Australian design student Alexander Burton has developed a prototype kit for cheaply converting petrol or diesel cars to hybrid electric, winning the country’s national James Dyson Award in the process.
Titled REVR (Rapid Electric Vehicle Retrofits), the kit is meant to provide a cheaper, easier alternative to current electric car conversion services, which Burton estimates cost AU$50,000 (£26,400) on average and so are often reserved for valuable, classic vehicles.
Usually, the process would involve removing the internal combustion engine and all its associated hardware, like the gearbox and hydraulic brakes, to replace them with batteries and electric motors.
REVR is designed to convert almost any combustion engine car to hybrid electric
With REVR, those components are left untouched. Instead, a flat, compact, power-dense axial flux motor would be mounted between the car’s rear wheels and disc brakes, and a battery and controller system placed in the spare wheel well or boot.
Some additional off-the-shelf systems – brake and steering boosters, as well as e-heating and air conditioning – would also be added under the hood.
By taking this approach, Burton believes he’ll be able to offer the product for around AU$5,000 (£2,640) and make it compatible with virtually any car.
Burton is a bachelor’s student in industrial design and sustainable systems engineering at RMIT University in Melbourne but has worked on REVR largely outside of his course.
Alexander Burton designed REVR to make electric car conversion more accessible
The spark for the project came a few years ago when he and his dad started thinking about converting the family car, a 2001 Toyota that Burton describes as well-built and reliable.
“But it’s just not really something you can do get done,” he told Dezeen. “It’s super expensive and it’s not really accessible.”
Burton wanted to find an affordable solution for others in his position while helping to reduce the emissions associated with burning petrol as well as manufacturing new electric vehicles, which are estimated to be even higher than for traditional cars.
Burton was motivated by the desire to reduce carbon emissions
With REVR, people should be able to get several more years of life out of their existing cars.
The kit would transform the vehicle into a hybrid rather than a fully electric vehicle, with a small battery giving the car 100 kilometres of electric range before the driver has to switch to the internal combustion engine.
However, in Burton’s view, this is where people can get “the most bang for their buck” with few changes to the car but major emissions reductions.
“You can’t fit a huge battery in a wheel well but we wager you won’t need one,” said Burton. “While people drive a lot, especially here in Australia, on average they drive 35 kilometres a day and it’s mostly commuting.”
“This distance would require only a five-kilowatt-hour battery, and we can put three times that in the wheel well.”
Burton used the motor modelling packages FEMM and MOTORXP to develop the design of his motor, which sees the spinning part, called the rotor, placed between a vehicle’s disc brakes.
The stationary part, or stator, is fixed to existing mounting points on the brake hub.
Burton used the FEMM and MOTORXP software packages to model the motor
Borrowing a trick from existing hybrid vehicles, the kit uses a sensor to detect the position of the accelerator pedal to control both acceleration and braking.
That means no changes have to be made to the car’s hydraulic braking system, which Burton says “you don’t want to have to interrupt”.
While the design is in its early stages, the concept was advanced enough for the jury of the James Dyson Award for exceptional student design to pick the project as the national winner in Australia.
The international prize winner from the 30 included countries will be announced on October 18.
Burton plans to use the AU$8,800 winnings from the national award to buy a small CNC machine and the specialist materials that are required to build a working prototype, building on a previous non-working prototype made in RMIT’s workshop.
Burton made a prototype of the device in the RMIT workshop
He says he has “a stretch goal” of converting a million cars with REVR and is interested in working with partners in the automotive industry. But he is also critical of its lack of investment in retrofitting to date.
“It’s like with repairability, industry is so against that,” Burton told Dezeen. “They love the whole planned obsolescence thing.”
“Ultimately, to retrofit goes against their profit margin because it extends the usefulness and the lifetime of their products. I think that’s why there’s retrofitting companies out there but they’re still largely reserved to classic cars. It’s just so expensive to do.”
Previous winners of the James Dyson Award include an infection-sensing wound dressing created by students from the Warsaw University of Technology and a fish-waste bioplastic by British designer Lucy Hughes.
Architecture practice Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios has created a series of crescent-shaped student housing blocks with a CLT structure for King’s College at the University of Cambridge.
Called Stephen Taylor Court, the blocks contain 84 homes for King’s College’s graduate students and fellows that were designed to Passivhaus standards and to have as low a carbon impact as possible.
“Due to the considered material choice, prioritising low-embodied carbon materials, reuse of existing materials, local sourcing and targeting recycled content, and accounting for carbon sequestered in the cross-laminated timber, the project has negative embodied carbon on completion as more carbon has been sequestered in its production than emitted,” Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios partner Hugo Marrack told Dezeen.
The project is made up of three crescent-shaped buildings
The architecture practice used its own carbon tool named FCBS Carbon at early design stages to help estimate and limit the whole-life carbon emissions of the scheme.
FCBS Carbon is a spreadsheet that is free to use by other architects and considers all the CO2 produced by a building, including the building material, construction and demolition.
Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios used Stephen Taylor Court as a “test case” for its tool and calculated its net carbon performance – both operational and embodied – to be less than zero for the first 10 to 15 years of the project’s life.
According to Marrack, the carbon calculations for the project did not consider furniture, fixtures and equipment (FF&E) or mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP).
Steep-pitched roofs reference arts and crafts buildings in the area
Located within a conservation area in Cambridge, the apartments have a cross-laminated timber (CLT) structure clad in water-struck gault bricks that are similar in appearance to traditional Cambridge bricks.
The CLT structure was chosen for its lightweight property, airtightness of the structural envelope and the material’s low embodied carbon.
Stephen Taylor Court has a cross-laminated timber structure clad in brick
“The lightweight CLT structure of the buildings reduces foundation loads, allowing the use of a thin reinforced concrete raft foundation ‘floating’ on rigid insulation,” explained Smith and Wallwork structural engineer Tristan Wallwork.
“This not only reduces the amount of concrete used in the substructure but also provides a perfect Passivhaus foundation solution.”
“Detailing of any inherent thermal bridges, such as facade restraint ties, is also drastically simplified due to the robust and solid CLT structural envelope – providing complete flexibility on location of any fixings required,” continued Wallwork.
Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios plans to continue to work with the college in the future to help maintain net-zero carbon beyond the first 10 to 15 years after completion, by implementing renewable energy options such as photovoltaic panels.
The accommodation buildings surround a courtyard
The 4,300-square-metre scheme is located within a conservation area known for its arts and crafts houses, which influenced Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios’ design.
The housing at Stephen Taylor Court is made up of three brick crescents surrounding a garden courtyard with an adjacent red brick villa.
“The central triptych of three crescents creates an open and informal court which provides depth and breadth to views from the streetscape to the leafy context beyond,” said Hugo Marrack.
A red brick villa sits at the centre of the scheme
Steep-pitched roofs, dormer windows that punctuate the roofline and oriel windows on the gable ends of the apartments reference the arts and crafts buildings in the area.
“The sympathy with the arts and crafts approach is in celebrating the joy in each of these building details and the material’s properties, rather than ironing them out, as one might with a more minimal approach,” Marrack explained.
“This being said, the results aim towards a leaner, contemporary expression of its time, rather than forms of reproduction. In some respects, the outcomes are almost brutalist,” he continued.
The project is part of the college’s plan to provide sustainable living for its students
Along with the newly built housing, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios refurbished and extended an existing Victorian-era villa on the site to accommodate a common room, library and laundry room.
Stephen Taylor Court is the second graduate accommodation at the college to be built in recent years after the development at Cramner Road by British firm Allies and Morrison, which was also built to Passivhaus standards and was longlisted in the 2021 Dezeen Awards.
Architect: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios Landscape architect: Robert Myers Associates Planning consultant: Turley Structural engineer: Smith and Wallwork MEP and sustainability engineer, acoustic engineer and Passivhaus consultant: Max Fordham Principal designer, project manager and quantity surveyor: Faithful and Gould Fire engineer: The Fire Surgery Main contractor: Gilbert Ash
Universal Design, the practice of creating environments equally usable by anyone regardless of physical circumstance, is increasingly gaining traction among design professionals. As this practice requires designing beyond minimum standards set by codes that seasoned practitioners have spent decades learning to master, a change in approach must come from the bottom up. That’s why the University of Arizona’s College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture hosts an annual Universal Design awards program for architecture students with Ascension Wheelchair Lifts.
Now in its second year, the program aims to instill in future architects an inclination to envision how the spaces they design will be used. “The ability to imagine spatial experience is essential in architecture,” Teresa Rosano, one of the program’s studio professors, said. “Doing so can hone our awareness of all our senses and also serve as a practice in empathy – a skill that transcends any discipline.”
For this year’s program, students were asked to design an arts center on a steeply sloped site in Bisbee, Arizona, a town defined by elevation changes. Public staircases, emblematic of the challenges facing the implementation of Universal Design, are famously utilized by the town to connect vertically separated streets, including on the site chosen for the competition. Here’s a look at the winning designs.
“Bisbee Mercado” by Alexis Campion
First place honors went to Alexis Campion’s Bisbee Mercado, an open-air space for local artisans to make and sell their work. Neatly organized around a three-story atrium, each floor opens to the exterior directly at grade, connecting to an adjacent commercial district, city park and residential neighborhood without level changes.
Campion also considered sensory concerns caused by the site’s slope. “Digging into the earth can create an environment similar to a basement,” she said. “To resist this, I split the space down the center to create an atrium bringing light into all the spaces.”
“Bisbee Art Center” by Andy Demetriou
Inspired by an existing graffiti-covered wall on the site, Andy Demetriou’s Bisbee Art Center was awarded the second place prize. Demetriou’s design kept the existing wall in place, expanding it into an ever-evolving outdoor gallery. “Over time, the graffiti changes into new designs and layers on top of each other,” he said.
The outdoor gallery is distributed onto several levels connected by a simple, intuitive system of ramps. These levels are all aligned with the levels of an adjacent, indoor multi-purpose space, leading one juror to describe the solution as “masterfully integrated Universal Design.”
“Apiledo Theatre Company” by Brandon Willmon
Coming in third, Brandon Willmon’s Apiledo Theatre Company reconciled Universal Design principles with the enjoyment of kinetic performance styles. Centered around the exhibition of Capoeira, a Brazilian martial art that combines acrobatics with music and dance, mid-air stages hang dramatically in a triple-height performance venue ringed by fully accessible viewing areas on multiple levels.
“My inspiration for a ‘free floating’ performance, in lieu of a better phrase, was derived mostly from the fluid nature of Capoeira coupled with getting physically challenged members of the community involved in such a physically demanding art form,” he said.
“Bisbee Sculpture Park & Museum” by Ralph Mersiowsky
Ralph Mersiowsky’s Bisbee Sculpture Park & Museum earned the program’s “Innovation in Universal Design” award by co-locating multiple modes of vertical circulation, ensuring a common experience of traveling from floor to floor. Distributed across three levels with minimal overlap, the challenge of artfully placing a staircase, elevator and ramp adjacent to each other was overcome by making each one a unique architectural feature.
“Light + Life + Performance” by Tyler Newman
Garnering the “Innovation in Graphics” award, Tyler Newman’s design for a group living community explores the effect that light and materiality have on perception. Focused on tactile experience for the benefit of people with differing levels of sensory ability, walls and floors featuring wood, concrete and other materials offer feelings of warmth, coolness or other sensations depending on the time of day.
“Culinary Arts Center” by Eva Serbin
Eva Serbin’s methodology for creating a culinary arts center bisected by an open-air thoroughfare likened to a canyon won the program’s “Innovation in Design Narrative + Process” award. All the various uses in the multi-level “canyon” are connected with an ingenious system of ramps one juror described as “an exciting spatial experience all can participate in.”
“The Living Mural” by Alyssa Fink
Alyssa Fink’s The Living Mural distributes its program across separate buildings but makes the paths between them the star of the show, “highlighting the spatial quality and experience of the in-between spaces,” as one juror put it. Switch-backing ramps between buildings are surrounded by artful graffiti displayed on dramatic architectural forms, earning the project one of two “Innovation in Design Concept” awards.
“To Intersect & Carve” by Freddy Arvizu
Awarded the second “Innovation in Design Concept” honor, Freddy Arvizu organized spaces dedicated to painting and artist housing within overlapping, angular forms one juror called “a strong generative move that is carried throughout the spatial experiences.” Eschewing ramps, a centrally located elevator offers easy access to all parts of the building.
To learn more about how you can make your upcoming projects accessible with the help of the experts at Ascension Lifts, click here.
A gender-inclusive hair salon and a cafe that aims to help break down mental health barriers are included in Dezeen’s latest school show from students at the University of Huddersfield.
Also included is a project that aims to revolutionise up-cycling in the retail industry and an adventure and learning centre designed for the elderly.
“We are proud to present a selection of ten pieces of award-winning work that aim to demonstrate the range and scope of projects students undertake in their final year of study. Throughout each project, they selected a site and developed their project brief. Through in-depth research and explorative processes, projects are designed and developed, becoming realised through technical and visual communication.
“Here at Huddersfield, we think that interior design transforms ideas into experiences. We allow students to create entirely new experiences and relationships between people and the places they spend time in. The emphasis is on creativity as we explore and extend current design thinking, pushing boundaries to innovate, providing new ways of looking at human and spatial interactions in response to our changing world.
“This group of students has had to cope with unprecedented circumstances during the Covid-19 outbreak and are a credit to themselves and the course in producing exciting projects that help us to glimpse the future. They are on the cusp of new approaches and changing parameters in design, able to adapt and offer reflexive approaches to future projects. To view the university’s virtual showcase click here and to view its Instagram, visit its profile.”
22 Degrees by Paccelli Sowerby
“This project aims to democratise wine tasting for the younger consumer. It seeks to mix up the traditional wine bar, reintroducing wine to the younger consumer in a fun, informal environment that focuses on learning through experience.
“The project intends to create a reactive space with a hands-on approach to wine tasting, bringing people closer to natural wine by echoing the hand-crafted winemaking process through design elements.
“The space gives people the tools and info to embark on their own journey of wine discovery whilst learning about the making process and being inspired by the urban vineyard environment.
“22 Degrees offers more than just a huge variety of natural wines – it also hosts a selfie label-booth, interactive wine quiz, contact-free bottle shop, self serve wine bar, sensory wine experience and roof terrace with sensory grape pods. This project has a full technical pack and feasibility study, both of which are available for download on my website.”
Student: Paccelli Sowerby Award: Best Visual Communication Tutors: Penny Sykes, Jen Leach and Natasha Crowe
Millennium by Adam Kendall
“Today, millennials represent about 32 per cent of the luxury market but will grow to command 50 per cent of the market by 2025. It is clear that technology is advancing and is a significant part of younger generations lives. Through primary research, 48 per cent of millennials spend more than five hours a day looking at a digital screen, and 35 per cent spend between 75 -120 minutes on social media.
“Millennium is a space influenced by social media, and tech aims to create a unique but relatable experience for younger people, making them feel more involved and connected. The issue discovered through the project research is that there is a growing millennial customer base in the luxury industry.
“However, a change or development has not been seen to suit this audience in the commercial sector. In fact, luxury bars and restaurants are more suitable for the older generations. This leads to the isolation of their younger audience, who are digitally savvy and constantly connected. I propose a solution – to create a space that relates to younger generations. A space that is familiar, comfortable and digitally enhanced.”
Student: Adam Kendall Award: Best Technical Detailing Tutors: Penny Sykes, Jen leach and Natasha Crowe
Re-Fashioned by Heather Martin
“This is a project that aims to revolutionise up-cycling in the retail industry through the manipulation of contemporary retail and technology. Often the clothing industry does not recycle materials it cannot sell.
“This means an increasing amount of materials are being thrown away instead of being recycled and reused which, further contributes to the global environmental crisis.
“The solution seems obvious: employ artists who love up-cycling and using material which usually gets discarded to craft new items people will love to wear! Research showed that many people feel pessimistic about purchasing pre-owned items. Re-Fashioned places a luxurious twist on up-cycled clothing to encourage more people to do more to save the environment and to look good doing it!
“The concept was developed by the silhouettes and shapes inspired by the human body – seen in the lighting features. Materials within the space were also essential to consider as it needed to be luxury as well as sustainable and natural.”
Student: Heather Martin Award: Best Creative Process Tutors: Penny Sykes, Jen Leach and Natasha Crowe
Sip + Sculpt by Alyssia Hanson
“Sip + Sculpt is designed to allow its customers to unwind in a space where they can work through their stress and break down barriers around mental health. It aims to facilitate connection, inspire imagination and create an oasis of positivity and comfort.
“The project’s concept was influenced by the ‘slow living movement’ alongside the keywords, balance’ and ‘floating’. Customers are encouraged to lock away their devices, distancing themselves from the use of social media, allowing themselves to embrace their creativity and get messy with clay.”
Student: Alyssia Hanson Award: Best Conceptual Approach Tutors: Penny Sykes, Jen Leach and Natasha Crowe
New Horizons Cub House by Amy Rigby
“New Horizons is an experiential adventure and event planning space including digital booking hubs and learning zones. It has been created for the retired generation to create a place to counteract any regrets they have through life.
“Through research, I found that retired people have many regrets about things they have missed out on during their working lives but don’t have anywhere to explore and resolve them.
“The space has been created to encourage and support a second life with access to fun and exciting activities. Activities include participating in new experiences by trying them out in the VR zone, booking experiences, learning about the digital world and improving skills, or just socialising and meeting new people of similar ages and interests.
“The concept is based around ‘a walk in the park’ which makes entering the clubhouse an experience in itself, as the concept can be seen in the layout and other features.”
Student: Amy Rigby Award: Best Use of Materiality Tutors: Penny Sykes, Jen Leach and Natasha Crowe
Parmilla by Luke Pierce
“Parmilla is dedicated to the people of Huddersfield and is a creative community workplace and social hub, driven by the concept of perspective. The centre celebrates the creative culture the town has to offer and provide co-working spaces and meeting hubs for hire.
“With the ground floor open to the public, it offers the opportunity for exhibitions and offers space for creative events and performances, to provide new experiences and introduce people to new cultural arts.
“It also has a kitchen space located on the ground floor that features a local guest chef every Friday to offer new food experiences to its guests and give the restaurants the chefs are representing more exposure.
“Parmilia will also send out lengths of fabric to local schools, care homes and stands in the streets of Huddersfield to have people tie knots in the fabric. This fabric will then be exhibited from the ceilings throughout the space. Serving mainly as wayfinding, it also highlights essential areas in Parmilla and represents the people of Huddersfield and celebrates individuality.”
Student: Luke Pierce Award: Best Spatial Exploration Tutors: Penny Sykes, Jen Leach and Natasha Crowe
Derma-Tech by Rhiana-Dean Robinson-Hine
“Derma-Tech is a multi-functional, fully immersive retail experience that provides information on skincare knowledge. Consumers are given access to current dermatology technology and DNA driven retailing.
“Developing a forward-thinking ‘go-to’ space for all things skincare by providing numerous experiences for consumers. With technology at the forefront of the design, it harnesses artificial intelligence teledermatology and implements smart technologies throughout each step of the customer journey.”
Student: Rhiana-Dean Robinson-Hine Award: Best Future Focussed Project Tutors: Penny Sykes, Jen Leach and Natasha Crowe
Unite Wellness by Jordan Marzetti
“The Wellness and Respite Centre focuses on delivering a new experience to both dependants and carers. It is a new brand that combines leisure with respite, tackling the disadvantages adults with learning disabilities face and addressing the mental and physical wellbeing of both the dependant and carer.
“It is a purpose-built space located within a residential area, but placed conveniently with other complimenting businesses, providing on-site support through counselling and information. Design is purposely minimal to aid adults with learning disabilities, corridors are direct in layout, and all essential rooms can be found on main corridors.
“There are no curves, or complicated shapes, no distracting patterns, or textures and information points on each main corridor aid navigation acting as way-finding. It includes a new staircase with handrails spaced to be held on either side, including an emergency evacuation slide. Automatic doors into all changing and restroom entrances and two new extra-large lifts have been added to the site.”
Student: Jordan Marzetti Award: Best Socially Focused Project Tutors: Penny Sykes, Jen Leach and Natasha Crowe
Undefeated by Sarah Parkes
“Research has shown that an overwhelming number of females are faced with physical, mental and social barriers when participating in physical activities. Therefore, a key objective of the design proposal was to challenge and support the journeys women face by offering a personalised and unique fitting service within a female-only sportswear store.
“The building is split into three key areas: physical, mental and social. Physical is on the ground floor and is focused on enhancing the body through high-performance sportswear. This zone also includes RFID technology self-checkout, collection points, beacon technology touchscreens and AR smart mirrors.
“The mental section is on the basement floor and is concentrated on re-energising the customer’s mind and body by creating a multi-sensory experience. This includes a relaxation massage pod that indulges all the customer senses and helps them to escape from the busy retail stores on Oxford Street.
“Social is on the first floor and is focused on maintaining customer’s wellbeing by encouraging social interaction within the environment of a nutrition cafe. The material palette includes fresh and light materials that correspond with nutrition and healthy eating.”
Student: Sarah Parkes Award: Best Commercially Focussed Project Tutors: Penny Sykes, Jen Leach and Natasha Crowe
Dare Hair by Jasmin Hardy
“Dare is a non-binary, gender-inclusive hair salon that looks towards the new generation of gender-inclusive hairstyling salons. After researching the importance of hair in gender/self-identity it became apparent that the hair industry needed a new approach to its mainly binary format.
“Using the concept of fluidity, which was also inspired by the limitless creativity of the metaverse, Dare Hair aims to create a gender-inclusive environment for people to experiment with their appearance aided by the integration of smart technology.
“Whether it be someone wanting to experiment with a bold alternative hairstyle or someone exploring their gender expression, everyone is welcome and encouraged at Dare Hair.
“Throughout my time at university, my projects have been driven with the edges of society in mind, so being able to create Dare Hair with the concentration being on the LGBTQ+ community has pushed me to create a thorough, well researched final design. I am thankful to those who are part of the community who were willing to share their experiences with me and I dedicate this project to them.”
Student: Jasmin Hardy Award: Best Overall Project Tutors: Penny Sykes, Jen Leach and Natasha Crowe
Partnership content
This school show is a partnership between Dezeen and the University of Huddersfield. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.
A residential building typology that challenges Dubai’s standalone towers and a community hub that connects a neighbourhood via sport are included in Dezeen’s latest school show by students at The American University in Dubai.
The projects also include a tent designed to unite religious communities in Dubai and a tower intended to educate people on sustainability while promoting biofuel-producing architecture.
“This is a final course in which students implement their thesis research by developing a project that incorporates all the principles of design, demonstrating a comprehensive understanding of architectural design and evidence of professional capability.
“The course outcomes are exhibited in a senior showcase where a jury of experts was invited to vote. The 2021 architecture senior showcase ran online on Behance from 27 April to 29 April.
“A jury of 40 international experts, coming from academia, professional realm and press, voted the projects – first, second, third, honourable mentions and design awards. Another series of awards involved an internal academic jury – professors, alumni, faculty – and an external jury included students and the public.”
First Place Award and the Faculty and Alumni Award: The Cessation/Memorial Museum by Joe Sassine Finianos
“The project aims at being the cessation of relationship, civilian and historical losses witnessed by the Lebanese people. It aims at fixing the relationship loss that was broken in 1975 when the city of Beirut got divided between Christians and Muslims.
“The demographic distribution of the people shows a clear evident line in the separation of the two religious groups. The thesis highlights the citizens who died, making their memory live and making them a lesson for the upcoming generations.
“The thesis also studies the numerous destructions in historical monuments and art crafts after every explosion or war. The repeated cycle is evident after every war where museums lose historical artefact due to poor storage, people lose their loved ones as a result of the explosions and the relationship between the two religious group worsens.”
Student: Joe Sassine Finianos Course: ARCH 502, Architectural Design Studio X Email: Joesassine.finianos@mymail.aud.edu
Second Place Award: The Isle by Rhea Khoury
“The Isle is a micro-city where students have the freedom to explore their passions and make their own decisions on what and how they want to learn. New teaching methods encourage new solutions on how educational spaces should be organised and designed – moving from a still and disciplined environment to a student-centred, flexible and adaptable space for all different kinds of people.
“The young adults from the schools around the Isle and beyond come from different backgrounds and gather to learn from each other and coexist. The different typologies of spaces encourage learning, collaboration, innovation, identity, inclusion and communication. The environment becomes the teacher.”
Student: Rhea Khoury Course: ARCH 502, Architectural Design Studio X Email: rhea.khoury@mymail.aud.edu
Third Place Award: Pedestrian Enclave by Dalia Qasem
“The concept of Pedestrian Enclave revolves around the nature of social gathering and interaction in the site. These encounters have a unique identity and result from multiple factors that include but are not limited to: overcrowding, vibrant street life, and the presence of low-income residents that feel a disconnect from the rest of the city.
“The goal was to integrate a structure into the chosen site to refine the pedestrian experience and create pleasant gathering spaces by inserting elevated platforms with different levels connected to the roofs of the existing buildings and create a central hub to host some of the missing amenities.
“Overall, this decreases the congestion on the ground level of the site, responds to the need for gathering spaces, and provides a more three-dimensional pedestrian experience as opposed to the flat urban fabric of the current area.”
Student: Dalia Qasem Course: ARCH 502, Architectural Design Studio X Email:Dalia.qasem@mymail.aud.edu
Honorable Mention: A Child’s Place by Klara Bekhet
“A Child’s Place proposes a residential building typology that challenges the current standalone towers present in Dubai with a focus on how children perceive and react to residential spaces cognitively, physically and emotionally. The proposed project takes inspiration from the traditional Sha’biyaat housing.
“It tackles three main design approaches an abundance of communal spaces for frequent interaction between the children, the rejection of the vertical void created by elevator-dependent multi-story buildings, and the importance of child-scale for the younger residents to be able to perceive their homes and surrounding.
“The project aims to provide ‘homes’ rather than transitory sellable units, encouraging children to form a sense of place attachment to these spaces and the city of Dubai.”
Student: Klara Bekhet Course: ARCH 502, Architectural Design Studio X Email: klara.bekhet@mymail.aud.edu
Honourable Mention: Bridging The Gap by Zinah Al Asad
“Internally displaced people (IDPs) are continuously being viewed as a threat to a host society’s security, history, and cultural relationships, and are therefore excluded and restrained.
“The objective is to gradually merge IDPs into the urban fabric of their host city, rather than exclude them. Here, architecture creates a physical bond between the host society and the ‘new society’, the IDPs, and creates a link between the two histories. Moreover, it allows them to benefit society and themselves through the incorporation of self-build structures.
“The project comes to life through a continuous path that physically connects the three different plots while occasionally becoming the roof of recessed volumes. The path starts from an archaeological site to a final site of a refugee accommodation, with an intermediate museum in the second plot.”
Student: Zinah Al Asad Course: ARCH 502, Architectural Design Studio X Email: Zinah.alasad@mymail.aud.edu
Sustainable Design Award: Plantae Tower by Basant Abdelrahman
“Our planet is in dire need of saving. Humanity’s eradication of nature has had a devastating impact on every aspect of our lives, including our health, population and wildlife. Nature is targeted for its non-renewable fuels, which has continued to contribute to the heating of the planet and has caused severe climate change.
“This should concern every human since it affects animal ecosystems, food production and essential biodiversity. To save our planet, we need to focus on alternative energy resources. There have been many surges in technology and advancements that have helped find solutions other than using non-renewable fuels as sources of energy.
“The main goal of my project is to raise awareness of these emerging integrated innovative technology and help visualise a sustainable building community. I propose to design a tower that advertises a biofuel-producing architecture. It will become a beacon of hope for a sustainable future and will raise awareness about the crisis of climate change. The purpose of the tower is to educate people about the necessity of protecting the environment.”
Student: Basant Abdelrahman Course: ARCH 502, Architectural Design Studio X Email: Basant.abdelrahman@mymail.aud.edu
Cultural Design Award: Tentmod by Noor AlHashemi Cultural Design Award: Tentmod by Noor AlHashemi
“Dubai is one of the most luxurious cities in the world, but around 90 per cent of its population are migrant workers who earn 19 dollars a day. This brings up the obvious reality of Dubai being a city built just for the rich while there are people who are in poverty.
“The city is known for being the melting pot in the middle east, and so it has residents from different incomes, nationalities, and most importantly, different religions. Unfortunately, all of these aspects create classism between the poor, the middle class, and the rich. TentMod was inspired by a mosque – there is a harmonious interaction between the poor and the other classes during the five prayers.
“I aim to create a Ramadan tent-inspired project that everyone can enjoy together. All classes, religions, and nationalities of the city can come together in union to build the temporary structure of the tent during the month of Ramadan while enjoying the structure during the rest of the year.
“This project creates a sense of unity and harmony between people while forming a connection between the occupants and the project. Furthermore, TentMod is designed to be placed and built on any site beside a mosque since it is designed to be adaptive. This characteristic will help in spreading the awareness of community and culture that comes with Ramadan tents.”
Student: Noora AlHashemi Course: ARCH 502 – Architectural Design Studio X Email: noora.alhashemi@mymail.aud.edu
Community Design Award: Goodbye Slumbai by Mahima Aswani
“The project revolves around the redevelopment of one of the biggest slums in the world, Dharavi, Mumbai, India. The objective is to provide the slum dwellers with more than just shelter. To create an affordable housing option and to improve their quality of life.
“The design of the project is adaptable, sustainable and incorporates social distancing between dwellers to prepare the project for future uncertainties.
“It is designed as a place where dwellers can work in workshops to live in a type of housing module while enjoying and expressing themselves in the public spaces. In addition to this, there are also several stalls on the deck, main market, research centre, reading square to support the dwellers and the strengthening tourism financially.”
Student:Mahima Aswani Course: ARCH 502, Architectural Design Studio X Email: mahima.aswani@mymail.aud.edu
Innovative Design Award: Vertical Voids by Yash Rochani
“Vertical Voids tackles the issue of expansive sprawl and urban verticality found in Dubai. It proposes to densify the existing urban cloud further, allowing people to live closer and avoid the need to commute. Densification is achieved by studying the negative spaces within the existing skyline of Dubai and proposing an infill development between the current urban fabric.
“A development built within the voids but does not connect to the urban tissue and instead floats above the existing urban fabric and suffices on itself. Densifying the neighbourhood above the grade level will help retain the existing infrastructure while creating new horizontal connections between the existing and new buildings. Thus, creating various levels of interaction besides the ground level.”
Student: Yash Rochani Course: ARCH 502, Architectural Design Studio X Email: yash.rochani@mymail.aud.edu
Professor Award: Convergence by Hiba Al-Sharif
“The project objective aims to connect the Jebel Ali religious complex with its surrounding and create a unity between the existing religious buildings. Instead of an isolated island of religious buildings, the project will form a series of connections between one building and another and between the complex and its adjacent surrounding.
“Here, the concept converges the religious buildings and considers the ‘in-between passages’ under the canopy theme. This will be achieved through enhancing these passages by integrating culturally shared architectural elements, and by elevating the passages, so connecting the complex with the new cultural park.”
Student: Hiba Al-Sharif Course: ARCH 502, Architectural Design Studio X Email: hiba.alsharif@mymail.aud.edu
Professor Award: Ori-folds by Maghi Alkhen
“This project aims to be taken into consideration in any country that has faced war – one that aims to build its future again. As a first step, I have taken the country Syria as a proposed location.
“In this project, I aim to try and heal the country step by step back to its life-filled days. The healing process adapts to the concept of “mitosis”, where the healthy cells start to divide themselves to cure a scar on the skin.
“The three phases of healing start with the shelter. It provides a temporary structure that is fast to build, low in cost, and safe for the people who have lost their original homes.
“The second phase focuses on transforming these temporary residentials into permanent ones and creating full residential units. The third and final phase that coexists with phase two is to conceptually include some Arabic and Islamic inspired elements within the final outcome.”
Student: Maghi Alkhen Course: ARCH 502 – Architectural Design Studio X Email: maghi.alkhen@mymail.aud.edu
Professor Award: Excavation by Nawara AlMandeel
“The kingdom of Bahrain is one of the wealthiest islands in the Arabian Peninsula with cultural monuments that date back to the Sumerian and Assyrian times. It is the heart of captivating temples and forts that bind the kingdom together for its profound culture.
“It is essential that all demographic slates of people get to learn and embrace the kingdom of Bahrain’s profound cultural heritage and get inspired to revive what is lost. The project is a livable, sustainable educational cultural centre, hosting multiple activities that would invite all demographics worldwide to visit and immerse in Bahrain’s true architectural identity.
“The former would include contemporary livable areas such as resort hotels that overlook museums and refabricated historical monumental sculptures and exhibition areas.”
Student: Nawara AlMandeel Course: ARCH 502 – Architectural Design Studio X Email: Nawara.almandeel@mymail.aud.edu
Students Award: Oneness by Ahmed Hussein
“When designing this project, we were told to try to relate to things we love or to our hobbies, so the first thing that came up to my mind was football or sports in general. The goal is not only to facilitate people with utilities but also how to make sports better and more accessible.
“The title of this project is oneness. I have chosen a site in a relatively poorer neighbourhood and managed to facilitate them with a sustainable hub that connects the neighbourhood that includes a stadium and a hospital. This zero-carbon emission hub offers not only sports facilities but also offices, galleries and restaurants for all types of people to connect.”
Student: Ahmed Hussein Course: ARCH 502, Architectural Design Studio X Email: Ahmed.hussein@mymail.aud.edu
People’s Choice Award: Platform by Ayesha Changaai Mangalote
“Platform is an integrated rehabilitation program while activating, reflecting and incorporating new functions that would revive the central importance to the city’s fabric. The project is built around the primary goal of ordering integrated public spaces. These public spaces go from the ground floor to the leading platforms and roof gardens leading to roof gardens.
“The main intention here is to create a hub between the Gold Souq and the ultimate site, which acts as a surprise element or a hidden gem. The site includes old buildings, demolished and certain included and revamped and connected to new extensions to give continuity while ensuring a clear hierarchy and articulation of space.
“The main struggle for this project was its dense urban fabric, and the knitted area had to be well planned. That’s where the modularity of the project comes in. Balconies with roof gardens and the park below give the place a revamp where public and private realms converge. Social and physical boundaries are dissolved when different groups can meet on the ground floor of the central park.”
Student: Ayesha Changaai Mangalote Course: ARCH 502, Architectural Design Studio X Email: Ayeshasuha.changaaimangalote@mymail.aud.edu
Partnership content
This school show is a partnership between Dezeen and The American University in Dubai. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.
