Design Concrete competition winners 2025
Design Concrete is a national student competition which encourages students of architecture and the built environment to explore the benefits of designing sustainably with concrete. The competition has been developed to fit within, or complement, the syllabus of undergraduate and post graduate degree courses of Architecture and the built environment in the UK. The 2025 competition prize fund was generously sponsored by Cordek Ltd.
The 2025 competition brief asked students to submit innovative designs for a re-imagined and inhabited tidal flood defence at the Canvey Island sea front. Students were tasked with demonstrating an understanding of how concrete can be used sustainably, and creatively to reduce whole life carbon, provide climate change resilience and support a more circular economy. The brief also tasked students with exploring and analysing different methods of manufacturing and construction for their designs.
The judging panel reviewed many excellent submissions and wish to say a huge thank you to all of the universities and students who took part in the 2025 competition.
The shortlisted and winning submissions were announced at The Concrete Centre’s Next Generation Concrete event on the 2nd July at The Zaha Hadid Foundation.
The full list of the shortlisted and winning students are as follows:
First Prize:
First prize was awarded to Rex Hau, Jack Liang and Luk Chun San from University College London for their project “Canvey Hub”.
Judges comments: “This entry stood out to the judges for its exemplary level of detail, understanding and experimentation. The students created a beautiful design that integrated well with the landscape, was convincingly detailed and understood the fundamentals of concrete. The judges were delighted with the imaginative and sustainable use of fabric formwork to create wave frequency responsive shapes and forms of concrete. The integration of an on site pre-casting facility within the design to minimise travel distances was also very successful.
The team received a total prize of £900
Joint highly commended:
Robert Stefan Trojan Alcantara from Ravensbourne University was highly commended for his entry “Atlantic Orchid” which demonstrated an excellent approach to regeneration of nature based industry using concrete and integration of varying water levels within a building.
Robert received a total prize of £200
Joint highly commended:
Almamon Khalaf, Adina Usman, Rebekah Scammell & Ollie Isaac from Coventry University were highly commended for their entry “Aegus Vivus” which demonstrated excellent support of biodiversity and the creation of imaginative sustainable spaces with added community value.
The team received a total prize of £400
Shortlisted students:
Emily Knight and Rodrigo Vittori from Ravensbourne University
Ethan Hook, Kam Singh Pabla, Anthony Richardson, Ibrahim Ahmed, Oliver Brown & Hachi Moobela from Coventry University
Students and tutors interested in finding out more about the next student design and sustainability competition can register here to receive more information.
