AJ Student Prize 2023: Glasgow School of Art

About the Mackintosh School of Architecture

Undergraduate

Jack Kerr

Course BA (Hons) Architecture
Studio/unit brief Urban Food Exchange
Project title Shaping Simply – An Architecture of Reduction

Project description The Canal Kitchen is a proposal for a more sustainable urban food supply which returns to the values of community growing, cooking and healthy eating. Situated adjacent to the Forth and Clyde canal, north-west of Glasgow city centre, it brings a placemaking strategy to a vulnerable community. The architecture is one of democratised space, inclusion, playfulness and diversity, with clear visual references to both industrial heritage and subtle references to the site’s history and local culture. The proposal has an autonomous and adaptable structure. A timber frame combines with perimeter bracing to provide a sustainable, reconfigurable structural solution suitable for future uses. The operational energy is partly met through on-site solar panels and bio-gas digesters, which supply gas for cooking and energy to a ground-source heat pump. Overall, the scheme is a reimagining of the post-industrial canal identity as a place of community, connectivity, and sustainable living.

Tutor citation Jack’s work represents a remarkable exploration of a building typology for an urban food exchange. His ability to turn the challenges of the site’s difficult topography into an architectural possibility is commendable. His design response presents an innovative, lean and adaptable building typology that confidently addresses the site’s challenges.
Tilo Einart

Postgraduate

Antonia Headlam-Morley

Course Diploma in Architecture
Studio/unit brief Final Design Thesis
Project title The Afterlife of the Dam

Project description The Salanfe Dam in Switzerland generates hydroelectric energy for 30,000 households. However, sediment accumulation from nearby mountains threatens its reliability. To secure reservoir capacity, the thesis proposes a landscape intervention using wooden poles. These gradually accumulate and stabilise sediment, blending into nature over time. The design contemplates temporal, functional and evolutionary aspects, aiming to create habitable interventions without disrupting the dam’s integrity. The approach safeguards the dam’s future, transforming the area into an escape from worsening climate conditions. Mountainsides adorned with lakes and forests offer a new and fascinating geological and ecological wonder.

Tutor citation Antonia addresses the inevitability of our changing environment and challenges the means of human intervention and inhabitation within it. The proposal provides a sensitive manipulation of the Alpine landscape through a vast masterplan with non-human characters at its centre. It adeptly produces delicate marks that retreat and fade within this new landscape. Thomas Woodcock