Ravensbourne students' designs kickstart national architecture competition

The Concrete Centre has launched a national student architecture competition after being impressed by the ‘imagination, sensitivity and flair’ of Ravensbourne University London students’ work.

The Concrete Centre is a group of industry experts that provides design and construction guidance for using concrete. This will be its first national design competition aimed specifically at students.

It soft launched the new competition in 2022 with a trial run open only to Ravensbourne students on BA (Hons) Architecture and BA (Hons) Urban Landscape Architecture courses.

The winners were announced in March. Our student Shania Burrage was awarded first place for her project ‘The Coal Pier’, which won praise from the judges for its use of concrete shell structures to create individual social spaces.

The second-place prize went to Agnieszka Cybulska for her 'strong concept' with the project ‘Yoga Islands’, while Maggie Law was 'highly commended' for the way her 'Whimsical Paradise' entry supported biodiversity.

These students, along with other entrants, presented their projects at the Futurebuild conference, which was held in the Excel Centre.

Hannah Fothergill-Wilson, an architect at the Concrete Centre, said the team had been ‘so impressed with the imagination, sensitivity and flair’ shown by the students in their ‘inspiring’ designs.

Writing on their website, she added: “There were some wonderful examples of students using concrete’s versatility and texture to provide platforms for different types of biodiversity.

“The judges and the whole team at the Concrete Centre were so impressed by the Ravensbourne students’ learning and designs we decided that going forward we just had to continue the competition and open it out to all schools of architecture and the built environment in the UK.”

With the 2023 competition going national, universities across the country will be invited to enter a maximum of three students’ work for submission. The 2023 brief challenges students to design a café, information centre, nature trail, or bird-watching shelter for the Ouse Fen Nature Reserve.

Entering competitions such as this encourages students to deepen their understanding of different materials and technology to create exciting and sustainable designs.

We look forward to entering our students’ incredible designs again this year!