LA London’s Tom Warren Wins The 2024 RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship
LA London’s Tom Warren, Part 2 Architectural Assistant, has been selected as the winner of the 2024 RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship. First established in 2006, the scholarship, supported by the Norman Foster Foundation, is now in its eighteenth year and is intended to fund international research on a topic related to the survival of our cities in a location of the student’s choice. The annual scholarship offers £7,000 to fund research by an architecture student who demonstrates original thinking on issues relating to the sustainable survival of cities and towns.
“I’m immensely proud of this achievement and grateful to be the first South African recipient.”
The submissions for the 2024 RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship were judged by a prestigious panel of industry leaders including Lord Foster and RIBA President, Muyiwa Oki. Following his nomination, Tom’s proposal was unanimously chosen by the judging panel over strong contenders from 78 other schools of architecture across 37 countries!
Having won the scholarship, Tom will now conduct his research proposal, ‘Africa 360°’, which focuses on investigating off-grid infrastructure in Southern Africa. The research trip aims to explore the viability of off-grid infrastructure for future cities. The primary focus is to assess how building-scale infrastructure can replace traditional, expensive, maintenance-heavy city-scale infrastructure.
The widespread use of mobile phones has rendered landlines obsolete. Tom observed how African cities skipped fixed-line telecommunication infrastructure and went straight to distributed mobile network towers, effectively leapfrogging technologies. This observation inspired Tom’s research proposal.
Tom's proposed research holds the potential to change the planning of remote communities and developing cities. By learning from the technological leapfrogging witnessed in telecommunications, similar principles can be applied to the planning of future city infrastructure.
Andrew Paulson, LA London Partner, comments, “We are incredibly proud of Tom for winning this impressive RIBA accolade and very much look forward to seeing him carry out his research proposal.” Kathryn Archer, LA London Partner, adds, “Seeing Tom receive the recognition for a project that is so meaningful and close to his heart has been wonderful.”
To learn more about Tom’s research proposal and the RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship, please follow this link.