Ambition and vision at student awards

Jaime Bishop, a director of Fleet Architects, AfH executive board member, and the competition’s organiser, describes the shortlisted and winning entries, discusses how candidates addressed the brief, and explains how the winner and two “runners-up” were chosen.

 An evening late last autumn saw the third annual AfH Student Health Design Award celebrated. Those gathered at the RIBA’s London headquarters watched presentations by the eight shortlisted candidates before the judges retired to an ante-room to debate and elect a winner. After an hour the judges, chaired by AfH president John Cooper, emerged to announce the results. The awards were conceived in 2007 to bridge a perceived schism between the practicing architectural design community and academia. From both perspectives, my experience is that one is often viewed as not aligning with the other’s goals, be it preparing students for the challenging array of potential briefs in healthcare, or demonstrating that these vital pieces of community infrastructure can be delightful works of architecture. The ongoing support for this event by Brookfield, the global asset management company with a strong interest in the UK healthcare infrastructure, is vital to its success. The brief and eligibility The 2009 competition was open to students of all schools of architecture or interior design internationally. Entrants were invited to submit projects addressing healthcare topics completed during the course of their studies, or alternatively to adopt a sample brief supplied by AfH.

Judging criteria