RIBA announces winners of President’s Medals and Annie Spink Award

Projects exploring themes of community, reuse, and social responsibility have been recognised in the 2024 RIBA President’s Medals and the Annie Spink Award for Excellence in Architectural Education. The awards, presented annually by the RIBA since 1836, aim to celebrate exceptional work by architecture students and educators.

RIBA president Muyiwa Oki commented: “What unites the winning projects is a true marriage of creativity and community spirit, explored with great sensitivity and personal insight. For me, these projects show a real awareness of the importance of reuse, elevating people and places that have been overlooked, and the social responsibility of the architect.”

The RIBA Silver Medal, awarded for the best design project at RIBA Part 2 or equivalent, was won by Joe Franklin from Kingston University for Ultra Town. The project envisioned a forested new town on the abandoned HS2 site between Birmingham and Manchester, designed to develop incrementally over 50 years. Drawing inspiration from woodland’s historic role as a space for protest and counterculture, the proposal seeks to address housing and ecological challenges while reflecting the designer’s personal experiences of transient communities.

“It’s a real joy to receive this award, especially for such a quiet and, at times, deeply personal project,” Franklin said. “I would like to thank RIBA and the judges of the Silver Medal; it truly means a lot to have the work recognised in this way. I only hope that the award can go beyond its limitations as a personal achievement, to celebrate the endless support and encouragement from my tutors and friends at the Kingston School of Art.”

The Bronze Medal, recognising the best design project at RIBA Part 1 or equivalent, was awarded to Victor Williams Salmeron of the University of Kent for Forget Me Not. The project proposed an almshouse for former carers on the site of a Victorian chapel, with an emphasis on cultural and narrative memory. The design is intended to challenge conventional notions of care spaces, proposing a setting shaped by the personalities and stories of its residents.

Salmeron said: “It is a great honour to have won the Bronze Medal and I am indebted to the judges and the RIBA for it. To receive this level of recognition for something so dear to me is incredible and so motivating.”

The Dissertation Medal was awarded to Bianca Zucchelli of the Bartlett School of Architecture for The Eel, the Dowry and the Seamstress. The narrative explored spatial restrictions on women in an Italian fishing village, connecting architecture and textiles to societal roles. The piece aimed to highlight untold stories of working women and their impact on contemporary understanding of spatial history.

“I am extremely honoured to receive this award and such recognition for a writing that is so dear to me and my family,” Zucchelli said, adding, “I would like to thank the RIBA judging panel for recognising the value of my research in the untold stories of working women.”

The Serjeant Awards for Excellence in Drawing were awarded to Jaehyun Byeon of Cardiff University for Fabricated Identities: The Museum of Faith and Fashion (Part 1) and Jack Oaten of Kingston University for Mierceholts New National Timber Reserve (Part 2).

The RIBA Awards for Sustainable Design were awarded to Sasha Farnsworth of Coventry University for Womb Temple: Lunar Re-Birth (Part 1) and Nathalie Marj of École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) for Protocols for Beirut’s Unbuildable Lots: Designing Non-sectarian Spaces (Part 2).

The biennial Annie Spink Award for Excellence in Architectural Education was awarded to Professor Jane Anderson of Oxford Brookes University. Anderson is known for her community-centred approach to teaching, integrating real-world scenarios into first-year teaching.

Anderson said: “This award is really meaningful because I value education so highly as a force for good in society… I really hope that I can help to contribute to safeguarding the quality of architectural education in straitened times.”

The Royal Gold Medal, awarded for a lifetime’s contribution to the advancement of architecture, is typically announced at the start of the new year.