AJ Student Prize 2024: Cardiff University

About the Welsh School of Architecture

Undergraduate

Jeyun Son

Course BSc Architecture Studies
Studio/unit brief Treherbert High-er Street: Re-Imagining Treherbert’s High Street Through Territorial Circular Economy
Project title Food Greenery Hub

Project description Coal mining shifted the South Wales town of Treherbert’s focus from food cultivation to unsustainable resource extraction. The Greenery Hub addresses the negative effects by offering programmes focused on sustainable food production and consumption, designed to re-establish the town’s former self-sufficiency. The building is powered by renewable energy sources, while water and other materials are used efficiently and reused or recycled to minimise waste. The building features an adaptable, modular construction also made from waste. This is combined with timber from local trees, employed in an efficient spline joinery system.

Tutor citation Jeyun’s project rethinks how we can sustainably regenerate the built environment through circular economy principles in design. This approach is based on three key principles – designing out waste, keeping materials and products in use and regenerating natural systems. Marga Munar Bauza

Postgraduate

Avinash Ruckhunty

Course MArch Architecture
Studio/unit brief Value: Sites of Engagement (Unit XII)
Project title The Talking Laundrette

Project description This proposal for a communal laundromat addresses the health, environmental and economic risks associated with doing laundry at home and seeks to further enhance the lives of local residents by also providing social spaces for shopping, learning and meeting. The project is in an existing independent grocery store on a prominent neighbourhood corner site in Grangetown, acting as a focal point for community interaction. An explicit bottom-up approach has been employed, with the project brief derived from consultations with locals in Grangetown. This is to ensure their specific needs are being addressed, while preserving and enhancing a key community asset through careful detailing.

Tutor citation Avinash’s proposal for a communal laundrette balances the mundane – shopping and doing laundry – with critical consideration of narratives of social justice. This is supported by environmental and economic research to propose the redevelopment of a corner site in Cardiff’s Grangetown into a multi-use, flexible and convivial space for the local community. Mhairi McVicar, Dan Benham