Rafat Jahandideh, who graduated from Manchester School of Architecture’s MArch programme in June 2016, has won the third place prize in the Fentress Global Challenge 2016, recieving $2000.
Ran by the international design firm, Fentress Architects, the challenge asked entrants from across the globe to envision the ‘Airport of the Future’. They were tasked with redesigning one of the top 30 airports in the world according to Airport Council International (ACI), ‘taking into consideration local context, current technological trends, project feasibility and passenger experience’ (Fentress).
The competition attracted over 600 applicants from 50 different countries, that were then shortlisted to 15 projects and further whittled down to three prizewinners. Fentress Architects commented that ‘the three prizewinning proposals reflect the bold conceptual thinking, acute sensitivity to context and skilled design.’
Rafat’s design, named ‘Caravanserai’, transformed Dubai International Airport, impressing a panel of experts from the world of architecture and aviation including Donald Albrecht from Museum of the City New York, Andrew Vasey of Vasey Aviation Group and Dave Gilmore of DesignIntelligence.
‘Caravanserai’ was developed during Rafat’s time studying on the ‘air’ theme as part of the Atelier qed* on her MArch programme. It became her thesis project and them part of her entry for the Fentress Global Challenge 2016.
View the winners work and find out more about the challenge on Fentress’ website.
* The name of an Atelier on the MArch course. Initialised from the Latin phrase ‘quod erat demonstradum’, which translates to ‘which had to be proven’. To find out more about the Ateliers, visit: http://www.msa.ac.uk/study/march/