Victoria was invited to sit – socially distanced, of course – on to the jury panel for the judging of the 2020 Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship prize last month. The jury was united in its support for the winner, Iulia Cistelecan, from the London School of Architecture, for her project “Life Between Shelters: Refugee camps of today becoming cities of tomorrow”. The award offers £7,000 to a student of architecture who demonstrates the potential for outstanding achievement and original thinking. Iulia’s proposal will focus on the spaces between shelters, especially on the transition from temporary refugee camp to sustainable city. In order to pursue her investigations and explore the importance of educational and social infrastructure in building community growth and resilience, Iulia will travel to four refugee camps in Uganda, Jordan), Lebanon and Bangladesh once restrictions have been lifted. You can read more about Iulia’s winning proposal here.

The panel comprised architect Norman Foster; Elena Ochoa, Lady Foster of Thames Bank and Vice-President of the Norman Foster Foundation; Farshid Moussavi; Nicky Watson and Victoria Simpson.