Fund launched in 2019 in memory of colleague who was killed while cycling to work
LOM has opened applications for its annual £2,500 travel bursary set up in memory of former staff member Karla Roman, who was killed while cycling to work in 2017.
The fund is open to any UK-based architecture student, and is aimed at those looking to broaden their experiences through travel.
Roman was hit and fatally injured on Whitechapel High Street by a coach which was positioned in a “cycle box” at a road junction.
The Brazilian national had worked at LOM for just under two years as an architectural assistant while completing her UK qualifications.
The coach driver, Barry Northcott, was given a 15-month jail sentence for causing death by dangerous driving, and was banned from driving for five years and 30 weeks.
The bursary has been awarded to three students since it was launched in 2018, including Bath University student Eleanor Hyde, who travelled to Japan.
Hyde said the trip allowed her to become immersed in Japanese culture and had profoundly affected her design thinking, having recently completed a micro-home inspired by the country’s modular dwellings.
The fund has also been awared to Manchester School of Architecture Part II student Farid Abdulla, who spent a semester at Italy’s Politecnico di Milano. He said the trip had resulted in a cognitive shift that had “forever changed” him.
In 2020 the bursary was awarded to Andreea Ciutac, whose trip along the Iron Curtain from Berlin to Bucharest for her Masters research was delayed by the pandemic but finally took place this year. She encouraged future busurary applicants to “plan adventurously”.
Applicants for 2023 will be invited to give Roman’s colleagues at LOM a short presentation outlining how their studies and travel would benefit from the bursary, with applications open until 12 December 2022.
It will be awarded to the applicant who can demonstrate the greatest need for financial assistance with their travel requirements. Applicants are also encouraged to consider their carbon emissions from the travel and the benefits for nature and people.
LOM thanked Roman’s former partner for his generous donation to support the bursary.
The practice’s director Richard Hutchinson said Roman’s “light shone brightly as she travelled the world and achieved so much in everything she did”, adding that she had been a “real asset to the studio”.
Details about how to apply to the bursary can be found here.
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