AJ Student Prize 2023: Centre for Alternative Technology

About the Graduate School of the Environment

Location Machynlleth, Powys | Courses MArch Sustainable Architecture (validated by the University of East London) | Head of school Adrian Watson | Full-time tutors 2 | Part-time tutors 7 | Students 48 | Staff to student ratio 1:12

Postgraduate

Nina Xenitidou, Chris Da’costa, Waldo Olwage, Becca Illingworth, Luke Parmenter

Course MArch Sustainable Architecture
Studio/unit brief Design and Build Project
Project title The Rain Bridge

Project description The Rain Bridge marks the act of crossing from one space to another. It aims to create a series of moments marked by the interaction between rain and the human senses of sight, touch, smell and sound. Interacting with sight, the hole in the valley roof creates a small waterfall of rain which falls through the hole in the bridge, encouraging the plants growing below to permeate the structure. For touch, the user’s fingers can run through the droplets that fall through the hole in the valley roof, whereas the sense of smell is stimulated by the scent of the rain and of the surrounding plants. Finally, the corrugated steel valley roof echoes and amplifies the sound of the rain that falls on it. 

Tutor citation The student group reject the notion of competitiveness through the awarding of individual prizes, electing instead to put forward a project that encapsulates the ethos of collaboration and mutual support that is at the heart of all that we do at the Centre for Alternative Technology. Gwyn Stacey, Pat Borer