Productive urban landscape projects amongst the winners

Last Friday, the end of year show of the Architecture and Design courses at the University of Brighton closed with the student award ceremony followed by a big party.

Amongst the winners of the much coveted, more than 15 different prizes was Wilson Ng, architecture student in Andre Viljoen’s MArch studio, who won the runner-up prize for the post-graduate JOHN ANDREWS DRAWING PRIZE 2023. Congratulations, Wilson!

Also among the prize winners was Charles Palmer, student in the neighbouring MArch studio led by our colleague Anuschka Kutz who’s project dealt with issues of urban-rural linkages in an agriculturally-formed area close to Brighton. Congratulations too, Charles!

Wilson Ng’s project responded to the brief set by Andre’s Continuous Productive Urban Landscape design studio under this year’s theme of Re-visiting the City. In Re-visiting the City, students were asked to experiment with an architecture belonging to the Anthropocene Epoch, one that aims to repair some of our negative impacts on the earth and biosphere. Using a site in the centre of Brighton & Hove, formed by a spine running along Church Street, students focussed on the design of a new hotel and a supporting food productive landscape. The hotel typology provided the opportunity to explore fundamental architectural questions about repetition and discontinuity, arising from the need to accommodate the most private and the most shared of spaces, bedrooms and ballrooms, a micro-city within a city renowned as a resort.

Wilson writes: ‘The hotel is designed to offer visitors a unique experience to stay, cook and farm. The guests are able to grow their own fruit, vegetables, and herbs in our designated growing spaces and watch them flourish throughout the stay. After just a few weeks, guests can revisit their plants and harvest their own fresh produce. It’s an experience that truly connects visitors with nature and the food they eat. The hotel’s communal kitchen provides the perfect space to cook up a delicious meal using the freshly harvested produce.’

For information on this year’s work by our architecture students see here.

Information on studying architecture at the University of Brighton can be found here.

For more information on courses taught by Andre and Katrin see here.

Image: Church Street CPUL Bridge Hotel by Wilson Ng (source: Wilson Ng 2023)