Two Westminster architecture students named winners of prestigious RIBA Student Award

​​​​​​The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a global professional membership body that drives for excellence in the architectural field. They serve their members and society to deliver the best buildings and places, stronger communities and a sustainable environment. RIBA London recognises over 12,000 members in the capital, and represents some of the best creative talent in the world.

The RIBA London Student Awards champion and celebrate the best architecture that displays a commitment to designing and developing buildings and spaces for the improvement and enhancement of people’s lives. The projects demonstrate the breadth of the capital’s architectural output at the very highest level, and are recognised by potential clients.

Raoul Tomaselli was named winner of the First Year Award by RIBA for his project that would contribute to the centre of Peckham. Zadee Garrigue was also named winner of the London Student Award for her design on the Wild Flower Wells.

Commenting on Raoul’s win, the judges said: “The panel focussed on the schemes presented through the prism of the Three Cs of Concept, Clarity and Communication, with most of the students leading us through their projects sensibly. This year we would like to recommend Raoul Tomaselli for his clear conceptualisation in a well-balanced presentation of a novel design.”

Commenting of Zadee’s win, the judges said: “The first study was a carefully presented idea for the greening of our urban centres, a simple concept using tensegrity construction to surround existing street furniture, in this case a bollard, adding planting selected to survive urban life. Though a potentially fragile design it has the ability to grow in scale. Interventions of this sort may well find backing from the public.”

Richa Mukhia, Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture and Cities, said: “Huge congratulations to Roaul who is a very deserving winner of the RIBA Student Award. Brave and insightful research enabled Roaul to design a sophisticated building celebrating black culture in Peckham."

Anthony Boulanger, Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture and Cities, said: “Zadee’s project whole heartedly embraced the studio theme Versatile City, where we used London as a platform to speculate intelligent and imaginative designs in response to the shifting conditions of public urban life before, during and after the public health crisis. Her scheme 'Wildflower Wells' cleverly uncovers the lost River Fleet in Clerkenwell to create a new type of urban green civic infrastructure within the city. The result is an elegant and multi-layered intervention characterised by a timber framed superstructure that cultivates endangered British wildflowers to be distributed to residents throughout the city.”

Find out more about the RIBA Awards.