AJ Student Prize 2024 nominees revealed

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We are delighted to reveal the entries to this year’s AJ Student Prize, showcasing the work of architecture students from 59 universities across the UK

The AJ Student Prize celebrates the talent of students completing undergraduate and postgraduate architecture courses. Submitted by tutors of ARB and RIBA-accredited programmes, the entries are listed alphabetically by university name (see table below) alongside key data from each school.

The resounding critique of UK architectural education over the past several decades has largely been about its detachment from the reality of practice. It is especially pertinent following the recently published Grenfell report, which lays a significant portion of the blame for the incident at the door of the architect. The report will spark an industry-wide reckoning, that will undoubtedly reach architecture schools. These, according to Guardian critic Oliver Wainwright, produce ‘cod philosophers, gonzo anthropologists and aspiring conceptual artists, but few technically capable designers’.

In response to these well-founded indictments, changes do appear to be afoot. Course and unit leaders in universities across the country are starting to adopt briefs and adapt learning outcomes to ensure student projects encompass more real-world considerations, including sustainability, procurement, planning, conservation and accessibility. What is evident across the entries for this year’s AJ Student Prize is that, in even the most intransigent universities, students are eschewing the usual extravagant abstractions for projects that more seriously engage with the manifold considerations of architectural practice.

Natasha Bell, undergraduate, University of Dundee

When sitting on crit panels at various universities over the past year, it was striking to hear students talking about funding and procurement models for their projects, with others incorporating compliance with building regulations and even carrying out community engagement in the development of their project briefs. And, in consideration of Grenfell, we can expect an ever-increasing focus on safety and, particularly, fire safety, in future student cohorts.

This year’s AJ Student Prize entries are of a delightfully varied sort. Students have engaged with a variety of briefs to create interventions around everything from ecology, to education, to elderly care. There is even a project framed as a marriage dispute between a mass-built luxury estate and a freeholder.

Sean Griffiths notably declared five years ago that he felt it was ‘emphatically not the job of architecture education to mimic practice and generate workers for the profession in its present mode’. He believes the purpose of architectural education is ‘to carry out experimental research, to critique practice and provide the tools, skills and attitudes needed to reinvent it’.

Proponents of this experimental approach will be pleased to see that some of the entries this year still allow themselves some flights of fancy. There are projects that blur the boundaries between artificial intelligence and gaming, and flit between past, present and future to project utopian, dream-like visions of an alternative world. Elsewhere, there are eco-futuristic community hubs hewn from and nestled within precarious landscapes, promoting radical forms of regenerative design and human-to-non-human cohabitation.

James Langlois, postgraduate, University of Westminster

This year, we made the decision to drop the Sustainability Prize and instead incorporate considerations of sustainability into the main awards. This was, in part, because we expected and encouraged all entries to the Student Prize to address issues of the climate crisis and social sustainability. Entries range from addressing operational carbon reduction with rigorous technical interventions to tackling embodied carbon through more nuanced material explorations: seaweed, mycelium and even slime mould all make an appearance as alternative solutions.

As always, the free-to-enter AJ Student Prize, sponsored by Marley, is a great platform to celebrate and support the work of both architecture students and universities across the UK, as the new generation of built environment professionals emerge. We are delighted to announce that the prize-giving event will take place on the evening of Thursday 3 October 2024, at Sheppard Robson’s offices in Camden. Click here for free tickets.

Ahead of this, the entries will be assessed by a fantastic jury consisting of returning judge Betty Owoo of the Greater London Authority, Sally Lewis of Stitch Architects, Craig Robertson of Allford Hall Monaghan Morris and the two of us. Good luck to all the nominees in the undergraduate and postgraduate categories this year!

The nominees and schools

Click on the school name to view student work and school information

View all the entries here

School	Region	Undergraduate nominee	Postgraduate nominee
Anglia Ruskin University	East	Reece Tapp	–
Architectural Association	London	Isabel Tan	Meng Ye
Arts University Bournemouth	South West	Julia Chiappetti	Dominic Farrow
Birmingham City University	West Midlands	James Hayward	Emily Haigh
Cardiff University	Wales	Jeyun Son	Avinash Ruckhunty
Centre for Alternative Technology	Wales	–	Nick Cross, Sophie Hicks, Reni Koycheva, Charlie Leicester, Millie Bush
Coventry University	West Midlands	Joscelyne Theophania Eugene	Anjali Kizhakke Vellatt
De Montfort University	East Midlands	Caleb Ernst	Lydia Brant
Falmouth University	South West	Will Fry	–
Glasgow School of Art	Scotland	Ailsa Hutton	Jamie Begg
Kingston University	London	Layla Carson	Emily Walker
Leeds Beckett University	Yorkshire	Jacob Rose	Tian Ting Tan
Liverpool John Moores University	North West	Poppy Fone	Nour Gad
London Metropolitan University	London	James Newey	Hannah Penwarden
London South Bank University	London	Emily Kajdi	Natalia Ciemińska
Loughborough University	East Midlands	Juliet Huddart-Ouabdesslam	Lewis Foster-Jeapes
Newcastle University	North East	Chloë Maestre-Bridger	Charlotte Ashford
Northumbria University	North East	Manisha Patel	Albin Winge
Norwich University of the Arts	East	Joshua Rogers	Jacob Cherry
Nottingham Trent University	East Midlands	Rosika Palmier-Szabo	Carsten Dengler
Oxford Brookes University	South and South East	Hosea Cheung	–
Queen’s University Belfast	Northern Ireland	Emily Hayes	Micheal Murphy
Ravensbourne University London	London	Lola Moro	–
Robert Gordon University	Scotland	Mikołaj Kiestrzyń, Connor Black	Obiajulu Umeji
Royal College of Art	London	–	Joanna Lake
Sheffield Hallam University	Yorkshire	Angelyn Silva	Hannah Graves
The London School of Architecture	London	–	Connie Pidsley
Ulster University	Northern Ireland	–	Jordan Taggart
University College London (The Bartlett)	London	Yaowen Zhang	Jeff Qu Liu
University for the Creative Arts	South and South East	Ines El Ferkhsi	Faridah Usman Buhari
University of Bath	South West	Alexander Anggriawan	Alexander Daniel
University of Brighton	South and South East	Charles Smale	Szu-Min Tseng
University of Cambridge	East	Niko Brewster	Jean-Marc Tang
University of Central Lancashire	North West	Samuel Caldwell	Burhanuddin Nawab
University of Dundee	Scotland	Natasha Bell	Jia Hui Lin
University of East London	London	Agata Nyckowska	Ronak Dhirubhai Akbari
University of Edinburgh	Scotland	Jessica Zhan	Andong Guo, Bolun Hua, Shiyu Zhang
University of Gloucestershire	South West	Aidan Lavin	–
University of Greenwich	London	Charles Boobar	Rachael Cheong
University of Hertfordshire	South and South East	Paulo Elias	Jerwin Geo
University of Huddersfield	Yorkshire	Nassra Mohammed	Hemen Galal
University of Kent	South and South East	Victor Williams Salmeron	–
University of Lancaster	North West	Isabella Jones	Tanya Kabeer
University of Leeds	Yorkshire	Thomas Hannay	–
University of Lincoln	East Midlands	Long Hei Mak	Thia Blake
University of Liverpool	North West	Erlina Long	Hannah Agong, Joe Bamber, Julian Djopo, Daryna Vershniak
University of Manchester/Manchester Metropolitan University	North West	Tianyi Gao	Karolina Olszewska, Francis Harry Richardson
University of Nottingham	East Midlands	Maia Noglik	Ellie Thomas
University of Plymouth	South West	–	Lucas Voss
University of Portsmouth	South and South East	Max Irvin	Lopem Luis Lojore
University of Reading	South and South East	Will Hooper	Anna Knight Gonzalez
University of Salford	North West	Raeven Branch	–
University of Sheffield	Yorkshire	Ruby Mulgan	Joseph Bass, Lewis Endersby
University of Strathclyde	Scotland	Struan Morrison	Jakob Young
University of the Arts London: Central Saint Martins	London	Peerada Liewchanpatana	Scarlett Barclay
University of the West of England	South West	Isabelle Firkins	Marcus Reid
University of Wales Trinity Saint David	Wales	Jacob Davies-Hannen	–
University of Westminster	London	Fenn Wright	James Langlois
University of Wolverhampton	West Midlands	Nell Spriggs	–