Former Farlington pupil wins the Old Doha Prize for architecture

Former Farlington pupil, Iris Papadatou, and Alicja Borkowska from you&me architects have been announced as the UK winners of the first Old Doha Prize, an architectural competition to redesign part of the old city of Doha in Qatar.
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Farlington eco initiative

Iris Papadatou studied with Alicja at the University of Cambridge and the Royal College of Art after attending Farlington before setting up their multi-disciplinary architecture platform. Following a week long charette which saw promising young British architects and urban designers collaborate with their Qatari counterparts to reimagine the urban landscape of old Doha.

The competition bought together four teams of architects who worked intensively to develop contextual design responses to address the challenge of regenerating and maintaining the heritage of the city. Together, the Qatari and British architects worked to produce designs to regenerate this piece of the old city centre in a vibrant and sustainable way, learning from the historic street pattern and buildings, whilst incorporating elements of contemporary Qatari design.

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Iris and Alicja commented: “We are very pleased to have won and honoured to be a part of the Old Doha Prize. It’s been an intense week but also a fun and very worthwhile experience – we’ve learnt a lot. It’s also exciting to know that we’ve contributed something new and significant to the story of this area and to the city of Doha. We’ve also made real and lasting professional connections between the UK and Qatar and we’re very much looking forward to continuing to work with our teammates on research and future projects. Thank you to all parties involved; truly amazing!”

Report and picture by Farlington.

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