The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced a team led by Brock Carmichael Architects as the winners of the Tristan da Cunha Design Ideas Competition, a call for proposals on how to create “a more self-sustainable future” for the island of Tristan da Cunha, the world’s most remote inhabited island.
The competition, run by RIBA on behalf of the Government of Tristan da Cunha, encouraged architects to submit “innovative and cost-effective proposals for the re-design and consolidation of Tristan’s government (community infrastructure) buildings” in the community of Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, the only permanent settlement on the island.
The remote nature of the community (2,173 kilometres (1,350 mi) away from the nearest settlement, St. Helena), demands residents live a lifestyle built around planning for the future. The competition brief called for initiatives to assist this lifestyle, including improvements to the performance of residential properties and the island’s agrarian systems to support livestock grazing and year-round farming.
The winning scheme from Brock Carmichael Architects (with Oval Partnership, Arup International Development, Multi QS and Dr Gerda Speller from the University of Surrey) was selected from a shortlist of teams including: Lateral Office (Toronto, Canada); John Puttick Associates (New York, USA); Scott Brownrigg (Cardiff, UK) and Javier Terrados and Fernando Suárez (Seville, Spain).
“The Tristanians are very grateful for all the hard work involved and the different ways in which teams responded to the Brief and the unique set of challenges posed by delivering a project on the World’s remotest inhabited island,” said H Alex Mitham, Tristan da Cunha Administrator and Head of Government. “The Island Council felt the Brock Carmichael team had developed a very strong set of proposals that demonstrated both a practical approach and an in-depth understanding of the issues.”
Arrangements will now be made for members from the winning team to visit the island to begin the first steps towards realizing the project.
“We are delighted and honoured to have been chosen as the winners of this unique competition and would like to pass on our thanks to the people of Tristan for selecting our team,” said Martin Watson, Partner at Brock Carmichael Architects. “We are very much looking forward to forging a long-term partnership with the community to deliver practical solutions for the benefit of future generations to come”.
More information about the winning design can be found here.
News via RIBA Competitions.
