Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship, Architecture, Winner News

RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship

Royal Institute of British Architects News

5 Jun 2013

Winner of the seventh RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship announced

Sigita Burbulyte:

photo from RIBA

RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship News

The 2013 RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship has been awarded to Sigita Burbulyte of Bath School of Architecture for her proposal, ‘Charles Booth Going Abroad’. She will be granted £6,000 to develop her research study, which takes the poverty maps of Victorian social reformer Charles Booth as the starting point for an exploration of slum communities across four continents.

The jury was chaired by Lord Foster and included Roz Barr, RIBA Vice-President Elect Education, architecture critic Ellis Woodman, architect Zohra Chiheb and Spencer de Grey, Stefan Behling and Narinder Sagoo of Foster + Partners. Applications were received from 40 universities in 13 countries.

The jury also highly commended ‘Room for Improvement’ by Tom Haworth of the University of Cambridge – a critical analysis of global approaches to flood protection and land reclamation, with implications for the Cambridge area.

Lord Foster said:
“Once again, the jury was impressed by the quality of all the entries. However, we were unanimous in choosing Sigita Burbulyte’s highly original approach to urban analysis, which learns from the past and recognises the importance of infrastructure, in physically shaping a community. Perhaps most interestingly, the mapping of the relationship between slum areas and their wider urban context is a move toward defining and transforming these informal settlements. She has set herself an ambitious task, which I expect will absorb her in years to come – I am delighted that the scholarship can support her as she embarks on this fascinating journey.”

Sigita Burbulyte:

photo from RIBA

RIBA President Angela Brady said:
“The RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship continues to set the bar high with innovative and impressive winning projects. Our 2013 winner, Sigita Burbulyte excels in this with her project ‘Charles Booth Going Abroad’, which will set her off on a journey around the world visiting modern cities like Hanoi, Nairobi, La Paz and Sofia, building on Booth’s pioneering research and aiming to better understand poverty in our cities.”

24 Apr 2012

RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship Winner

Winner of the sixth RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship announced

The 2012 Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship has been awarded to Thomas Aquilina of Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, part of the University of Edinburgh. He will be granted £6,000 to develop his proposal, ‘Material Economies: recycling practices in informal settlements along African longitude 30ºE’, which takes the scholarship’s theme of resources and addresses recycling in informal African settlements.

The jury was chaired by Lord Foster and included Angela Brady, President of the RIBA, Professor Ricky Burdett of the London School of Economics, Sarah Ichioka, Director of the Architecture Foundation and Mouzhan Majidi, Spencer de Grey and Stefan Behling of Foster + Partners.

The jury also highly commended two further submissions: ‘America’s Survival from Suicide’ by Green Vangogh of Bath University – a proposal to study urban development in 12 cities across the USA; and a study by John Killock of the University of Westminster, London, which explores the potential for co-housing to accommodate ageing populations in India and China. Both students will receive a £500 camera.

Lord Foster:

photo © Carolyn Djanogly

Lord Foster said:
“Once again, I have been impressed by the quality of all the entries. The standard was high, but the winning proposal stood out for its systematic analysis of a relevant issue. It is a serious, well thought through proposal and shows a sympathetic awareness of the social issues within self-built communities. Thomas has already been based in Nairobi, and understands some of the hardship he will encounter on his journey. Though difficult, this ‘once in a lifetime’ travel opportunity is very much in the spirit of the scholarship and I am pleased that we are able to support him.”

Angela Brady:

photo © RIBA

RIBA President Angela Brady said:
“I was delighted by the quality and relevant subject matter of those shortlisted in this year’s RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship. The dedication to prove how young aspiring architects can improve lives across the planet was apparent in all the shortlisted projects, as was their willingness to tackle serious environmental issues facing us all.”

Thomas Aquilina wrote:
“Rather than looking at the informal settlement as a problem, I want to look at it as an inspiration; that its very informality can achieve efficient and entrepreneurial practices of recycling. This project aims to explore and learn from the material economies of the African city. My motivation stems from working for the UN agency UN-HABITAT at its headquarters in Nairobi during my placement year.”

RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship Background

First established in 2006, the RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship is now in its sixth year and is intended to fund international research on a topic related to the survival of our towns and cities, in a location of the student’s choice. Past RIBA Norman Foster Scholars have travelled through the Americas, Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle and the Far East, and Russia.

Norman Foster:

photo of Norman Foster from HPA

Proposals for research might include: learning from the past to inform the future; the future of society; the density of settlements; sustainability; the use of resources; the quality of urban life; and transport.

Past recipients of the RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship
• 2011: ‘Sanitation’ by Sahil Deshpande, Rizvi College of Architecture, Mumbai, India
• 2010: ‘In Search of Cold Spaces – a study of northern public space’ by Andrew Mackintosh, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK
• 2009: ‘Ancestral Cities, Ancestral Sustainability’ by Amanda Rivera, University de Bio Bio, Chile
• 2008: ‘The Role of Public Transport in Shaping Sustainable Humane Habitats: Case Studies
Across Three Continents’ by Faizan Jawed Siddiqi, Rizvi College of Architecture, Mumbai, India
• 2007: ‘Emerging East: Exploring and Experiencing the Asian Communist City’ by Ben Masterton-Smith, UCL, London, UK

RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship Past Winners

RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship Winners

Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship

Norman Foster
Norman Foster is one of the most important architects practicing in the world today. He is chairman and founder of Foster + Partners, an international practice with project offices worldwide. One of their more recently opened offices, in New York, oversees projects throughout the United States.

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