Alexandru Cristian Marinescu, a graduate student at Kent School of Architecture, has been awarded by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

Marinescu, 26, was awarded the Diploma Prize by RIBA Kent Branches, which represent nearly 700 architects in the county. He received a certificate and a cheque for GBP 200 from Bernard Hyde, the Chair of RIBA West Kent Branch. The prize celebrates the talent of architecture students.

Marinescu was awarded for a project called Heterotopia (UN)Limited, a design for a housing project in the Elephant & Castle area of South East London. It is a high-density, low-rise, low-energy, micro-living, built-to-rent scheme which would kick-start a close-knit community. Neighbors would share roof terraces and internal courtyards, and the architecture incorporates and celebrates water recycling.

Bernard Hyde described the project as “refreshingly simple yet versatile and well thought out. The scheme avoids being a monolithic block by grouping sets of smaller blocks so that a sort of rhythm is set up between them.”

Marinescu, who is from Roman, a town in North-Eastern Romania, attended Mihai Viteazul National College before studying at Kent School of Architecture for both his Part 1 (degree) course and his Part 2 (Masters) course.

Romanian architecture project wins 2017 EU prize for cultural heritage

editor@romania-insider.com