Rossant Award 2009 Winner Announced

Congratulations to Abhi Chauhan who was awarded top honours in the 2009 Rossant Award sponsored by BDP. Awarded to students for work completed during their second year of study at Manchester School of Architecture, the Rossant Award was originally established to commend draftsmanship but has since evolved to praise all forms of visual communication.

From an original longlist of 12 students a shortlist of 12 were invited to give a short presentation of their work at BDP’s offices on Friday 11th December. Abhi was the first of the shortlisted students to present and gave an insightful presentation into how he had crafted a series of images for both of his second year studio projects from a variety of media, emphasising the use of model-making and photomontage in particular. In addition to the prestigious Rossant Award trophy Abhi is to receive a £500 cash prize.

Rossant Award 2009

The winner of the BDP Rossant Award will be presented on Friday 11th December at 6pm. This prestigious Award was initiated in 1977 to commemorate the late Lorrie Rossant who was an architect partner at BDP in Manchester; it is open to second year students from the School of Architecture in Manchester. The award celebrates the best visual communication techniques, including draughtsmanship and electronic representation. The judging panel comprises the President of the Manchester Society of Architects and the MSA Award Secretaries as well as selected individuals from BDP. Six shortlisted candidates will give a presentation at BDP's Manchester office before a winner is announced. Last year's prize was won by Simon Bellamy.

Manchester Society of Architect's Dinner 2009

The great and the good of Manchester’s architectural scene were gathered at the Hilton Hotel on Friday night (November 6th) for the annual Manchester Society of Architect’s Dinner. Held at the Ian Simpson-designed Hilton, on Deansgate, for the third year in a row, the evening saw 300 architects put behind them the gloom of the recession to enjoy an evening of fine food and live music, not to mention the chance to catch up with old acquaintances.

The host for the evening, current President of the MSA, Simon Green gave a speech in which he highlighted the numerous successes of Manchester’s practices including the recipients of the MSA Design Awards in April 2009 (with the winning entries shown on a big screen during the meal) and touched upon other reasons for architects in Manchester to celebrate, including the inaugural Manchester Architecture and Design Festival. Arguably the main event of the evening was a speech from RIBA President Ruth Reed, the official ‘response on behalf of the guests’. The first woman President in the 175-year history of the RIBA, Ruth Reed gave a speech that was on the whole light-hearted, commending the resilience of northern architects and how Manchester was an example of how to ‘regenerate’ a city although she did briefly touch upon on the ‘banned topic of the night’, the recession.

After dinner and the speeches had concluded the evenings live entertainment, ‘The Coolers’, got underway with even Simon Green and his illustrious guests (including Ruth Reed and Colin Pugh, Acting Head of the Manchester School of Architecture) taking to the dance floor.

On the whole the evening appeared to be enjoyed by all, a perfect balance of a formal occasion, to match the long and proud history of the MSA, mixed with the informality desired by hard-working professionals wanting to celebrate and not stand on ceremony.

The MSA Dinner 2009 was kindly sponsored by Ceram Excel.