2020 RIBA President’s Awards for Research News, Richard Beckett Bartlett Design, England

RIBA President’s Awards for Research 2020 News

19 Jan 2021

2020 RIBA President’s Awards for Research, UK

Winners of 2020 RIBA President’s Medal for Research and Research Awards announced

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has today (Tuesday 19 January) announced the recipient of the RIBA President’s Medal for Research and the winners of the President’s Awards for Research, which celebrate the best research in the fields of architecture and the built environment.

The winner of the 2020 RIBA President’s Medal for Research is Richard Beckett from the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, for ‘Probiotic Design.’ Through exploring the integral role of bacteria in human health, Richard proposes a design approach that reintroduces beneficial bacteria to create healthy buildings.

Probiotic Design was selected from winners of the 2020 RIBA President’s Awards for Research, which were given in four categories: Climate Change, Cities and Community, Design and Technical and History and Theory.

Climate Change:

Louisa Bowles, Jake Attwood-Harris, Raheela Khan-Fitzgerald and Ben Robinson of Hawkins\Brown

Climate Change Winner – The Hawkins-Brown Emission Reduction Tool:

image courtesy of architects practice

The Hawkins\Brown Emission Reduction Tool: providing a data visualisation tool to enable architects to make informed decisions on their projects’ carbon emissions

Cities and Community:

Eli Hatleskog, University of Bristol and University of the Arts London; Flora Samuel, University of Reading

Mapping social values

Design and Technical:

Richard Beckett, Bartlett School of Architecture

image courtesy of researcher / RIBA

Probiotic Design

History and Theory:

Lukasz Stanek, The University of Manchester

Architecture in global socialism: Eastern Europe, West Africa, and the Middle East in the Cold War

RIBA President, Alan Jones, said:

“Research is an important aspect of the architects’ profession, informing how we address the major issues facing the industry, government, society and the world at large. I congratulate the 2020 RIBA President’s Research Award winners for rising to the top and being recognised for the high quality and potential impact of their work. The RIBA President’s Research Medal winner, Probiotic Design, is an impressive, unique and innovative approach to creating healthy buildings. Research can be found across many areas of practice and business, academia, institutes and disciplines, and it’s crucial that we continue to celebrate and support the important role research has in our futures.”

Commendations were also given to the following projects:

Climate Change:
Cole Roskam, University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong)
Constructing climate: The Hong Kong Observatory and meteorological networks within the British imperial sphere, 1842-1912

Constructing Climate – Typhoon of 1874:

photograph by Lai Afong, Hong Kong

Cities and Community:
Alex Young Il Seo, University of Cambridge (UK)
Constructing frontier villages: human habitation in the South Korean borderlands after the Korean War

History and Theory:
Jingru (Cyan) Cheng, Royal College of Art (UK)
Alternative modernism: the architecture of China’s people’s commune

Previously on e-architect:

4 Dec 2018

RIBA President’s Awards for Research 2018

Research project which reconnects homeless people with local support services wins RIBA Research Medal

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) awarded the 2018 RIBA President’s Medal for Research to Chris Hildrey of Hildrey Studio for ProxyAddress: Using Location Data to Reconnect Those Facing Homelessness with Support Services.

One of many interviews carried out in homeless shelters across the UK:

photo © Hildrey Studio