RIAI announce winners of the Travelling Scholarship 2011

logo_riaiThe winners of the Travelling Scholarship 2011 were announced in darc space architecture gallery on 22 November. The theme for this year’s Travelling Scholarship Award was ‘Living in the Town’ which sought to explore the issue of small town settlements nationally. The aim was to prompt an exploration of the problems associated with the town condition. These problems are nowhere more explicit than in Ireland and have been further exacerbated by the recent boom. This has created many smaller settlements devoid of any proper sense of community with the housing quality falling far short of the idealised image that people thought they were buying into.

The aim of this year’s scholarship was to determine a new approach to residential development within towns and also to develop a strategy for correcting or improving existing substandard developments. It also sought to focus debate on how town living and the expansion of smaller towns could be handled in the future taking reference from nationally and internationally proven examples. TOWN 2011 is the second of three studies into how the ‘living model’ in Ireland might evolve and result in a better quality of living environment nationally. The winners were John R. Walsh, a 5th year architecture student at WIT, and Darren Snow of UCD.

Citation for Darren Snow, UCD School of Architecture “This scheme represents an intelligent study of a prevalent condition in towns nationally. However, it could have been more creative with the final site plan/ figure ground. The idea of reclaiming roadways for residential development is to be applauded. The skill of the initial idea did not fully emerge in the presentation however the project was the closest to responding to all aspects of the brief. The scheme did not address any existing conditions but dealt creatively with housing for the elderly by integrating it within the existing settlement pattern.”

Citation for John R. Walsh, School of Architecture, WIT “The scheme has at its core a very compelling master plan with a strategy of introducing community uses throughout a series of existing residential areas. The housing unit design was of a good standard with some strong design ideas within the unit types. However a poor site pattern let the scheme down as the overall site layout was not as well considered as the intervention. The scheme addressed environmental and sustainability issues and was very well presented.”

The Jury for the 2011 Travelling Scholarship included Rory Murphy (Convenor), Stephen Gallagher, Shane McEnroe, Karen McEvoy and Gary Mongey.

The entries for the Travelling Scholarship are on view in darc space architecture gallery, 26 North Great George’s Street, Dublin 1, until 6 December, www.darcspace.ie.