International Architecture Student Competition in Lyon

After achieving the first place prize in the national stage of the Saint-Gobain International Architecture Student Contest, Ralfs Edvards Ašaks, Emilīja Bumbule and Lauma Freimane, tutored by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Efe Duyan and Dr. Ilze Paklone, travelled to Lyon in order to represent Latvia with their work in the International Stage of the competition. 

The group first presented their work earlier this year, February 11th, competing together with other 10 teams from FAD and RTU (Rīgas Tehniskā Universitāte), and won the 1st place prize from the jury. The international stage of the competition then took place from June 16-18th in Lyon, France, where groups from around the world presented their architectural design solutions. The students went to France accompained by FAD tutor Jonas Büchel, and Latvian Saint-Gobain representative Andris Lujans.

The trip to Lyon had all costs, including flights, accommodation, and all meals on site, covered by Saint-Gobain. In this final round of the contest, they stayed in Lyon for three days, where they had many interesting events, along with 32 teams from around the world.

"After their presentations, all participating teams and their teachers were given short feedback sessions of no more than 15 minutes, each with two jury members. The jury members explained in detail why the jury had made their decisions, how they ultimately decided, and how they directly assessed the specific work of each team. Like all the other teams, we met with our two jury members and were completely surprised during the meeting: It turned out that the students were definitely ranked in the top ten." 

 "The jury even went so far as to say that, had the points of criticism they had expressed been met, [...] they could have actually placed in the top three and thus received a prize." 

"The jury took this very seriously and was full of praise, especially regarding the architectural work, the design work, the overall spatial assessment, the usage concept, as well as the general planning and everything related to it – selection of materials, etc. – and particularly emphasised the aesthetic quality of the work." 

- Jonas Büchel

In conclusion, we as the RISEBA Faculty of Architecture are very proud of our students, and thankful for the collaboration with Saint-Gobain.