Designers of the future

The winners have been announced of an international student competition that hopes to inspire the care homes of the future.

DWA Architects launched the Caring for Older People Competition in partnership with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA); with support from one of the UK’s largest care home operators, BUPA Care Services.

The winners are:

1st Prize: Jeremy Whall and Lishung Yeung, Birmingham School of Architecture

2nd Prize: Christopher Wilkins and Rachel Witham, Cardiff University

3rd Prize: Marta Gonzalez Ruiz, Madrid University

Jeremy Whall who won 1st prize with Lishung Yeung says:

“We believe architecture has much to contribute to the quality of care environments, and would like to thank all those involved in organising the competition for this opportunity to showcase our ideas to professionals in the field of care provision. The lack of constraints in the brief allowed us to develop the concept of city centre care provision to its fullest, and it has been a great honour to win a competition that has produced so many interesting ideas from other entrants.”

Says DWA Architects chief executive, David Ward, “The competition attracted 70 entries from all over the world, and has encouraged students to think creatively about the care sector. Entrants from the UK, Ireland, Albania, Singapore, Latvia, Romania, Hungary, Canada, India and South Korea have come up with some incredibly detailed, well thought through and innovative designs.”

With so many high quality designs to choose from, the judges – David Ward; BUPA Care Services director of business development, Lyth Watson; Alzheimer’s Society director of fundraising and marketing, Jo Swinhoe; and Professor June Andrews of the Dementia Services Development Centre, Stirling University – had a difficult job selecting the winners.

“Clearly a tremendous amount of time and effort has gone into the submissions,” explains David. “I was incredibly impressed with the range of ideas and the forward-looking approach from all the short listed entrants. Every scheme considered issues that are important now and will only become more important in the future – such as land shortage and the UK’s aging population.”

And Jo Swinhoe adds, “The submissions are excellent quality and responded well to the brief.  The three winning designs look at the future of buildings in the context of realistic care expectations; look at things from and alternative perspective; and carefully consider the integration of care into the community.”

The winning designs were awarded a first prize of £3,000; a second prize of £1,500 and a third prize of £1,000 at an awards ceremony at the RIBA headquarters in London last week.

The sixteen top entries will be on display at the RIBA headquarters until 23 May 2009.