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A student from Â鶹ӰԺ Leicester (Â鶹ӰԺ) has won the national prestigious for his proposal to futureproof a UK coastal community.

Mehul Jethwa, who is undertaking the Architect Degree Apprenticeship (Level Seven), was awarded the prize for his project Resilient Horizons: Safeguarding Suffolk’s Historic Coastal Villages from Climate Change. His work focuses on retrofitting existing structures and using locally found resources to build upon newly formed marshland, caused by rising sea levels and flooding from increasingly volatile storms.

Mehul Jethwa celebrates his award win

It’s the first time a student from Â鶹ӰԺ has won an award from the Architects’ Journal for their designs and the 27-year-old from Leicester was pleasantly surprised to take home the crown.

“The standard of entries has just been so high,” Mehul said. “It definitely ranks up there as one of my biggest achievements”.

“I wanted to design something that was low cost, sustainable and could be replicated around the world in areas repeatedly damaged by flooding.”

Mehul based his project in the Suffolk coastal village of Dunwich, which was once a thriving medieval port town until continued storm surges in the 13th and 14th century swept most of the buildings into the sea.

In the centuries since, storms and coastal erosion have remained a constant threat to the village’s future. In December 2013, vicious storms battered the Suffolk coast, causing widespread flooding on land between Dunwich and neighbouring Walberswick.

Inspired by the village’s history of loss and the community’s resilience to stay in place, Mehul designs showcase how the community can potentially adapt to new marshland forming in the next 40 years.

New structures are built atop of existing buildings, predominantly using reeds growing from the marshland and recycled building materials, adding new storeys to buildings at risk of flooding. The designs have been modelled on the current homes to fit into the village’s aesthetic.   

Mehul's design showcases how the village of Dunwich can adapt to newly formed marshland

Mehul said: “I learnt from my visits to the village that it severely floods every 20 years and almost 50 per cent of the housing could eventually be lost to flooding. I focussed on how to retain those homes in the same area and keep that community vibe.

“Therefore, the aim was to utilise a stilted structure for these marsh homes, using reeds to build the foundations and raise new buildings above the boggy land. The reed can last for 40 years before needing to be rethatched with new reeds growing in the marshes.

“Together with my tutors, we then looked at all the materials that could be recycled from flooded homes – bricks, rooftiles, insultation and windows for example – and at least 80 per cent could be reused from the infrastructure that was going to be lost.”

Each year, the Architect’s Journal invites every higher education establishment accredited by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and Architect’s Registration Board (ARB) to nominate students for its Student Prize.

Now in its sixth year, the event showcases the best work from architecture students from across the UK in three categories: undergraduate, postgraduate and sustainability.

While Mehul’s idea lends some influences from the floating villages of South East Asia, he ensured his designs had a distinctly British look by basing his artwork on one of Suffolk’s favourite sons, John Constable, who was famous for his luscious landscape paintings.  

Judges praised Mehul’s design for being 'playful and fun yet practical', adding they were impressed by the 'evocative imagery' and 'convincing resolution'.

 
An alternative view of Mehul's design

Former Â鶹ӰԺ lecturer in Architecture Dr Yuri Hadi, who tutored Mehul alongside his colleague Vasilena Vassilev, who also lectures in Architecture at Â鶹ӰԺ and Coventry University, was particularly impressed with the amount of detail included in the design.

“This is a fantastic achievement,” Yuri said. “It’s important to remember that Mehul is working part-time as an apprentice and not a full-time student, so to submit an entry of this quality against all the other architecture schools in the country, and win, is really something very special.

“Mehul is ambitious and detail-orientated. You can see in his designs he has included the community interacting with his buildings, cats on roofs and little boats on the marshlands, which makes his world feel alive.”

Mehul added: “I constantly tell Yuri and Lena that I couldn’t have done this without them. They’ve been great tutors throughout my time at Â鶹ӰԺ.

“I’d like to thank all the staff at the university, and the guest speakers, who helped me gain experience in the industry and for shaping my influence.”