AJ Student Prize 2023: University of Brighton

About the School of Architecture, Technology and Engineering

Undergraduate

William Warr

Course BA (Hons) Architecture
Studio/unit brief Praxis (Studio 26)
Project title House of the Public/Olive Tree Surgery

Project description This project is the retrofit of a bus depot and garages for NHS GPs looking to redevelop the unoccupied site in Lewes town centre. The design looks to serve a patient population of 10,000 with spaces meeting NHS space standards. Traditionally, GPs would have practised from their own homes, and so the site is treated as though it is one large house – the idea being to create a welcoming space where staff and patients alike feel at home, ultimately contributing to shorter patient recovery times and better staff retention. At the centre of the scheme is a large lounge with views to a garden, café and climbing centre.

Tutor citation William has taken on board the issues of the client (a local NHS practice), the complexities of working in a national park and the issues of a diverse community to produce a proposal for a combined healthcare and social prescribing facility, displaying attention to circulation, material, and building performance. Glenn Longden-Thurgood

Postgraduate

Charles Palmer

Course MArch
Studio/unit brief Urban Field Lab: Rural Revolution (Studio 3)
Project title Rural Revolution

Project description This project asks two questions: What if we stop building on new parcels of land? and How can we rethink how we build rural settlements, restore a local identity and replenish the natural landscape? By creating a mechanism for a change in ownership structure with a democratic building system, the project aims to redemocratise the rural realm’s land use, creating a community of collective care where people engage with each other and the landscape they occupy. The intensification of our existing land parcels serves to foster this community and facilitate the development of a sense of place.

Tutor citation Charles’s project critically engages deep-rooted rural mechanisms, comprehensively appraising socio-economic, land-based, ecological, spatial and cultural processes that govern the rural realm. At the heart of it sits the desire to develop a community that offers qualitative spaces and a sense of place. Anuschka Kutz