A student at the University of Strathclyde has been honoured at the annual Architecture and Design Scotland (A+DS) and the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) Scottish Student Awards for Architecture for his design for a sustainable brickmaking company in a Mumbai slum.

Neal Whitaker won the RIAS Rowand Anderson Silver Medal for the Best Scottish Student at a ceremony held at The Lighthouse, Glasgow, on Thursday July 16th.

The best 3rd year student was Jordan McCrae from the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA) who proposed a response to knit together the fragmented nature of Dalmarnock’s urban fabric to support the local community.

The awards – now in their 13th year – recognise the talent of student architects and are awarded in a number of categories. Winning projects included an adaptable framework for a rapidly developing South American city, designs for tidal power generation in Orkney and strategies to purify and rehabilitate the Spree in Berlin to bring its residents back to its river.

The award ceremony followed the Inaugural Andy MacMillan lecture in honour of the late Professor Andy MacMillan (1928-2014) celebrating his legacy. The lecture was delivered by this year’s guest judge Japanese architect Professor Hiroaki Kimura. Professor Kimura completed his PhD at the Mackintosh School of Architecture at the Glasgow School of Art, supervised by his late friend Andy MacMillan.

Following the awards ceremony the winning and shortlisted students’ work will be on display in The Lighthouse, offering a rare opportunity for the public and profession to see the best work of students from all of Scotland’s Schools of Architecture together in one space.

Speaking about the Awards, A+DS deputy chair Graham Ross said: “A+DS is delighted to continue to collaborate with RIAS to highlight the high quality of work from the best of Scotland’s architecture students. A+DS aims to support emerging practitioners and these awards, and the supporting exhibition, allow the profession and public to see the high standard emerging from our schools of architecture.”

RIAS Past President Iain Connelly added “Our annual student awards mark the extraordinarily high quality of architectural education in Scotland. Students from throughout the world come here because of the excellent training that is on offer. Scotland’s five schools of architecture are major contributors to the evolution of architecture across the planet.”

2015 Winners in full:

Winner: Neal Whitaker – University of Strathclyde

The Continuing Story of Kumbharwada

“This is a humanitarian thesis, a manifesto for local empowerment. While the developed architectural forms are well beyond mere functional requirements, this is an enlightened and sophisticated expression of a big ambition. The proposition is that social justice be delivered through an accomplished, architectural approach.”

Winner: Jordan McCrae – ESALA

Civic Framing + Flows

“A thoroughly appropriate project for this context, underpinned by a strong strategic approach. Crisp, visually alluring, drawings articulate the idea and its development superbly well. This is an extremely accomplished and well resolved scheme.”

Winner: Neal Hemingway and Vincent Hon – University of Strathclyde

VIA CAMBA: Public Infrastructure for social change

“There is clarity and confidence in the depiction of this strategy for urban transport nodes. This scheme, for a densely inhabited barrio within a South American city, has a social conscience, encouraging patronage of public transport, demonstrative of economic good sense and the reinforcement of social cohesion.”

Winner: Robert Hebblethwaite – ESALA

The Churchill Engine

“The project fuses a robust, well-researched, technical argument with a focus on local economic benefit. Different scenarios are tested towards a solution which is very much focussed on community in its emphasis. Well-drawn and clearly expressed, the technical arguments are well made.”

Winner: Holly Gardner – Mackintosh School of Architecture

‘Impluvia on Fischerinsel’

“A consistent and cohesive portfolio of work. These extremely atmospheric drawings demonstrate a mature approach and convey a strong personal architectural identity.