Intern Rachel Caul has received a RIBA Bronze Medal Commendation for her final year project, Reclaiming the Ruin. Rachel studied in Studio 2, led by Caruso St John Director, Rod Heyes.
The RIBA President's Medals are international awards presented annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects to architecture students or recent graduates and are regarded as the most prestigious prizes in architectural education.
Reclaiming the Ruin proposes a possible future for Bacton Gas Terminal on the Norfolk coast. The project explores the 'worked example' of repurposing the previously fossil fuel site into a vineyard.
The proposals consist of a supporting infrastructure accommodating positive new uses for the site as it evolves and the ground rehabilitates. A new landscape infrastructure isolates healthier plots, creating sheltered microclimates for young vines to thrive. An architecture of stable stone walls and large timber spans emerges – a culmination of themes of reuse, growth and spatial diversity. Construction uses Norfolk flint, timber from thinning Bacton Wood, existing foundations and reclaimed materials from gas exploitation. Ultimately, the site is returned harmlessly to nature, contributing to coastal protection, becoming a habitat for wildlife and a fundamental part of the local ecosystem.
Related news
Intern Nabil Haque has won a RIBA Bronze Medal Commendation for his final year project, Mono no Aware. Nabil studied in Studio 2, led by Caruso St John Director, Rod Heyes.
The RIBA President's Medals are international awards presented annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects to architecture students or recent graduates and are regarded as the most prestigious prizes in architectural education.
Rod Heyes has been appointed Visiting Professor of Architecture at TU Wien for the 2020 summer semester.
Lecture
Rod Heyes at MULTISTORY*
Canterbury School of Architecture, Canterbury, United Kingdom
21 March 2019, 6pm
Rod Heyes will be giving a lecture at the Canterbury School of Architecture on 21st March 2019 as part of the MULTISTORY* lecture series.
Peter St John will be the keynote speaker at the annual Solemn Opening Ceremony of the Order of Architects in Belgium. He will discuss Caruso St John’s work on transforming existing buildings in Europe.
In this lecture, Adam Caruso will ask whether architecture has the capacity to attend to wider forms of value, less obvious than financial ones, but with longer and more complex histories. Can an architectural project recall the social histories of a site, can it transform existing material and energy into something surprising and relevant. Can architecture once again provide a bridge between the physical and cultural qualities of contemporary society.
Peter St John will be the keynote speaker at THFxDenkmalwerkstatt conference on the conservation management of Tempelhof Airport and will present examples of good practice in working with heritage and existing buildings.
How is the practice and education of architecture changing to meet the challenges of the moment? Peter St John and his teaching partner Amy Grounsell (Flimsy Works, Tonkin Liu) will be speaking about how new and established practices are changing their approaches in response to the climate crisis.
Lecture
All Buildings Are Beautiful
Museum of Contemporary Art in Warsaw
Warsaw, Poland
5th January 2025
Adam Caruso will give a lecture on the practice's recent work with existing buildings, and how the contemporary necessity for architecture to embrace circularity requires that we find new kinds of beauty in the world around us.
Rod Heyes will be leading the Architectural Association's new Conservation and Reuse Diploma Studio alongside Amendine Kastler of Oslo-based Kastler Skjeseth Architects.
As part of the IEA Practice What we Teach? Lecture Series at ETH Zurich, Adam Caruso will discuss Caruso St John's long history of working with existing buildings, from its modestly scaled early work to large-scale recent projects.
In conversation
Florian Zierer
Berlin International University of Applied Sciences
Berlin, Germany
8th October 2024
Florian Zierer will be in conversation at the Berlin University of Applied Sciences on 8th October 2024, introducing the practice's recent projects with existing buildings.
St Pancras Campus
Architecture Foundation
Summer School 2024
London, United Kingdom
11th – 15th September 2024
The Architecture Foundation is staging a summer school for architects and architecture students at Caruso St John's newly completed St Pancras Campus mixed use development.