AJ Student Prize 2023: Cardiff Metropolitan University

About the Cardiff School of Art and Design

Location Cardiff CF5 | Courses BA (Hons) Architecture | Head of school Fausto Sanna | Full-time tutors 6 | Part-time tutors 5 | Students 65 | Staff to student ratio 1:11

Undergraduate

Elaeth James

Course BA (Hons) Architecture
Studio/unit brief School and Accommodation
Project title Traditional Medicine School and Accommodation

Project description Tasked with designing an educational building and associated accommodation, this project is the creation of a nature-based educational environment and social oasis in the form of a traditional herbal medicine school. The school, located in Grangetown, south of Cardiff city centre, offers a range of practical and theoretical learning spaces, each taking advantage of the direct line of site over the river Taff and into the heart of Cardiff. The design revolves around a substantial emphasis on biophilia, incorporating natural life, pattern and philosophy into the school’s teachings. Its large, green façade envelopes the building from start to finish, encompassing the occupants in pure forms of the natural world. 

Tutor citation Elaeth has engaged very well and proactively with this project and has produced an architectural proposition that responds well to the site and to the assigned brief. Fausto Sanna, Matthew Thomas