Bartlett Environmental Design Prize 2024: 'Engraved Cycles' by Jeff Qu Liu
Bartlett Environmental Design Prize 2013: 'Pre Ecopoesis Mars Yard' by Sonila Kadillari
Members of the Max Fordham team have been tutoring at UCL Bartlett School of Architecture for many years. We’ve established a great relationship with the University over that time and we formally recognised that relationship in 2013 by sponsoring an award at the annual student Summer Show.
The Max Fordham Environmental Design Prize is given to the 5th-year design project that demonstrates the greatest level of ambition, originality, technical innovation and philosophical rigour in the field of environmental design and sustainability.
The prize consists of £1,000 to help the student cover project-related expenses. In addition, they present their project to our whole practice and receive ideas from our engineers and sustainability consultants to help them further develop the environmental premise of their project.
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The winner of Bartlett Environmental Design Prize 2013 is 'Pre Ecopoesis Mars Yard': Sonila Kadillari.
The prospect of maintaining human life on Mars is one of the staples of science fiction. The prospect of turning fiction into (albeit ambitious) reality lies with science, engineering and architecture.
So how might we prepare for that possibility without traveling to Mars? Bring Mars to Earth, of course. Sonila Kadillari’s prize-winning project envisages reproducing parts of the Martian environment here. Her project, designed to be located in Florida, USA is a large, part-open, part-closed facility that simulates conditions such as Martian terrain, light and temperature.
Following her win in the Max Fordham Environmental Design Prize we worked with Sonila to further develop some of the design requirements for a Mars simulator. These included a gravity simulator and a concentrated solar power dish which would be used to create large temperature gradients.
If you are riding the gravity simulator you are subject to gravitational forces 60% less than the earth’s. This is not as liberating as it might seem as motion is restricted to trundling along the side of the cone. Our design concept was adapted from the work of artist, Adam Norton
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Experimenting with manipulated light
©Sonila Kadillari
The Martian Gravity Simulator employs a support tether and angled running surface to mimic weight conditions on the Red Planet.
©Sonila Kadillari
