The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced the winners of the 2021 President’s Medal and Awards for Research, celebrating the best research in the fields of architecture and the built environment.
The 2021 President’s Medal for Research has been awarded to John Lin and Sony Devabhaktuni from the University of Hong Kong for their project As Found Houses, which explores experiments from self-builders in rural China.
Three projects have also been given President’s Awards for Research in the categories of Education, Cities and Community and History and Theory; and a project exploring the significance of storage design within the home has been commended.
The three award-winning projects are:
Education (2021 annual theme):
Will I Cause Harm?: Practising Ethics Guides for Built Environment Research
by Dr David Roberts, Prof Jane Rendell & Dr Yael Padan from the Bartlett School of Architecture at UCL; and Ariana Markowitz & Dr Emmanuel Osuteye from the Bartlett Development Planning Unit at UCL.
Cities and Community:
As Found Houses: Experiments from Self-builders in Rural China
by John Lin & Sony Devabhaktuni from the Department of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong.
History and Theory:
Beyond the National Art Schools: Thin-Tile Vaulting in Cuba after the Revolution
by Mohammad Wesam Al Asali & Dr Michael H. Ramage from the Department of Architecture at the University of Cambridge; and Dania González Couret from the Universidad Tecnológica de la Habana, José Antonio Echeverría, Cuba.
A commendation has been awarded to Professor Elena Marco at the University of The West of England for Stuff and Space in the Home: Space for Storage as the forgotten design and well-being dimension in standardised housing, which was submitted for consideration in the Design and Technical category.
RIBA President Simon Allford said: “From the highly distinguished study of long-forgotten homes adapted by villagers in China, to the detailed exploration of Cuban vaulting, to the project that looks at embedding ethics into the practice of research itself – I commend each of these thought-provoking studies for the contribution they make to our knowledge of architecture and practice. Congratulations to all researchers for the valuable time and resource they have spent to further our understanding of these specialised subjects.”
