Georgina Hale
Oxford Brookes University
Architecture

Sitting on the coast between Spain and the tax haven of Gibraltar, Hale's project references the cigarette smuggling that takes place there.

The result is a landscape that looks like something Claes Oldenburg might create. Hale's design involves the literal translation of smoking paraphernalia into architectural objects.

Though playful, her beautiful hand-illustrated designs do not seek to glamorise either smuggling or smoking, instead it is a fantastic exercise in contemporary architecture parlante. EW

Julia Georgallis
Royal College of Art
Design Products

I won't deny that it was partly the smell of fresh bread that drew me to this project. Georgallis' The Bread Companion is a moving, micro-bakery travelling round high streets, encouraging people to bake and appreciate good bread.

Inspired by the communal bread ovens of the past, the bakery uses a wood-fired oven to bake bread on the streets.

It also runs bread-making workshops to encourage home production. The project stood out at the RCA show because it was clear that it could be used outside the world of design education. CSH

Ruby Ray Penny
University of Westminster
Architecture

Penny has designed a construction school, to be made ad-hoc by local students in Marrakech, that talks critically about risk in a way that is rare even amongst practitioners. Her work is riotous, yet strategic, and has been well developed as a serious, ambitious project.

Her proposal is pretty close to a genuine contemporary vernacular building, in the 'architecture without architects' sense.

This is due to the design being reached through improvising under riskier circumstances than non-vernacular would allow. EB