silver Commendation in the President’s Medals for Ryan Speer, the RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship for Thomas Warren, and a series of prizes in the RIBA London awards.
Architecture Apprenticeship student Ryan Speer was awarded a Commendation in the Silver Medal category at the RIBA’s Annual President’s Medals ceremony on 4th December.
Ryan’s design thesis project was tutored by Takero Shimazki, Alex Butterworth, Jennifer Frewen-Mobsby, Katherine Nolan and Paolo Pisano in Unit 8 on our MArch RIBA II course.
Titled Tolerance and Reuse: Forming a New Sutton Cultural Common, the project seeks an alternative to the default ‘new build’ development, with the role of the architect changing from master builder to master curator through actions of preservation and repair. The idea of tolerance here equates to a singular expression or act of adventurous misuse and adaptability, a knowing of when to dismantle, to preserve or repair, or reframe entirely.
Ryan is in his third year on our postgraduate Architect Apprenticeship pathway, which combines studying with working in practice over a four-year period to complete RIBA Part II and III, and benefits from government funding covering course fees.
On receiving his award, Ryan said: "It was a real honour to be nominated and awarded a commendation. I’ve had a very long and non-conventional journey through architecture, which makes receiving this award especially meaningful to me. I am deeply grateful to the apprenticeship scheme, the university, and my workplace for making it all possible. A heartfelt thank you to my tutors, who guided me throughout the year."
Travel grant winner
Thomas Warren, who graduated from our MArch RIBA II this summer, has won the RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship for his project Africa 360°. The scholarship is a highly competitive travel grant supported by the Norman Foster Foundation and awarded by the RIBA annually to a facilitate international research by an architecture student who demonstrates outstanding, original thinking on issues relating to the sustainable survival of cities and towns. With applicants from schools of architecture around the world, Thomas’ plans to investigate the future of off-grid cities in Africa was judged by a panel including Lord Norman Foster and Muyiwa Oki RIBA President as the unanimous winner.
With his travel grant Thomas will travel across Africa, starting and ending in Cape Town, visiting off-grid projects and communities including the Earthship Biotecture project in Malawi, the Fambidzanai Permaculture Research Institute in Zimbabwe, the Irente Biodiversity Reserve in Tanzania, the Kipepeo Village in Kenya, and the Enkanini informal settlement in South Africa. He hopes to understand how cities of the future can elimiate the time consuming, costly, and maintenance-heavy nature of conventional city scale infrastructure – examining self-sustaining energy, water, and food systems.
Thomas explained: “Winning the Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship has been an incredible opportunity to investigate the potential of off-grid infrastructure in Southern Africa. Through my project, Africa 360°, I can explore how innovative, building-scale solutions could redefine sustainable development in the region."
Applications are now open for both our MArch RIBA II full-time/part-time pathway, and our Architect Apprenticeship.
Ryan Speer, ‘Tower & Common I’, from his design thesis project Tolerance and Reuse: Forming a New Sutton Cultural Common (2024)
