Noel Hill Award Winner Announcement

Image by Noel Hill Award winner: Paris Gazzola

AIA UK is delighted to announce that the winner of this year's £3000 Noel Hill Award is Paris Gazzola, a Master's Graduate from The Bartlett School of Architecture. 

Paris' research focuses on the dichotomy between indigenous and non-indigenous relationships to land in Western Australia. Her research explores the consequences of these two divergent ways of being and their ecological consequences through the examination of archival images, film, diaries, art, interviews and advertising. Her thesis posits that imported colonial knowledge has hindered Australia's ability to peacefully inhabit land, ultimately resulting in its destruction. Her submitted proposal for the Noel Hill Award involved the continuation of ongoing research into indigenous knowledge through interviews and archival research, to explore alternative value-systems and relationships that re-establish sustainable land-management praxis. 

The Noel Hill Award will fund travel into remote communities in Western Australia and help with the production costs of a documentary style film entitled 'Principles for Change,' which will build on the output of her final year project. 

The judges commended the work and had the following comments.

"This project showed a clear and pragmatic methodology for exploring and understanding the real life condition of communities in Australia, and the conversations needed to find an equitable way forward. The overall ambition should be commended for its specificity to the location, but also the importance these discussions can have in translating to a global scale. "

The Noel Hill Award was judged by Jack Penford Baker (Haptic Architects), Rory Alasdair Downes (DSDHA Architects) and Eve Zeltina (ADAM Architecture). AIA UK would like to thank the judges for their participation and careful evaluation of all of this year's entries.

Written by: Nicholas Kehagias AIA, RIBA