Now in its second year, the Ted Happold Prize celebrates the rich talent and innovative building design thinking that is being produced by the 4th year design students at the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering at the University of Bath.
The Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering at University of Bath, which Ted Happold started in the mid 1970’s, is based on the premise that good building design is the result of the effective collaboration between disciplines. As part of this ethos since 1978, architecture and engineering students have begun their final year studies with a joint project in which teams of students work together. The programmes ends with a culminating exhibition and the Ted Happold Prize ceremony sponsored by the Happold Foundation.
In this years’ brief titled ‘Diasporas’ students responded to one of the most difficult and ever-increasing challenges facing society today – the dispersion of people from their original homeland. Their project was to design a Migration Museum to be housed on a site opposite Kings Cross station on the Euston Road in London. The teams were tasked with designing a building that could contain a series of permanent and temporary exhibition spaces that embodied the values the museum represents.
The competition is open to mixed discipline groups from both architecture and engineering courses, each playing a different role in the design team. In all, 28 groups of between six and seven students entered their designs to be presented to a panel, which featured representatives from both the Happold Foundation and Buro Happold engineers.
The judges looked for several elements while reviewing the designs; including how the designs challenge existing modes of museum categorisation, how the building is representative of the idea of while also be responsive to its physical location, sustainability goals and team collaboration. Six groups were selected to go forward to the final judging day where each group gave a presentation to the judging panel. At the end of the day, after some lengthy debate, the judges selected three winners for the 2022 Ted Happold Prize.
We are delighted to announce the winning groups are:
3rd Prize: Group 12 – Artefact
Theme: To enable, recognise and celebrate the making of migrant crafts by becoming a place where people from all over the world converge to celebrate a common piece of their identity, whilst finding pride in their cultural diversity.
Judges comments: The judges were impressed with the purpose of the museum being a place for migrants and displace people to reconnect with the cultures of their homeland.
Group 12 – Artefact
2nd Prize: Group 2 – Eclectic
Theme: To use cultural diversity to address food security; providing a space where the community could share their home foods.
Judges comments: Judges thought there was some great creative processes, doing something a bit different.
Group 2 – Eclectic
1st Prize: Group 14 – Lingua
Theme: A focus on language. One of the key issues facing migrants in the UK is the language barrier, which has a drastic impact on job opportunities, education quality and social mobility. The museum will have a language school to serve the diverse local community. An exhibition will focus on the various forms language can take such as film, art, dance, music and spoken word.
Judges comments: Judges thought this was a well thought through design. Well prepared and presented.
Group 14 – Lingua