Now in its fourteenth year, the 2020 RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship has been awarded to Iulia Cistelecan, from the London School of Architecture, for her project “Life Between Shelters: Refugee camps of today becoming cities of tomorrow”.
Intended to fund international research on a topic related to the sustainable survival of towns and cities, the RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship was established in 2006 by the Norman Foster Foundation with Foster and Partners, in association with the RIBA. In fact, the annual scholarship offers £7,000 to a student of architecture who demonstrates the potential for outstanding achievement and original thinking.
This year’s winning proposal “examines the role that architecture can play in transforming today’s refugee camps into sustainable communities”, the research will focus on the spaces between shelters, especially on the transition from temporary refugee camp to sustainable city. In order to pursue her investigations and explore the importance of educational and social infrastructure in building community growth and resilience, Iulia will travel to four refugee camps across Africa, Western Asia, the Middle East, and South Asia: Bidibidi (Uganda), Zaatari (Jordan), Shatila (Lebanon) and Kutupalong (Bangladesh).
I was delighted by the high standard of the 48 applications which were received from nearly thirty countries. After much deliberation, the jury were unanimous in their choice of Iulia Cistelecan’s proposal as this year’s very worthy winner. The findings from her study on the permanent nature of refugee camps will be universally valuable as well as advancing her own career. – Norman Foster
The 2020 scholarship jury comprised of:
- Norman Foster, Lord Foster of Thames Bank (Founder and Executive Chairman, Foster + Partners; President, Norman Foster Foundation)
- Elena Ochoa, Lady Foster of Thames Bank (Publisher and curator; Vice-President, Norman Foster Foundation)
- Farshid Moussavi (Founder, Farshid Moussavi Architecture; Professor in Practice of Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design; Trustee of the Norman Foster Foundation)
- Nicky Watson (Director JDDK Architects; RIBA Board Trustee; RIBA Council member for the North East, RIBA Vice-President for Education,)
- Victoria Simpson (Associate Director dlg Architects, RIBA Education Development Group member)
