AJ Student Prize 2024: Queen’s University Belfast

About

Undergraduate

Emily Hayes

Course BSc (Hons) Architecture
Studio/unit brief Balancing: Architecture and Relevance, Life and Work
Project title An Alternative Urban Landscape

Project description Longer life expectancies prompt us to move beyond the idea that ‘life begins at 60’ and learn how to balance work and life. Typical ‘Taylorist’ office typologies have become irrelevant in the face of constantly evolving technology. The Covid-19 pandemic forced office workers to adapt to remote working, leaving many offices empty. This is especially noticeable in Belfast, where this project is sited. We therefore must create an office typology that remains relevant despite these cultural changes. The project proposes an alternative urban landscape that would downscale and disperse offices from cities to towns, offering a place near home that promotes a healthier work-life balance.

Tutor citation This is a mature piece of work for an undergraduate student which exemplifies the best of this new generation of future architects and their skills and determination to positively impact society, the natural world and the built interventions placed in and on it. Alan Jones, Pat Wheeler

Postgraduate

Micheal Murphy

Course MArch Architecture
Studio/unit brief Terraqueous: Anthropocentric Landscapes of the Edge
Project title The Transmutation Station: Waste(ful) Circularity. The continuous quest to upcycle the abandoned

Project description The four themes of temporality, abandonment, Raithlin and transmutation govern this thesis. It questions why different places have their own specific customs and states that when one observes a given location through the lens of time all answers can become apparent. Looking through the lens of history can also reveal the answers. The thesis applies this lens to Raithlin Island, and questions what makes it what it is. The proposal recovers abandoned elements of the island, upcycles them, shares knowledge of temporal transmutation techniques and seeks to rejuvenate the island through architecture. The goal is that other locations may adopt the ‘Transmutation Station’ principles, culminating in the design becoming widespread globally.

Tutor citation The climate emergency demands a rethink of architecture’s conceptualisation and formalisation. Micheal’s radical circularity architectures embody contemporary material practice and actively transform place. Grounded in past, present and future, this thesis personifies the interconnectedness of society and ecology. Tom Jefferies, Gary Boyd