Sarah Firth
The Bartlett, UCL
Architecture

Firth's pragmatic but beautifully presented project investigates the potential of Hemel Hempstead to solve the current housing crisis. It pictures a radical planning policy set in 2030 that targets low-density suburban areas in an attempt to triple residential capacity.

The project cleverly highlights the potential of existing settlements by using the concept of Localism. Her colourful hand drawings illustrate a neighbourhood guided by the community, combining individual structures and municipal infrastructure to support private, common and commercial spaces.

Firth shows that flexibility is key in accommodating changing demands, so the neighbourhood can evolve naturally. It is a very intelligent response to a timely debate. CSH

Maegan Icke
University for the Creative Arts, Canterbury
Architecture

This is an eye-catching and enjoyable project that deals with a range of scales from the global movements of asylum seekers, to clever circulation planning, right through to wallpaper designs.

By designing spaces for both production and protest, the project engages with the issues facing asylum seekers in the globally significant port of Hamburg through a range of tactics.

The project is clearly illustrated, and both observational illustrations of Hamburg, and sectional perspective views of the building, have a clear and lively graphic quality. Holly Lewis

Ryan Hakimian
The Bartlett, UCL
Architecture

Hakimian takes on one of architecture's biggest enemies, Prince Charles, in his amusing project, To Go the Way of the Dodo: Tower Hamlets Revisited. The project attempts to assess Prince Charles' architectural views using his book Harmony as a primary source for ideas.

'Should we go the way of the dodo to make sustainable cities and communities?' Hakimian asks. He applied the prince's ideology to London's Tower Hamlets to create a series of exquisite black and white drawings. One image, entitled Erno Greenfinger, pictures a modernist housing block overgrown with greenery. Each drawing is completed with the crest of arms of the 'Dodo King'. It certainly made me giggle. CSH