Patrick Horne
Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
Architecture

A witty and visually arresting take on architecture and politics, Horne began with an interpretation of the Washington Mall as a theme park: Playing Politics. Acts of power were translated into attractions and represented as a 3D map. The enjoyment that he has taken from the development of this idea into Duquesneland - a theme park of Pittsburgh's industrial history - was infectious.

Drawings show hyper-real views over moving forests that create a spectacle of the everyday. The revealed manipulations of his scenes remind us that the city is wilfully fabricated, and potentially ripe for subversion. Holly Lewis

Linus Third
Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow School of Art
Architecture

Responding to the brief to design a new centre for 20 young textile designers in Glasgow's Pollok Park, Third's proposal was inspired by the traditional and vernacular textile buildings in the surrounding area.

The sensitively designed series of pitch-roofed buildings sits on a plinth, protecting it from a nearby river prone to flooding, while a dark, wooden-clad, tower structure relates to the pottery kilns that used to define Glasgow's skyline. Completing the idyllic picture, Third also imagined that the group could grow and harvest natural dyes in the surrounding landscape. CSH

Morten Grønning Nielsen
Royal College of Art Innovation
Design Engineering

Imagine being able to carve and sculpt hard materials such as wood or stone with your own hands as you would with clay or Plasticine.

This is what Nielsen magically conceived with Happaratus, a 'power glove' that uses abrasive finger pads to sand hard surfaces. Developed in close collaboration with sculptors, designers and model makers, the interchangeable pads at the tips of the thumb, index and middle fingers are powered by a hydraulic motor mounted on the back of the wrist.

The speed can be adjusted by a small button on the side of the tool, while the pointed edges are able to get into any awkward gaps and crevasses.

'I guess what I really want is to connect you closer to the material, to understand the shape through your hand,' says Nielsen. CSH

Alex Fotherby
University of Greenwich
Architecture

There was a disturbing lack of people in drawings at the Greenwich degree show as a whole, but in Fotherby's scheme that seemed appropriate. He presented us with a kind of totalising military complex, with architecture reminiscent of Ledoux.

Like so many of the projects coming out of Greenwich this year, his 'New Royal Naval College' gained so much from being firmly grounded on a real site that the student understood and engaged with.

The architecture was made all the more bombastic and dystopic by placing it next to the 'New Labour Dome'. Eddie Blake

Joseph Hazelwood-Horner
Oxford Brookes
Architecture

Hazelwood-Horner's rather humorous project was for a restoration facility, school and black market in Parma for forged paintings. The building works by controlling views and information between restorers, students and the public to create a different experience of the building for each.

For example, the restorers (red) are on show to the public, the students (blue) are the forgers, hidden from the public but closely working and learning from the restorers, while the public (green) is deceived by a series of viewpoints framing the apparent legitimacy of the institution. CSH