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Notes to editors

1. For further press information contact Mina Vadon in the RIBA Press Office on 020 7307 3761; mina.vadon@inst.riba.org
2. The Royal Institute of British Architects' Research and Development Department launched the RIBA President's Awards for Research in 2005, to reward and encourage outstanding research in architecture carried out by PhD students, academics and practitioners. The awards promote and champion high-quality research and encourage its dissemination and incorporation into the knowledge base of the profession. The awards raise the profile of architects, practitioners and academics engaged in outstanding research, and raise awareness of the need for research across the profession that fosters innovation and strategic thinking.
3. The judging panel is appointed by the RIBA Research and Development Committee and approved by the President. This year's panel comprises of Richard Coyne (Chair), School of Arts, Culture and Environment, The University of Edinburgh; Professor Andrew Ballantyne, School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape, University of Newcastle; Dr. Felipe Hernandez, School of Architecture, The University of Liverpool; Peter Clegg, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios; Sarah Featherstone, Featherstone Associates; Dr. Jane Rendell, The Bartlett School of Architecture; Sarah Wigglesworth and Peter Gibbs-Kennett RIBA R&D Committee (observer). All entries were assessed in terms of how they contribute new knowledge and understanding to architecture, in terms of originality, significance and rigour. The winning pieces must be regarded as an exceptional contribution to architectural knowledge.
4. The other shortlisted entries for the RIBA President's Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis were: Patterning: envisioning strategies for thinking and fabricating architecture through the textile-inspired procedures of repeating, masking and scaling by Ana Araujo at The Bartlett School of Architecture; and Toward a Material Poetics: Sign, Subject, Site by Kristen Kreider at The Bartlett School of Architecture
5. The other shortlisted entries for the RIBA President's Award for Outstanding University-located Research were: Le Corbusier and the Occult by Jan Birksted at The Bartlett School of Architecture; and Building the New Jerusalem: Architecture, housing and politics 1900-1930 by Mark Swenarton at Oxford Brookes University
6. The other shortlisted entries for the RIBA President's Awards for Outstanding Practice-located Research were: Research and Development of a Low-Cost, Low-Carbon, Prefabricated Timber Construction System: j.Pod by John Barr from John Barr Architects; and  Development of a whole life carbon assessment technique by Gareth Roberts from Sturgis Associates
7. The full judges' citation for the winners of the Outstanding PhD Thesis follow:
   Between Typology and Typicality: German Swiss Architecture 1980-2000 by Irina Davidovici of the University of Cambridge
   " This is a fine piece of work that provides an overview of German-Swiss architecture leading up to the latter part of the twentieth century. The thesis is beautifully written, presenting its case material lyrically and evocatively. The writing evokes images as powerfully as the plentiful and well-chosen illustrations. The combined treatment of both building construction and architectural theory generates a new and refreshing understanding of space applicable across many aspects of architecture, while doing justice to the themes of Swiss national identity, the country's relationships with the rest of Europe, and the nation's engagement with landscape and place."
   
   Inhabiting Ethics: Educational Praxis in the Design Studio, the Music Class and the Dojo, byLeonidas Koutsoumpos of the University of Edinburgh
   "This thesis is a rather remarkable piece of work which attempts to answer the difficult and yet important question 'can ethics be taught in schools of architecture?'. It provides an answer by suggesting that studio teaching is itself a form of practice that already inhabits an ethical dimension, but the way that it does this is problematic since the inquiry does not immerse itself fully enough in studio activity  – really 'do' studio activity – in a way that answers the question set. The close analysis of one moment of studio teaching does not make a convincing enough case that an ethical architecture is to be found in the doing of architecture, or that studio teaching is the place to find the doing of architecture. The thesis has its strengths in its originality and significance, and its weaknesses in terms of rigour and communication. Although there are moments of really careful argumentation, clarity and precision in the handling of concepts, the overall argument is hard to grasp and there is a sense of distraction throughout. A key problem is that the question the thesis sets up is not one, which the methodological apparatus is able to answer or fully address. A stronger rationale of the inclusion of particular philosophers, case studies, and methodologies would have helped. In short it is a really exciting, incredibly detailed and wonderfully engaging piece of work – but as a thesis it wanders. Perhaps the case could have been made that the wandering method be considered the ethical doing of architecture, but this never quite happens, and even if it did, there is still too much superfluous material for such a case to convince. The author argues that he starts with substantive situations and not theory, but I believe that this is an example of theory as a 'doing' of architecture, and that he could have made the claim for this as an ethical practice."
8. The judges' citation for the winner of the Outstanding University-located Research follows:
   "T his is a timely book that questions many assumptions about the practice of architecture and the position of the architect in contemporary society. It seeks nothing less than a comprehensive demolition of anything that smacks of arrogance in architecture, and any theory that tries to bring a misguided sense of order to the messy entropy that is the natural tendency of architecture. The book is a delight to read gliding effortlessly through social, ethical, political and philosophical arguments to prove the contingent nature of architecture's varied and restless practices."
9. The judges' citation for the winner of the Outstanding Practice-located Research follows:
   "T his is a substantial body of practice-based research that develops an analysis of different ways of building in flood risk areas, with an eye to the ambition of the "zero carbon community," and through a series of hypothetical designs and master plans.  The documents communicate well, are skilfully illustrated, and are easy to navigate, serving as valuable references for practitioners and students who must deal with the urgent pressures from climate change and the demand for secure and affordable housing"