MArch STB Students arrive

25 September 2012: It is the start of term and we have a meeting with our M.Arch Sustainable Tall Building Students. Two of them are still stuck in transit somewhere, so on the first meeting, we see Amna and Douglas. We are expecting a TB Studio of about 18 students, but 4 of them will be the dedicated 'STB' group, doing both semesters with us, and finishing with a tall building oriented dissertation.

Douglas Saraiva (Brazil) and Amna Shahid (UK-Pakistan) with DNC and Phil. We had a lot of applications and hoped for more, but new restrictions on Visas and the UK border agency have made the UK less attractive as a destination for education. This effect is across the entire University.

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11 Jan 2013 PostScript: This Guardian article discusses the decline in overseas students coming to the UK as a result of the Government's 'crackdown on immigration'. It is damaging one of the most important 'export' industries of the UK! We hope that the specialist nature of our Sustainable Tall Buildings course will be enough to persuade people to make the journey here and cope with the bureaucracy of the UK Border Agency.

Shanghai CTBUH

23 Sept 2012: Here are a few more 'human interest' photos from the student competition event in Shanghai, taken from Facebook.

 Rongsi, Janet and Noura, in the exhibition of student projects

 Janet getting ready to present the details of the Healing Tower

 The Healing Tower panel

All the prizewinners from the final five

Rongsi, Janet and Noura, after presenting their design

CTBUH Student competition 2012

23 September 2012: Three of our students attended the annual CTBUH Congress in Shanghai 2012. Noura Ghabra, Janet Jing Huang and Rong Xu won their way to the top five final group in the annual student competition, with their design for a 'Healing Tower' in the Elephant and Castle site, London, 2012. They won the 4th equal prize. The five finalists and the 20 semi-finalists all have their work displayed on :

http://www.ctbuh.org/TallBuildings/AcademicStudentWork/CTBUH2012CompetitionEntries/tabid/3728/language/en-US/Default.aspx
"This project aims to tackle both environmental and social sustainability through the design of a tall building that meets Passivhaus performance criteria while responding to the human needs of health and wellbeing. It accommodates a mix of functions. The design agenda is embraced within the building through three states namely relax, nurture and heal."

3d representations of different aspects of the design project.

Atrium interior

 Facade and environmental thinking in a 3D selection of the building

 Section and selected floor plans of the Healing tower

 Photos of the physical model

Overview of the Healing Tower on its site at Elephant and Castle, London

The three heroines of the Tall Building Studio!