Josh was named highly commended in the Undergraduate category in the AJ Student Prize 2020 for his project 'Canal and River Trust Headquarters and Museum of Water'. The judges described it as 'mature, very sympathetic and well-aligned'.
The project proposes a new headquarters for the national charity on an island site in Newark on Trent and seeks to 'break down traditional segregation of functions' to bridge the gap between the 'public-facing and working functions of the trust'.
It is a huge honour and shock to receive this amazing award from the Architecture Journal. It has made me reflect back on the past 3 years of my undergraduate degree, where I have been surrounded by a cohort and teaching body who have supplied constant inspiration and support in developing me professionally but also personally. It’s such a wonderful way to end a final year during a tough year.
Josh Burge
BA Architecture 2020 graduate
Project Overview:
'Canal and River Trust Headquarters and Museum of Water'
Maintaining over 2,000 miles of waterways within the UK, the Canal and River Trust are a charity deeply rooted in the heritage of the nations water courses. However, the Trust’s current model of working is disconnected from the public and the waterways which they serve.
Situated in the sleepy market town of Newark-on-Trent, a new headquarters is placed at the heart of its waterway. Located on the fringe between the urban and rural, the proposal provides a civic hub for which it aims to provide a centre for knowledge and education on the water.
Citing works from Hila and Bernd Becher’s lifelong obsession with “lost” industrial landscapes, a celebration of simple functional form roots the proposal to place. In addition to understanding Newark’s industrial heritage, the program is focused around the honest and humble craft of lock gates and maintaining watercraft. Focusing on challenging the current disconnect between the “dirty” and “clean” workforces that the Trust operates; crafting a national centre for the Trust, closely linked to their fundamental beliefs.
SSoA MArch student Jonathan Foulger was also nominated for the Postgraduate category for his project ‘An Accumulative Landscape’ which rethinks the typology of the department store and explores how such a building might be updated to respond to this modern urban condition.
Find out more about the AJ Student Prize 2020 and the SSoA entries here.