The judges unanimously voted him the winner out of more than 250 submissions for his Bartlett Diploma project, Reforestation of the Thames Estuary. The project imagines the transformation of a city and its environment, in a future where timber is to become the city’s main building and energy resource.
The judges were artist Cornelia Parker and architects Professor Alan Dunlop and Narinder Sagoo of Foster + Partners. The judges write: “The standard was very high, the shortlist strong and the winner exceptional.”
Taking around a year to produce, the 30 plus large drawings of the series describe the project from various perspectives and scales. Each ‘finished’ drawing is montaged from a number of components, hand-drawn on drafting film with Rotring pens and Indian ink. The collection of original drawings is housed in the permanent collections of Victoria and Albert Museum in London
Niall McLaughlin Architects (Unit 17 Tutor), Luke Pearson (Unit 4 Tutor), and Janinder Bhatti (former Unit 11 student) were all commended.
One of Tom’s drawings is featured on the cover of the August 2013 issue of RIBA Journal.