RIBA weather forecast.Following last year (AR May 2006), the President of the RIBA RIBA Royal Institute of British Architects , Jack Pringle, once again hosted a crit 'crit A widely used short form for hematocrit for recipients of the RIBA President's Medals. Each year, in parallel with the presentation of the Royal Gold Medal The Royal Gold Medal for architecture is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects on behalf of the British monarch, in recognition of an individual's or group's substantial contribution to international architecture. , three student medals are presented, attracting entries from schools of as far afield as Chile, China, and Columbia. The awards include the Bronze Medal for best Part 1 design, the Silver Medal for best Part 2 design, and the Dissertation Medal. The event proved to be a rewarding exercise for all involved, giving students the opportunity to re-present their work to one of the partners of this year's Royal Gold Medal winning practice, Herzog & de Meuron. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As well as being one of the principal partners of Herzog & de Meuron, Harry Gugger has a lot of experience teaching, and listened intently as each of the students presented in turn. Timothy O'Callaghan from the University of Westminster The University of Westminster is a university in London, England, formed in 1992 as a result of the Further and Higher Education Act, 1992, which allowed the London Polytechnic (Polytechnic of Central London or PCL) to rename itself as a university. got proceedings under way with a brief summary of his essay entitled, 'Centre Parcs', in which he traced the evolution of the Centre Parcs formula focusing on issues such as the assimilation of nature and the relationship between tourism and urbanism. Brian Macken, the Bronze medallist from the Mackintosh School of Architecture The Mackintosh School of Architecture is one of the three schools which makes up the Glasgow School of Art, situated in the Garnethill area of Glasgow, Scotland. The Mackintosh School of Architecture is the GSA's only academic school concerned with a single discipline. , presented next, with his design for a rare books repository, followed by Gillian Lambert, again from the University of Westminster, with her House at Gallions Reach. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Gugger was quick to compliment the students, recalling from previous experience as a President's Medal judge in the late 1990s, that standards have certainly improved. In relation to the two designs, he applauded the fact that real buildings had been produced, where previously he was confronted by endless and fruitless fruit·less adj. 1. Producing no fruit. 2. Unproductive of success: a fruitless search. See Synonyms at futile. mapping and analysis. With contributions from other observers, including one of this year's judges, Paul Finch finch, common name for members of the Fringillidae, the largest family of birds (including over half the known species), found in most parts of the world except Australia. , common themes soon began to emerge, with the most obvious being how each piece of work recognised the significance of nature, the environment and weather; with the duality Duality (physics) The state of having two natures, which is often applied in physics. The classic example is wave-particle duality. The elementary constituents of nature—electrons, quarks, photons, gravitons, and so on—behave in some respects of Centre Parcs embracing nature in the manner in which guests are encouraged to move around their sites, while at the same time eliminating the effects of weather in their climate-controlled leisure centres. Similarly the design projects took distinct attitudes to the threshold between nature and life of interior space, with Brian Macken's repository necessarily articulating the archive as a watertight mausoleum mausoleum (môsəlē`əm), a sepulchral structure or tomb, especially one of some size and architectural pretension, so called from the sepulcher of that name at Halicarnassus, Asia Minor, erected (c.352 B.C. , in contrast to Gillian Lambert's House that was informed by what she described as incidental weather penetration (not to be mistaken with bad detailing). On the whole, though, the conversation never developed beyond polite comments and congratulations, which, while being well intended proved to frustrate proceedings, with Jack Pringle acknowledging that more time should be given to this event in future. Perhaps, if logistics allow, the format of the event should also be improved to give the students the opportunity to get the most out of their brief encounter with the Gold Medallist critic, allowing them the opportunity to present work in a more traditional pin-up format, thereby avoiding the inevitable disengagement disengagement /dis·en·gage·ment/ (dis?en-gaj´ment) emergence of the fetus from the vaginal canal. dis·en·gage·ment n. that summarised Powerpoint presentations tend to produce. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] To see all entries visit www.presidentsmedals.com |
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