£10,000 architecture prize goes to a laser cut model

A bench made of spiralling frames, designed by architect Chris Wilkinson, greets visitors to the annual Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, which opened this week.

Called From Landscape to Portrait, the 12m structure consists of 11 timber frames set on a stainless-steel plinth that twist in sequence through space.

Wilkinson and Eva Jiricna curated the Architecture Room in Gallery VI at the central London venue, where they aimed to blur the boundaries between architecture and the fine arts. And for the first time architecture has infiltrated the other galleries — and a sculp-ture by artist Rana Begum has a prominent position in the architecture room.

This avoided the need to choose a big-name architect for the prime spot, said Jiricna. “Everyone has an equal position,” she explained. “It also fits with the exhibition’s theme of making smooth transitions between art, architecture and sculpture.
“It’s been a tough job because architects have one little gallery among 14, but we have done our absolute utmost to display as many entries as possible.”

Allies & Morrison’s triptych of the Olympic site sits in the main room, while the architecture room features  Steven Holl’s watercolour studies for a new Maggie’s Centre at St Bart’s hospital in central London.

The £10,000 architecture prize was awarded to a laser-cut model inside a book of the Farnese Gardens in Rome by Ben Cowd, Thomas Hopkins and Sara Shafiei. Meanwhile, charity Article 25 won the award for best first-time exhibitor for a model of Sierra Leone’s Gola Rainforest National Park headquarters.