Lena Abdulrahem, Grace Corrigan from Tallaght and Anna Cochran
Students secure top prize at inaugural Future Timber Design awards
Grace Corrigan of Tallaght and Lena Abdulrahem were announced as the overall TU Dublin winners of the Future Timber Design Awards.
Alongside Anna Cochran from Greystones, Co Wicklow, Lena and Grace created this project using lengths of Irish-grown roundwood, creating a freestanding structure. While using locally sourced Irish timber, this project reduces processing, waste and embodied carbon.
Dr Sameer Mehra, programme coordinator of the BSc Sustainable Timber Technology, alongside a Lecturer in Timber Technologies and Wood Manufacturing at the School of Architecture, commended Lena and Grace for their hard work and commitment to sustainability.
“We’re extremely proud of Lena Abdulrahem, Grace Corrigan and all the winners of the very first year of these exciting awards. Their projects are powerful examples of how the next generation of architects, architectural technologists, and timber technologists are rethinking sustainability through timber design,” said Dr Mehra.
The Future Timber Design Awards, developed by Forest Industries Ireland (FII), allows students to use skills and knowledge with timber in construction, applying academic learning to the real world.
Participants were given 18 weeks to come up with and design their projects, with a focus in using homegrown timber as the main structural element whilst responding to real world challenges and constraints.
Other students from Dublin received awards: Iulia-Maria Chiorean, Architecture student from Dublin 9, won Best Architectural Concept award; Architecture students Henry Sexton from Skerries, Anna Frawley from Rushn and Conor Drinane from Swords. Sustainable timber technology students Christopher McCann from Stillorgan and Padraig Lowry, from Dublin, all receiving Honourable Mentions.
“Projects like these from our next generation of architects, engineers, manufacturing and timber processing professionals demonstrate why it is so important to cultivate skills development and to continue investing in and supporting Ireland’s forestry and timber industry,” said Mark McAuley, Director of Forest Industries Ireland.
