2018 Design Urban Planning Breakthrough Award.
Alex He has been selected for the 2018 School of Architecture and Design Urban Planning Breakthrough Award. This is an internal award for our BA Architecture course that is given to the project which is the strongest in terms of urbanism, considered in the broadest terms. It is an alumni award, which is why it is given at this time of year rather than earlier. It comes with a stipend sponsored by Brighton and Hove Bus company.
Alex He’s project consists of a proposal for new public, plazas, buildings and private social spaces facing the River the North Bank of the Thames between Blackfriars and Southwark Bridges. The building programme includes public galleries, a Cigar manufacturing factory and a private cigar aficionado’s club.
His building is a considered set of interrelated spaces which shift geometry in plan to account for the subtle curve of the River at this point. His careful modulation of the journey through the building’s internal and external spaces is based upon his research into the way in which building’s axes are hinged and shifted in Italian Renascence Roman architecture and the work of K.F.Schinkel in C19th. Berlin. The underlying geometries in plan are reinforced by a decorative and didactic approach to the structure of his proposal. Intelligent use of high end materials such as marble for areas which are touched by building users is off-set against a clear hierarchy of simple building and constructional approaches for other building areas.
Congratulations Alex we are very proud to be associated with you as one of our graduates.