AJ Student Prize 2023: London South Bank University

About the School of the Built Environment and Architecture

Undergraduate

Aimie Cheetham

Course BA (Hons) Architecture
Studio/unit brief Growing Homes: Rethinking Architecture Through Community Gardening (Studio 03)
Project title Managing Metamorphosis

Project description This CLT and glulam-based mixed-use scheme in Deptford Creek, south-east London, provides a new base for UK Butterfly Conservation, enhancing the immediate biodiversity and providing a hub of information and resources for a variety of stakeholders. The project encourages a layered approach, with an arched connecting ‘butterfly walk’ acting as an external link between the different uses. Accommodation for the researchers is informed by traditional student housing and Antarctic research space. Within the centre of the site an open-air auditorium allows these different users to come together.

Tutor citation The work offers an innovative interpretation of the interplay between natural and urban ecologies, providing an interesting response to the pressing ecological crisis caused by human-induced climate change. Ioana Petkova, Valerio Massaro

Postgraduate

Uran Jerlija

Course MArch
Studio/unit brief Structure As Space (Studio 03)
Project title The Proletarian Theatre: A Technological Coup d’état

Project description The Proleterian Theatre is located between prominent seats of financial and political power in central London. It manipulates data from secondary theatre spaces, using it as the foundation of democratic discussions within. At its centre is an amphitheatre, with other key and ancillary spaces arranged radially from it. The scheme’s appearance is deliberately obtrusive, meaning to disrupt the power dynamics in its context through a new architectural language. The steel exoskeleton and the transparent solar glazed panels offer a first glimpse into the people taking back their sovereignty.

Tutor citation This project creates a cutting-edge performance venue that can bring about positive change in the community, accommodating the city’s future political, social, and cultural needs. Kazeem Awotunde, Andrea Tiberi, Yianna Moustaka, Adamos Papakonstantinou