Bartlett Research Shortlisted for 2019 RIBA President’s Awards

The RIBA President’s Awards for Research celebrate the best global research in the fields of architecture and the built environment. This year, several projects by Bartlett staff and alumni have been shortlisted for the prestigious awards across three categories.  

History & Theory 

Tania’s project focuses on the architecture, spaces and material culture associated with British colonial paper-bureaucracy in Bengal, India. Specifically, it demonstrates how paper became a key agent of colonial governance and permeated the material-spatial culture and ‘lifeworld’ of Indian cutcherries (colonial offices) in provincial and interior regions.

• Read more about Tania’s research

With the re-examination of Postmodernism now widespread in many countries around the world, Eva’s research offers an innovative and expansive investigation of Austria’s artistic and architectural scene from the 1950s to 1980s. Specifically, she focuses upon the Viennese artist and architect Hans Hollein, who was the 1985 Pritzker Prize-winner and was widely regarded as the foremost post-war Austrian architect, yet is now largely overlooked.

• Read more about Eva’s research

Design & Technical

Oliver and Matthew’s research reveals a radically simple new form of solid, dry-jointed, bio-renewable construction, made of expanded cork block and engineered timber. The material has already been used to construct Cork House, in Eton, Berkshire, which recently won the RIBA Stephen Lawrence Prize for the best building under £1m. The house has exceptionally low whole-life carbon and is carbon negative at completion due to the atmospheric carbon stored in its plant-based components. 

• Find out more about Oliver and Matthew’s research

Building in Quality

Kerstin and Rosica’s research proposes a new layout for hospital wards to improve efficiency, by adopting a single measure called Spaces for Communication Index (SCI), which assesses communication opportunities that arise from the layout of a hospital ward. 

Kerstin and Rosica used a method called Space Syntax to analyse a number of NHS wards, which investigated the size of visual fields of healthcare workers on everyday movement paths through the ward. Their research proves that a high index is associated with the provision of good healthcare.

• Read more about Kerstin and Rosica's research

Congratulations to all staff and alumni who were shortlisted for an award. Winners will be announced at the RIBA President’s Medals ceremony at the RIBA HQ in London, on 03 December 2019.  

Find out more 

• View the full shortlist on the RIBA website

Images

• A European officer and Indian clerks at a cutcherry, nineteenth century. Drawn by Charles D'Oyly, Plate III, from D'Oyly, The European in India: From a Collection of Drawings by Charles Doyley, Esq. (1813, hand colour on aquatint). ©British Library Board (V 10573, Plate III)
• The 1979 opening of the Österreichisches Verkehrsbüro on the Opernringhof in Vienna. Hans Hollein can be seen on the far right of this Postmodern performative travel agency. Courtesy Nachlass Hans Hollein
• The Cork Cabin prototype building around 6 months after construction, standing next to the Cork Casket ©Matthew Barnett Howland and Oliver Wilton
• How Design Affects Communication, by Kerstin Sailer and Rosica Pachilova