Award-winning British projects at Rezan Has Museum

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

Istanbul’s Rezan Museum, accompanied by Kadir Has University Arts and Design Faculty Department of Architecture, is displaying projects that have been deemed worthy of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) President’s Medals Student Awards. The awards promote excellence in the study of architecture, reward talent and encourage architectural debate worldwide. The project is displaying a total of 98 projects from the RIBA awards.

The exhibition, which continues until July 12, also displays the winners of Bronze, Silver and Dissertation Medals. Winners were announced in December at the annual President’s Medals ceremony at the RIBA headquarters in London. According to the written statement of RIBA, “Each year, the judging panels select up to 16 entries that receive awards. Medals are awarded in three categories: the Bronze Medal for best design project at Part 1, the Silver Medal for best design project at Part 2 and the Dissertation Medal. In addition, there is a maximum of three commendations in each category.

The projects of RIBA also reveal the history of architectural development and how RIBA has developed itself over time.

The visitors will have the opportunity to see the medal winner of 2012, titled “The depository of forgotten monuments.” The work has been explained in a written statement as follows: “In the effort to balance local identity with global influences, Moscow has been subject to simultaneous spurts of renewal and reversal. Paradoxically, continuous deconstruction and reconstruction define the city’s state as in-between preserved historical monuments and remakes vs. contemporary transplants and additions, blurring oppositions between original and fake, old and new, generic and specific.”

About the RIBA awards

First awarded in 1836 as the RIBA Silver Medal for an architectural essay (and awarded from 1855 to a talented “Measured Drawings” graduate), these are RIBA’s longest-living awards (preceding the Royal Gold Medal, which was established in 1848). These days, the President’s Medals are widely regarded as the most prestigious awards in architectural education worldwide.

Each year, an exhibition of student work is displayed in London at the time of the ceremony (which normally takes place on the first Wednesday in December). RIBA commissions graphic designers to produce two-dimensional printed panels from selected entries (images and text) and invites students to submit three-dimensional models. In addition, a slideshow of entries is displayed and, where possible, films related to the submissions can also be viewed on large screens.

Over the last few years, and after closing in London, the President’s Medals exhibition has toured to venues throughout the U.K. (Belfast, Bournemouth, Canterbury, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leicester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Plymouth) and also traveled to Australia, Ireland, Romania, Singapore, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. The touring of the exhibition is made possible by the generosity of art galleries and schools of architecture that partner with RIBA to display the exhibition.